Launching Legal Operations

It has never been a more exciting time for Legal Operations. Conferences every other week, great networks (online and real life) and emerging tech in a competitive marketplace make this a fast-moving space. Yet, it’s easy to forget that this function has only really emerged in the last twenty years, and indeed, many businesses are in the early stages of implementing legal operations infrastructure. I’m proud to be the first Legal Operations Manager in my company, and almost a year in (at the time of publication), it’s as good a time as any to reflect on the key lessons I’ve learnt, as someone starting from scratch. 

1. Listen to stakeholders

One of my biggest frustrations in my past life (as a teacher) was spending hours listening to ‘experts’ telling me how to do my job. They had no idea of the nuances and complexities involved yet were perfectly happy to impose new initiatives and offer so-called strategic insights. I vowed to never be like them. Ultimately, our stakeholders – the legal professionals who are stuck in the broken systems, know the detail. They understand why ‘we’ve always done it that way’. They accept that audit trails need certain annoying bits of paperwork to be completed. There is a reason for every Excel tracker – and it’s not because they are there for fun. Listening to those struggling through the quagmire of broken systems, battling hours of admin and distractions from their role is vital. Chances are, the team might not need a massive CLM, or a business-wide process revamp to make their day-to-day easier – focus on the headaches, implement some quick wins and build trust with your team.  

2. You can’t fix what you can’t measure

It’s all very well having a sense that something isn’t working, or that workload has increased, but a hunch alone does not a business case make – you need data. Legal teams produce mounds of the stuff, but it might not be visible or clean. Can you run a Power Query and identify email trends over months or years? Can you collate spreadsheets into PowerBI and produce some visualisations? Once you have identified the scale of an issue, you then have a basis for additional resource, or the starting point to calculate time savings with a potential tech solution. Then once you’ve implemented the solution, you can revisit the data and gauge its success. This is your Legal Ops ROI. 

3. LinkedIn – cut through the noise

There is a fantastic Legal Ops and Legal Tech community on LinkedIn. The platform is full of lively insights and debate with content from consultants, SAAS companies and Linkedinfluencers (plus – elephant in the room – AI slop and ‘LinkedIn bro’ nonsense – each to their own, but not for me). It can become overwhelming - I experience FOMO (I didn’t get to Legal Geek this year!) and imposter syndrome fairly regularly. My key learning from it has been to use it intentionally and curate my feed – real life is stressful and demanding enough!

4. One size doesn’t fit all

Another side-effect of LinkedIn is the perception of industry standard – other people have XYZ solution, therefore everyone should. Yes, there are some things which are simply good ideas – standardised templates, clear intake processes, naming conventions – but what works in one context may not work for another. Take an all-round CLM solution – for a scaling business with defined procurement and small sales teams, it could work. But in a large business, there may not be the appetite for such a change – and that’s OK. Legal Ops is about meeting the stakeholders where they are at, and delivering improvements tailored to their circumstance – irrespective of whatever solution happens to be trending.    

5. There’s never a problem that cannot be solved (most of the time)

I recognise and accept that this point is skirting very closely to a LinkedIn Legal Ops lesson, but I’m going to lean into it. I am the proud parent to a five-year old, and this comes with the perk of having Bluey as a big part of my life. Bluey’s dad, Bandit, hits the nail on the head one episode when he declares: “No point playing the blame game, we need a solution!” Bandit was desperately trying to deflect blame for pretending to eat his child like a watermelon (don’t ask), but his point rings true. Legal Ops is, at its core, problem solving – and although I wouldn’t declare that every problem has a solution, most problems do. The solution might not be obvious, or it might not be perfect, but in the age of AI and thousands of hours of YouTube guides to just about everything, the solution is out there – it’s for Legal Ops to create, experiment, learn and make it work!  

Kim Humphrey

Legal Operations Manager

BPP