Legal departments juggle multiple practice areas, abiding by their company’s regulations, and managing day to day tasks. In addition, legal departments are responsible for reporting to internal stakeholders including management teams, and other legal departments. External stakeholders such as investors, outside counsel, and vendors rely on the call that legal departments take on business decisions as well.
According to Bar and Bench, “legal departments make critical decisions every day… ranging from resourcing to budgeting, training, client engagement, risk assessment and planning and more”. With key tasks on their plate, legal departments have to find solutions to remove pending chores from their list before they burn out or miss court dates. We’re here to help with solutions for the top 5 issues haranguing legal departments.
1. Manual Tasks & Overload
Rote tasks bore attorneys and can become monotonous. This in turn leads to lower levels of satisfaction at work, and morale that is anything but boosted. What’s more, routine tasks eat into precious billable hours that could be spent elsewhere.
Whether precious hours can be dedicated to growing practice areas or going to court, it’s wise to outsource tasks that vendors can handle. These run the gamut from attorney support services like office management, to NDA drafting among others.
2. Contract Backlog
Hitting deadlines while short-staffed and tight on time can create a mountain of contracts waiting to stress out already on-edge legal departments. Is there a better way? Contract automation, drafting, and review should be handed over to vendors who can do all of the time in half the time and money it takes in-house resources. What’s more, the mountains of contracts become neat little piles ready to file away.
3. Growing Expenses
COVID-19 and rising inflation drive expenses higher than ever before. This includes legal spend for outside counsel and vendors. A LexisNexis article notes that 2022 is just the beginning of rising costs.
Legal spend management is the way forward for savvy legal departments. Attorneys note their expenditure, track vendors, and calculate budget allocation. In addition, AI powered legal spend tools can predict expenses and direct business decisions based on spend.
4. Outdated Resources
Technology has always been at the forefront, and it’s no different in the legal world. Legal tech revolutionizes the way legal departments conduct business and practice law. With powerful tools to track spend, visualize legal tasks, or even mediate on virtual platforms, every legal department needs to up the ante and automate their practice.
5. Lack of Visibility
In an effort to breeze through legal tasks, manage their practices, and make court appearances, most legal departments are spread way too thin to even think about tracking everything. A lack of visibility into daily dealings, legal matters, and most of all budget, can lead to frustration across the organization as money trickles in and leaks out.
A transparent model of work provides efficiency, and allows all legal department members to understand not just their role, but what the overall team has to offer and what’s on everyone’s plate. There’s legal tech that promises to do this, too. Dashboards and vendor management, among others, create visibility for every individual, so that anyone at any time can understand how to make their organization much more efficient.
There’s a solution for every issue that harangues today’s legal departments. Contract overloads can be managed with contract review services. Legal spend management software keeps count of every dollar in and out. Plus, attorney support providers can take rote tasks off their plates.
