Now, the vast majority of legal departments in the Fortune 500 have a legal operations position.
ABA Journal
Legal departments solve legal issues, help their companies stay compliant with rules and regulations, and mitigate risks before they happen. While legal departments have the upper hand when it comes to everything legal, they’re best enhanced by legal operations teams.
CLOC defines legal ops as a “multi-functional practice” that covers the strategies to create, manage and speed up legal processes effectively. Legal ops teams bridge the divide between the legal department and business matters to create a cohesive unit working towards a single goal.
Legal Ops On Running Legal Like A Business
According to the ABA Journal, legal ops professionals say that with legal ops, legal can be run like a business. This approach can help legal departments better align with their company’s business goals, monitor legal spend, and boost overall legal work efficiency.
The future of legal ops lies in a path similar to that of the general counsel journey. As legal advisors, GCs help the legal department offer a business advantage to their companies.
Gone are the days when legal departments solely provided legal work. Today’s legal departments use legal technology to not only speed up their work, but also to offer business value to their organizations.
With legal tech witnessing its latest disruption, alternative legal services providers (ALSPs), legal tech companies and legal departments are changing to keep up with the times. This evolution also impacts legal ops teams, looking to redesign the legal function to be legal with a business value add.
References
- Cloc
- ABA journal
- Deloitte
