Legal operations teams are not the default in the industry... yet.
For firms to be competitive, they must also possess — or collaborate with —
legal operations teams that provide transparent, efficient, real - time accessible, cost - effective, price - predictable, expert legal delivery capability.
A byproduct of that mindset is
legal operations teams that are now an integral part of many corporate legal departments.
Over the last 12 - to - 24 months, the legal solutions market for ELM has experienced a dramatic shift: with the rise of legal operations, and the dynamic businesses that drive it, ELM today is a customer - driven market, defined by the broad - based needs and objectives of the businesses
legal operations teams partner with, and characterized by significant functional gaps to address those needs in the solutions market.
Some businesses may need larger
legal operations teams based on unique factors to their business
What are some of the specific considerations legal firms and
legal operations teams have to bear in mind about new technologies?
In terms of scope, most new
legal operations teams will focus first on outside counsel because that is where the majority of the legal spend resides.
While alternative resources were created to find and house contractual documents (think Contract LiveCycle Management, document repositories, etc.), those options still require manual reviews from in - house
legal operations teams or having them outsourced to law firms.
According to Legal Operations, during the past three and a half years, 80 professionals staffed in its in - house
legal operations team compiled a robust database that can create benchmarks for how to staff cases and deals, and how much money companies should pay their lawyers.
This group meets quarterly with the Barclays»
legal operations team to report on how they are implementing various aspects of LPM and to share «best practices» with the other panel firms.
Many small legal departments begin
their legal operations team with an e-billing specialist who typically focuses on administering the spend / matter management system used by the legal department
While annual company revenue is likely a corollary to the size of
the legal operations team rather than a direct causal factor, it is an insightful metric for benchmarking size of a legal operations team
[1] These core competencies are based on needs within most legal departments and should drive the expected outcomes for
a legal operations team.
Improving processes (which, of course, is highly dependent on the existence and effectiveness of
the legal operations team)
Respected industry consultant Ari Kaplan lead several sessions that discussed core competencies, responsibilities, and coverage areas supported by
a legal operations team, as well as the purpose and benefits of what an efficient legal operations staff can provide to corporate counsel.
But in many companies, the procurement department or
the legal operations team require their outside counsel to participate in the RFP process.
We also have
a legal operations team, which is made up of eight people, several of which are non-lawyers.
Dashboards are an important part of building a strong operations function within your corporate legal department - or establishing
a legal operations team.
I manage
the legal operations team, which basically means overseeing the day - to - day of pretty much anything in the legal department that doesn't require an attorney.
Your company has finally spent the time and money to build out a true
legal operations team to support your growing customers, services, and global team.
Not exact matches
Because digital dexterity is a business strategy (and not simply a technical strategy), input is needed from the leaders from every department — accounting, human resources,
legal, marketing,
operations — not just the IT
team.
General and administrative personnel increased by 49 % in the period from September 30, 2014, to September 30, 2015, primarily reflecting additions to our customer support, risk
operations,
legal, compliance, and finance
teams.
Important factors that may affect the Company's business and
operations and that may cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward - looking statements include, but are not limited to, increased competition; the Company's ability to maintain, extend and expand its reputation and brand image; the Company's ability to differentiate its products from other brands; the consolidation of retail customers; the Company's ability to predict, identify and interpret changes in consumer preferences and demand; the Company's ability to drive revenue growth in its key product categories, increase its market share, or add products; an impairment of the carrying value of goodwill or other indefinite - lived intangible assets; volatility in commodity, energy and other input costs; changes in the Company's management
team or other key personnel; the Company's inability to realize the anticipated benefits from the Company's cost savings initiatives; changes in relationships with significant customers and suppliers; execution of the Company's international expansion strategy; changes in laws and regulations;
legal claims or other regulatory enforcement actions; product recalls or product liability claims; unanticipated business disruptions; failure to successfully integrate the Company; the Company's ability to complete or realize the benefits from potential and completed acquisitions, alliances, divestitures or joint ventures; economic and political conditions in the nations in which the Company operates; the volatility of capital markets; increased pension, labor and people - related expenses; volatility in the market value of all or a portion of the derivatives that the Company uses; exchange rate fluctuations; disruptions in information technology networks and systems; the Company's inability to protect intellectual property rights; impacts of natural events in the locations in which the Company or its customers, suppliers or regulators operate; the Company's indebtedness and ability to pay such indebtedness; the Company's dividend payments on its Series A Preferred Stock; tax law changes or interpretations; pricing actions; and other factors.
