Tutorial

Creating a Task Tracking Dashboard in Microsoft Lists for Legal Teams

Posted on by Jeff Kirksey
15
Apr

Legal teams across litigation, corporate, tax, and real estate practices must coordinate and track tasks like contract reviews, discovery deadlines, regulatory filings, and client onboarding. Microsoft Lists offers a powerful, customizable way to assign, track, and manage legal tasks within Microsoft 365—integrated with Teams and SharePoint.

This tutorial will guide legal professionals through building a task tracking dashboard in Microsoft Lists that includes priority flags, deadlines, responsible parties, and automated status views.

Step 1: Create a New List

  1. Go to https://lists.microsoft.com or access via Microsoft Teams or SharePoint.
  2. Click “+ New List” > Blank list.
  3. Name your list: e.g., “Litigation Task Tracker” or “Corporate Compliance Checklist”.
  4. Choose to store it in My lists or a SharePoint site/Team for group use.
  5. Click Create.

🗂️ Legal Use Case: Use separate lists for each case, deal, or regulatory matter.

  1. Click + Add column and include:
    • Title (default): Task or matter name
    • Assigned To (Person column)
    • Practice Area (Choice): Litigation, Corporate, Tax, Real Estate, etc.
    • Due Date (Date column)
    • Priority (Choice): High, Normal, Low
    • Status (Choice): Not Started, In Progress, Completed, Deferred
    • Matter Link (Hyperlink to case file or SharePoint doc library)

⚖️ Practice Tip: Add a “Court Deadline” yes/no column for litigation-specific urgency.

  1. Click All items > Format current view.
  2. Use conditional formatting to highlight:
    • High Priority tasks in red
    • Due this week in yellow
    • Overdue with bold text and icon

📅 Productivity Tip: Filter by “Due this week” or “Assigned to me” before team check-ins.

Step 4: Automate Reminders with Power Automate

  1. Open the list > Automate > Create a rule.
  2. Choose:
    • “When a task is due in 3 days, send a reminder to the assigned person”
    • Customize subject and message for legal task context
  3. Save the rule.

🔔 Compliance Tip: Helps ensure no statute or filing deadlines are missed.

Step 5: Share and Embed in Microsoft Teams

  1. In your team’s channel, click + Add Tab > Lists.
  2. Select the list you just created.
  3. Enable group members to view and edit tasks directly in Teams.

🧠 Collaboration Tip: Use in weekly litigation meetings or transaction update calls.

Conclusion

Microsoft Lists allows law firms to standardize task tracking, increase accountability, and streamline collaboration across matters. Integrated with Teams and SharePoint, it becomes a central dashboard for firm-wide visibility into legal work in progress.