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When looking at legal operations it is usually defined in a way that focuses on in-house corporate legal teams. However, other settings such as consultancies and law firms also work in legal operations. If you're working in a law firm you can expect to do the following types of work: Business Intelligence The right data is incredibly useful for business decision-making - allowing the firm's leadership to make quicker, better decisions. This ultimately allows firms to take bet

Over the last two or three years this phrase 'Legal Front Door' has become more commonplace. It refers to a portal in which internal clients (ie people within a business that need legal support) can access support from the legal team. Traditionally people within businesses would request support from the legal team by either emailing the legal inbox, or emailing in-house counsel within the company directly. While the request is sent and the legal team receive it there are some

There are many types of roles in eDiscovery which require different skill sets, however all eDiscovery professions have a good understanding of technology and its application to real world problems. Expertise in eDiscovery technology in particular is particularly important and eDiscovery professionals spend much of their operating specialised document review or data processing technology. Often eDiscovery experts have skills in digital forensics (examining digital artefacts –

Predictive coding is a general term for any technology which “predicts” which documents are relevant to disclosure issues based on training or instructions from a subject matter expert (usually the lawyer running the case). The underlying technology behind predictive technology can vary: most predictive coding approaches were based on machine learning algorithms until 2024, when approaches powered by generative AI started to be introduced. A key feature of predictive coding i

eDiscovery is the general term for the process of preserving, collecting, processing, reviewing, and producing electronic material for disclosure in litigation. eDiscovery technology and processes are often used in other situations where large volumes of data need to be analysed quickly, for example: regulatory investigations, cyber breaches, or data subject access requests. A successful eDiscovery project will combine specialist technology platforms which can process and pre

Documents are usually stored within a folder structure. This is something that people are highly familiar through Windows in their personal life and Sharepoint in their working lives. The problem is that this type of structure isn't particularly efficient where you have a lot of people accessing and searching for information. This article describes some of the key benefits of using metadata-based systems over folder-based ones. Better Searchability Adding a file to a folder s

Now that artificial intelligence has taken over internet discussion it seems like Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) technology was last year's news. However, the market is nowhere near saturation and there are some really good reasons why you (as a corporate) would want to implement technology to improve the management of your contract lifecycle. There is a quite a range when it comes to CLM tools. The ones that tend to get a lot of airtime are the enterprise solutions that

This is certainly the million dollar question in legal operations - how do you know the tech that you're procuring is right for your organisation? With an astounding amount of choice these days where do you begin? While every organisation is different, these are some considerations that should be taken into account when you're looking for new tech: Are you ready for tech? The first consideration isn't really about the tech at all - it's more around your preparation for gettin

This article takes a look some of the ways that return on investment could be calculated. There may be other ways but this takes a look at the tangible benefits that are easier to calculate and the intangible ones which are not so easy to precisely define. Either way they should give you an idea of the data that you might need to have in mind to calculate the efficiency gain you'll have from document automation - and ultimately to determine whether it was worth the money! Ti

The world we live in is more connected than ever. Through social media platforms like LinkedIn we are able to reach almost anyone in the business world. With so many people there is always a challenge 'standing out' among the crowd. To become more 'visible' in the crowd it may be beneficial to build and promote your own personal brand (distinct from the brand of the company you work for). There will be a number of different reasons why you would want to do this. It could be t

Document automation is the process of making documents quicker to draft using technology. In the legal context, these documents are usually contracts, associated schedules and/or other documents used in the completion of a particular legal matter. Typically, document automation is better suited to transactional areas of law (e.g. corporate, employment, etc) as opposed to dispute resolution, which may be more bespoke on a case-by-case basis. Typically the benefits of implement

Universities set a foundation on which students can build their careers, providing a theoretical understanding of a particular subject area which allows them to have the knowledge and soft skills required to push into a particular sector. For legal, most law students either undertake the LLB or GDL which sets the scene for the history of law and how the law operates. However, there is a debate around whether universities should provide more practical skills - like an understa

For quite a few people in legal operations they may be the only person in their organisation that does this type of work - especially those working in-house. Finding yourself with little in the way of network makes it difficult to assess what is 'best practice' or take inspiration from projects that others have done, for example. It is therefore useful to build up a network that not only helps your professionally - but also personally in the event you ever need to move on to