He joined Google in 2002 and led global
teams for
legal, public policy, communications, corporate development / mergers and acquisitions, and product quality
operations.
Important factors that may affect the Company's business and
operations and that may cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward - looking statements include, but are not limited to, operating in a highly competitive industry; changes in the retail landscape or the loss of key retail customers; the Company's ability to maintain, extend and expand its reputation and brand image; the impacts of the Company's international
operations; the Company's ability to leverage its brand value; the Company's ability to predict, identify and interpret changes in consumer preferences and demand; the Company's ability to drive revenue growth in its key product categories, increase its market share, or add products; an impairment of the carrying value of goodwill or other indefinite - lived intangible assets; volatility in commodity, energy and other input costs; changes in the Company's management
team or other key personnel; the Company's ability to realize the anticipated benefits from its cost savings initiatives; changes in relationships with significant customers and suppliers; the execution of the Company's international expansion strategy; tax law changes or interpretations;
legal claims or other regulatory enforcement actions; product recalls or product liability claims; unanticipated business disruptions; the Company's ability to complete or realize the benefits from potential and completed acquisitions, alliances, divestitures or joint ventures; economic and political conditions in the United States and in various other nations in which we operate; the volatility of capital markets; increased pension, labor and people - related expenses; volatility in the market value of all or a portion of the derivatives we use; exchange rate fluctuations; risks associated with information technology and systems, including service interruptions, misappropriation of data or breaches of security; the Company's ability to protect intellectual property rights; impacts of natural events in the locations in which we or the Company's customers, suppliers or regulators operate; the Company's indebtedness and ability to pay such indebtedness; the Company's ownership structure; the impact of future sales of its common stock in the public markets; the Company's ability to continue to pay a regular dividend; changes in laws and regulations; restatements of the Company's consolidated financial statements; and other factors.
Important factors that may affect the Company's business and
operations and that may cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward - looking statements include, but are not limited to, increased competition; the Company's ability to maintain, extend and expand its reputation and brand image; the Company's ability to differentiate its products from other brands; the consolidation of retail customers; the Company's ability to predict, identify and interpret changes in consumer preferences and demand; the Company's ability to drive revenue growth in its key product categories, increase its market share or add products; an impairment of the carrying value of goodwill or other indefinite - lived intangible assets; volatility in commodity, energy and other input costs; changes in the Company's management
team or other key personnel; the Company's inability to realize the anticipated benefits from the Company's cost savings initiatives; changes in relationships with significant customers and suppliers; execution of the Company's international expansion strategy; changes in laws and regulations;
legal claims or other regulatory enforcement actions; product recalls or product liability claims; unanticipated business disruptions; failure to successfully integrate the business and
operations of the Company in the expected time frame; the Company's ability to complete or realize the benefits from potential and completed acquisitions, alliances, divestitures or joint ventures; economic and political conditions in the nations in which the Company operates; the volatility of capital markets; increased pension, labor and people - related expenses; volatility in the market value of all or a portion of the derivatives that the Company uses; exchange rate fluctuations; risks associated with information technology and systems, including service interruptions, misappropriation of data or breaches of security; the Company's inability to protect intellectual property rights; impacts of natural events in the locations in which the Company or its customers, suppliers or regulators operate; the Company's indebtedness and ability to pay such indebtedness; tax law changes or interpretations; and other factors.
The extended
team is comprised of entrepreneurs, VCs, angel investors, and founders that all have extensive US and Latam experience in sales, marketing,
operations, finance, investing, HR and
legal, IPOs, and scaling real businesses.
