Every year, sometime between deal closings, client calls, court deadlines, and board meetings, another season quietly arrives inside law firms: submission season.
It rarely announces itself dramatically. It begins with a spreadsheet. Then a reminder email. Then another. Soon, inboxes fill with requests for deal lists, matter summaries, client referees, practice highlights, lawyer biographies, and award justifications for Chambers, Legal500, IFLR1000, Benchmark Litigation, Asialaw, ALB, and countless other publications.
And almost everyone involved shares the same thought: “Haven’t we done this already?”
Because the truth is, most firms have.
Anyone who has worked inside a law firm knows the cycle well. Marketing and business development teams spend weeks chasing information that already exists somewhere within the firm. Lawyers, balancing transactions, hearings, and client deadlines, push submissions lower on their priority list—not because they do not value recognition, but because the process itself feels repetitive and time-consuming.
The real problem Isn’t the work - it’s the system
The reality is that many firms still operate with fragmented systems for tracking matters and institutional achievements. A deal description may sit in a partner’s inbox, an award submission in a shared folder, and practice area information in multiple versions across different teams. By the time submission deadlines arrive, firms often find themselves rebuilding institutional memory from scratch.
One business development (BD) manager described it best:
“We were spending more time collecting information than actually improving our submissions.”
That challenge goes beyond administrative inconvenience. It affects collaboration, consistency, and ultimately how effectively firms present their capabilities to the market.
Increasingly, firms are recognising that submissions should not be treated as isolated annual exercises. The information gathered for directories and awards also supports proposals, RFPs, business development initiatives, and long-term strategic positioning. But to make that possible, firms need systems that preserve and organise information continuously rather than retrospectively.
Moving from reactive to centralised
This operational gap is precisely what led to the development of Mark My Matter — a platform designed to centralise and streamline submission-related workflows for law firms.
Built around the realities of legal practice, the platform aims to reduce the friction that traditionally exists between lawyers and marketing teams. Instead of recreating submissions every year, firms can maintain a centralised repository of matter data, historical submissions, awards, practice area statements, lawyer biographies, publication schedules and marketing collaterals.
A partner who subscribes to Mark My Matter noted:
“For the first time, our lawyers weren’t being asked to start from scratch. The foundation was already there and now we could focus on shaping the narrative instead of gathering information.”
Beyond efficiency, centralised systems also help firms retain institutional knowledge. Matters, achievements, and submission narratives remain accessible year after year, reducing the risk of valuable work being lost in archived emails or disconnected folders.
A BD professional at another leading firm shared:
“Mark My Matter completely changed the conversation internally from chasing information to focusing on strategy and storytelling.”
More than just time savings
The benefits extend well beyond directory submissions. Firms are increasingly using centralised matter repositories to support pitch documents, RFP responses, awards tracking, and data analytics. Many also report meaningful reductions in the time spent preparing submissions while improving consistency across materials.
Perhaps most importantly, systems like these allow professionals to focus on higher-value work. Marketing teams can spend more time building narratives and analysing trends. Lawyers can engage more thoughtfully with submissions instead of treating them as administrative burdens.
As one managing partner observed:
“The biggest benefit wasn’t just saving time. It was finally having visibility into our firm’s collective body of work.”
Looking ahead
Law firms have never struggled to produce exceptional work. The challenge has often been capturing that work effectively and transforming it into long-term institutional value.
Because ultimately, recognition is not only about what a firm has accomplished. It is also about how well the firm remembers, organises, and tells its story. As firms continue to rethink how they manage submissions, proposals, and institutional knowledge, the conversation is shifting from simply working harder during submission season to working smarter throughout the year.
Mark My Matter was built with that shift in mind — helping firms move away from fragmented processes and toward a more structured, collaborative, and sustainable approach to managing their collective experience and achievements.
To learn more about how firms are streamlining submissions and centralising matter and practice management, please reach out to the Mark My Matter team or schedule a walkthrough of the platform.
Authored by Aparna Das