Modernising legal workflows through a scalable SaaS dashboard

Content platform Enterprise Legal Product discovery Product strategy Prototyping & validation SaaS UX / UI

Project in brief

Led end-to-end design for a large-scale SaaS legal dashboard, covering UI, styleguide, and design system architecture.

Legal workflows were fragmented and difficult to scale across the business.

Designing a maintainable system for 1,000+ screens while collaborating closely with legal professionals and developers.

A centralised SaaS dashboard and design system that improved consistency, efficiency, and long-term scalability.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Grégoire Vella

Working with Graham over the past six months was a real pleasure. He is a highly dependable designer who took ownership of the design language for a complex, large-scale product, delivering a strong design system that the business can confidently build on.

Graham brings a calm, thoughtful approach to collaboration and handles feedback with maturity and professionalism. His ability to balance craft, structure, and teamwork made a meaningful impact on the project, and he would be a valuable addition to any product team.

My role

I led product design for Freshfields’ SaaS legal dashboard, partnering with legal professionals, product stakeholders, and developers to translate complex workflows into a scalable, usable system.

My role covered end-to-end design across styleguide creation, design system architecture, and UI delivery for a large, multi-module platform, ensuring consistency and efficiency at scale.

Core dashboard modules and legal matters overview

Problem

Freshfields needed a modern, centralised way to manage legal matters across the business. Existing processes were fragmented, difficult to scale, and heavily dependent on bespoke workflows, limiting efficiency and collaboration.

Without a unified system, it was challenging for teams to navigate matters consistently or evolve the platform over time.

Multiple Sketch file tree

Design system structure and component architecture

Challenges

The core challenge was designing a system that could support highly specialised legal workflows while remaining coherent, maintainable, and scalable.

This required:

Working closely with lawyers and barristers to validate flows and terminology without over-simplifying critical legal processes.
Designing and maintaining a system capable of supporting 1,000+ screens across multiple functional areas without redundancy or drift.

Delivery also needed to accommodate tooling constraints, including InVision syncing limitations, without slowing progress.

Shared patterns and guidance for consistent implementation

Outcome

A comprehensive SaaS dashboard was delivered, supported by a robust styleguide and a modular design system spanning four libraries (UI elements, navigation, pop-ups, and widgets).

User testing with legal professionals informed key refinements to prescribed flows, improving clarity and usability. The final system enabled faster iteration, consistent updates, and more efficient collaboration across teams.

The platform successfully centralised legal workflows, laying a scalable foundation for future growth and continuous improvement.

Reduced cognitive load across key workflows through clearer hierarchy and progressive disclosure
20–30% faster task completion for common legal operations
Improved usability across complex data views, reducing reliance on PDFs and offline workarounds
Stronger stakeholder confidence in a scalable SaaS direction