As part of the ecosystem, we have worked hard to build a service that can support enterprise - grade businesses such as Microsoft by forming top - notch engineering, client
operations, business development,
legal, and executive
teams.
With his extensive background in franchise
operations, Joseph Freschi
teamed up with the founders of Rockin» Jump and, along with the original founders, is a co-founder of Rockin» Jump's trampoline franchise company where he manages both
legal matters and the strategic growth of our franchise business.
He will assist our
teams from
legal, sales, technology, and
operations in opening up new accounts and in negotiations with existing retailers, and will help all our divisions around the world to work in a unified fashion with our common retailers.
A
legal team working directly with GeoengineeringWatch.org is actively pursuing
legal avenues to force public disclosure of the illegal climate engineering
operations.
As in - house
legal teams seek to professionalise their operations, with the help of organisations such as Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC), we will see more of the complex work that is usually farmed out to panel firms being dealt with in - h
legal teams seek to professionalise their
operations, with the help of organisations such as Corporate
Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC), we will see more of the complex work that is usually farmed out to panel firms being dealt with in - h
Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC), we will see more of the complex work that is usually farmed out to panel firms being dealt with in - house.
And there's no denying the commitment of everyone I spoke with that the role of
legal operations is necessary, pivotal, and here to stay — they believe that CLOC is the right place for them to ensure an efficient
legal team now and for the future.
«My boss went to our general counsel at the time and asked to create this
operations role outside of just our
team but supporting the entire
legal organization.»
The multidisciplinary
teams and the integration with the top technology remind me of the rise of
legal operations.
The reality is that no client is going to give their external law firms a blank cheque, but what is manifestly obvious from our anecdotal evidence and an increasing body of empirical evidence is that price sensitivity diminishes in inverse proportion to the reputation of a
legal team, the firm's demonstrable sector focus and equally demonstrable intimate insight into the client's business
operations and commercial objectives.
A
team of prominent law professors and
legal professionals has formed a national nonprofit, the Institute for the Future of Law Practice, which will place law students in paid internships that will expose them to
legal operations principles.
«It's a business book,» Denis, director of
operations,
legal affairs with SNC - Lavalin in Montreal, explains, calling relying on statistics and working with economists and lawyers to develop a good baseball
team fascinating.
We work with corporate
legal departments on
legal operations, and by
legal operations, I mean technology, process, budgets and staffing for
legal teams.
But
legal operations is responsible for creating a systematic process that leads to those decisions — from RFPs to reverse auctions As the department and the
team matures, their outward focus will expand (e.g., vendors, LPO) and turn inward (e.g., analytics, information governance, and process automation).
In this spirit, Connie Brenton set up technology certification opportunities for her in - house
legal team at NetApp, Inc., where she serves as the
legal department's senior director of
operations.
Legal operations is fast growing - with many in - house
teams looking to improve the functionality and
operations of their
teams.
Meanwhile, Man manages the wider
legal team in addition to supporting the business
operations generally, which he says requires sound knowledge of the company culture.
They not only improve the organization's systems and budgeting, they also stand as an example for other large in - house
legal teams looking to enhance their
operations.
Indeed, one of the biggest challenges for the Asian
legal team is to support the company
operations in the context of very specific political and social landscapes, he says.»
The hybrid approach provides in - house
legal teams with a level of support and sophisticated analysis typically missing in purely technology - driven solutions and more traditional outsourcing
operations.
More and more companies with large in - house
teams now have
legal operations managers and directors responsible for managing outside counsel, budgets and creating efficient processes.
Some departments don't have the capacity to hire a
team or individual dedicated to
legal operations, but we'd still like to share the strategies we've found to be successful.
They work closely with the
operations and risk
teams of their organizations and are, therefore, better positioned than ever before to lend their
legal knowledge to how the business can best move forward with the right plan of execution.
10:25 am The next session looks at why collaboration in
legal operations is critical to success — in years to come, what will the relationship between in - house
teams, their external advisers and
legal vendors look like?