Four key benefits of investing in legal operations
Business leaders of today have high expectations of their in-house legal teams, which are increasingly under pressure to demonstrate their value. As such, they need to find smart ways to maximise productivity and streamline processes. This is where a strong legal operations team can have a huge impact.
To be clear, the term ‘legal operations’ refers to all aspects of legal work which do not fall under the remit of legal counsel. This includes workload prioritisation, resource management, technology selection and management and ensuring complete alignment with an organisation’s goals. All of this is designed to ultimately optimise the service which in-house legal teams provide to their employer.
While it may initially be viewed as an additional overhead to bolster the team, it’s a smart strategic move and the savings and efficiencies which can be made are not insignificant.
Here are four key reasons why businesses should be investing in their legal operations teams.
- Collaboration improves
A legal operations team will form strong working relationships between other functions within an organisation, such as IT, finance and HR. Historically, in-house lawyers were responsible for maintaining these relationships and it was a drain on their time. Having a legal ops team will take away this aspect of the role, enabling the lawyers to focus on their core responsibilities.
- Cost efficiency
Legal teams have a lot to do, increasingly so in today’s tech and data-driven world. It makes a lot of sense to hire legal ops team members who are skilled in areas such as technology, project management, contract management and IP administration. As these roles command lower salary ranges, there are savings to be made by hiring the right people with the right skills to support the legal advisory team.
- Time is saved
Legal ops professionals are great with technology and they can introduce the right tools and processes to help manage projects, assign and prioritise tasks and keep track of deadlines. Effectively outsourcing a number of tasks to technology is incredibly time-efficient and enables teams to focus their time on more strategic matters.
- Data-driven insights
Technology expertise within a legal ops team empowers lawyers to quickly pull together accurate statistics and reports, which in turn enables organisations to protect and grow the business and to make key decisions. Additionally, insights generated on a legal department’s performance can help with multiple aspects of legal operations management, like resource allocation, vendor management, budgeting and more.
Jobs within legal operations teams depend on the size, maturity and budget of the in-house legal team. Skills like project management, data analysis and communication, and expertise in operational, financial and technology management are in high demand.
If you are considering building your legal operations team, please do get in touch with us for an informal chat. We have lots of experience in this area and are happy to advise on the current state of the market, team structures and creating maximum value with your new hires.
Please get in touch with Albert Toms, Head of Legal: albert@leonid-group.com