Typical Questions When Considering a DMS or KMS for Legal
Eight common questions legal organizations should consider when evaluating a DMS, KMS, or their broader Microsoft 365 information strategy.
Your information strategy
Choosing the right legal software for document and knowledge management is becoming increasingly important for law firms and corporate legal teams. In addition to managing documents, emails, matters, and legal know-how, organizations now need to consider how their information strategy supports Microsoft 365, governance, security, compliance, and AI.
A modern legal Document Management System (DMS) or Knowledge Management System (KMS) therefore needs to do more than simply store information. The way documents and knowledge are structured, secured, governed, and made accessible can also influence how effectively firms can use technologies such as Microsoft 365 Copilot.
Below, we answer eight common questions legal organizations should consider when evaluating a DMS, KMS, or their broader Microsoft 365 information strategy.
8 Questions When Considering Legal Software
The best document management system for a Microsoft 365-based law firm is one that combines legal-specific document and matter management with the Microsoft applications lawyers already use.
A legal DMS should make it easy to:
- Organize documents and emails by client and matter
- Work with documents directly from Microsoft Word and Outlook
- Support a matter-centric way of working
- Apply consistent metadata and document structures
- Control access to confidential client information
- Search and retrieve documents quickly
- Support document versioning and collaboration
- Address retention, compliance, and information governance requirements
- Provide a strong information foundation for AI
For firms already standardized on Microsoft 365, it is also worth considering whether the DMS can use SharePoint and Microsoft 365 as its underlying platform rather than creating another separate content repository.
This is the approach taken by Epona365. Epona states that documents, emails, and matter data remain inside the customer’s Microsoft 365 tenant, while legal functionality is integrated with familiar Microsoft applications such as Outlook, Word, Teams, and SharePoint.
Ultimately, the key question isn’t simply“Which DMS has the most features?” It is“Which legal document management software best fits our lawyers, matters, information architecture, security requirements, and long-term technology strategy?”
Next steps
Yes. SharePoint can provide the foundation for a legal document management system, but SharePoint alone should not automatically be considered a complete legal DMS.
SharePoint provides underlying capabilities for storing and organizing documents. A legal DMS adds the legal-specific structure, interfaces, integrations, and workflows required for lawyers to manage documents and emails effectively.
The distinction is important:
Think of SharePoint as the underlying Microsoft platform, while the legal DMS adds the functionality required for legal work.
Epona365, for example, is built on Microsoft 365 and SharePoint and is specifically designed for document and email management for lawyers and in-house counsel. The software provides functionality around documents, files, email, metadata, collaboration, and legal workflows within the Microsoft environment.
This approach can be particularly relevant for firms with a strategic commitment to Microsoft 365 that want document management, collaboration, governance, and AI to be part of the same broader technology ecosystem.
Next steps
A Document Management System (DMS) manages the documents and emails associated with the firm’s day-to-day client and matter work.
A Knowledge Management System (KMS) focuses on identifying, curating, managing, and making valuable organizational knowledge reusable.
A useful way of thinking about the difference is:
DMS → Manage the work
KMS → Reuse what the organization has learned from the work
A legal DMS may contain a very large number of documents connected to clients and matters. But not every document represents valuable organizational knowledge.
A KMS provides an environment in which selected know-how, such as precedents, templates, guidance, best practices, and other valuable legal knowledge, can be classified, maintained, and made discoverable.
Epona KMS, for example, uses curated content in Microsoft SharePoint with structures based on practice areas and topics, controlled contributions and approvals, metadata, and search. It can work alongside DMS platforms such as iManage and NetDocuments as well as Epona365.
In practice, DMS and KMS are complementary rather than interchangeable.
Next steps
Preparing for AI isn’t only an AI project. It is also an information management and governance project.
Before expanding the use of Microsoft 365 Copilot, law firms should review how their documents, emails, matter information, and legal knowledge are organized, secured, and governed.
Important areas to consider include:
1. Access and permissions
Can users access only the information they should be able to access?
2. Information structure
Are documents, emails, and other information logically organized around the appropriate clients and matters?
3. Metadata and context
Do documents contain sufficient metadata and matter context to make them understandable and discoverable?
4. Knowledge quality
Can lawyers distinguish trusted, curated knowledge from ordinary matter documents and working files?
5. Lifecycle management
Is outdated information identified and managed appropriately?
6. Security and compliance
Are sensitive documents classified and protected appropriately?
These considerations become particularly important when adopting Microsoft 365 Copilot. Microsoft documents a range of Purview capabilities for Copilot interactions, including sensitivity labels, Data Loss Prevention, auditing, eDiscovery, and Data Lifecycle Management. [learn.microsoft.com]
A useful principle is:
Before asking what AI can do with your firm’s information, make sure the right information is structured, governed, and accessible to the right people.
Next steps
- Complete Epona’s Legal DMS & AI Readiness Scan
- Review Microsoft’s security and compliance guidance for Microsoft 365 Copilot
- Review Microsoft’s Purview considerations for Microsoft 365 Copilot
Epona’s Legal DMS & AI Readiness Scan covers document and email storage, DMS alignment with Microsoft 365, matter structures, permissions, oversharing risks, metadata, matter context, trusted knowledge, Purview, and AI governance
Microsoft Purview provides information protection, data security, and compliance capabilities that can complement legal document management within Microsoft 365.
Microsoft documents Purview capabilities for Microsoft 365 Copilot including data classification, sensitivity labels, Data Loss Prevention (DLP), auditing, eDiscovery, Data Lifecycle Management, Insider Risk Management, and Compliance Manager. [learn.microsoft.com]
For a legal organization, this can make the relationship between the DMS and the underlying Microsoft environment particularly important.
A legal information architecture should consider questions such as:
- Which information is confidential or sensitive?
- Who should have access?
- How should information be classified?
- How long should different information be retained?
- What should happen at the end of its lifecycle?
- How should AI interact with sensitive information?
Microsoft also documents DLP controls for Microsoft 365 Copilot that can restrict the processing of certain sensitive prompts, files, emails, or information according to configured policies and conditions. [learn.microsoft.com]
Legal document management, Microsoft 365 security, and information governance should therefore be considered together rather than as completely separate initiatives.
Next steps
When you are considering alternatives for NetDocuments or iManage, the main distinction between a specialist DMS platform and a Microsoft 365-based legal DMS is the architectural approach.
A Microsoft 365-based legal DMS uses the Microsoft ecosystem, including technologies such as SharePoint and Microsoft 365, as the underlying foundation while adding legal-specific document, email, and matter management functionality.
Firms evaluating different approaches should therefore compare more than feature lists. Important considerations include:
- Existing Microsoft 365 strategy
- Where documents and emails are stored
- Outlook and Word integration
- Matter-centric working
- Email management
- Metadata and search
- Information governance
- Security architecture
- Microsoft Purview
- AI strategy
- Migration requirements
- User experience and adoption
- Integration with other legal software
- Long-term platform strategy
- Total cost of ownership
Epona365 takes the Microsoft 365-based approach. Epona describes it as being built on Microsoft 365 and SharePoint and designed specifically for lawyers and in-house counsel, including integration with Microsoft applications.
There isn’t one universally “best” architecture. The right approach depends on the firm’s requirements, existing infrastructure, and technology strategy.
For organizations considering Microsoft 365 as their strategic platform, one particularly useful question is:
Do we want Microsoft 365 simply to integrate with our DMS, or do we want Microsoft 365 to form the foundation of our document management environment?
That distinction can significantly influence the firm’s long-term technology strategy.
Next steps
Law firms can use Microsoft 365 and SharePoint as a foundation for organizing, governing, and accessing legal knowledge, but technology alone does not create effective knowledge management.
Successful legal knowledge management requires firms to determine:
- What constitutes valuable know-how
- How knowledge is submitted
- Who reviews and approves it
- How knowledge is categorized
- Who owns and maintains it
- How lawyers find it
- When outdated knowledge is reviewed or retired
- How AI should interact with trusted knowledge
This is where a dedicated KMS can add an important governance layer.
Epona KMS, for example, is built on SharePoint and provides controlled contributions and approvals, practice- and topic-based structures, and metadata. Epona states that its AI agents can suggest metadata and help improve discoverability while designated experts maintain control over approvals and publication.
The objective should not simply be to make more documents searchable.
It should be to make the right legal knowledge trusted, discoverable, and reusable.
This distinction becomes even more important when a firm wants AI to work with its internal knowledge.
Next steps
When implementing AI for legal knowledge, law firms should first determine whether their underlying information is reliable, appropriately secured, and suitable for reuse.
AI can help lawyers find, summarize, and use information more efficiently, but a successful implementation requires more than selecting an AI tool.
Law firms should consider:
- Information quality: Is the legal knowledge accurate, current, and approved?
- Access and permissions: Can users and AI access only the information they are authorized to use?
- Knowledge governance: Who reviews, approves, and maintains reusable legal knowledge?
- Context and metadata: Are documents connected to the correct matters, clients, practice areas, and document types?
- Security and compliance: Are appropriate information-protection and compliance controls in place?
- Human oversight: Can lawyers verify the source and context of AI-supported results?
- Lifecycle management: Is outdated or superseded knowledge reviewed, updated, or removed?
Microsoft explains that Microsoft 365 Copilot and agents can access content stored within the Microsoft 365 tenant, including documents in SharePoint and OneDrive and mailboxes in Exchange Online. Microsoft advises organizations to understand relevant data-protection considerations before deploying Copilot licenses. [learn.microsoft.com]
Microsoft Purview can form part of this approach through capabilities including sensitivity labels, auditing, Data Loss Prevention, eDiscovery, and Data Lifecycle Management for Microsoft 365 Copilot interactions. [learn.microsoft.com]
A DMS and KMS play different but complementary roles in this process. The DMS provides structured management of documents, emails, and matter information. The KMS provides a curated environment for approved precedents, guidance, and other reusable legal knowledge.
The objective should therefore not be to give AI access to as much information as possible. It should be to provide secure access to the right documents, reliable context, and trusted legal knowledge.
Next steps
DMS, KMS, and AI: Build the Foundation First
For law firms and legal departments, DMS, KMS, matter management, and AI are increasingly connected.
The DMS manages the firm’s working documents, emails, and matter information.
The KMS turns selected know-how into structured, governed, and reusable organizational knowledge.
AI introduces new ways for lawyers to interact with that information, but permissions, information quality, context, and governance remain important considerations.
For legal organizations already invested in Microsoft technology, this creates an opportunity to consider legal document management software, knowledge management, security, compliance, and AI as elements of a broader Microsoft 365 information strategy.
Epona365 provides legal document and email management built around Microsoft 365 and SharePoint, while Epona KMS provides a SharePoint-based environment for curated legal knowledge.
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