Earlier this year, The Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) released the 2023 Chief Legal Officers Survey. Among the data provided in this report was the point that only 38 percent of CLOs said they plan to hire more lawyers this year, compared to 45 percent last year. While there may not be a disproportionate reduction in legal staffing this year, at least in the tech industry, it does suggest in-house teams will have to work smarter if they want to grow.
Team-wide adoption and effective use of meaningful technology demonstrates that the legal team is operating at the same level and is in sync with the rest of the business, and shows a level of maturity that top executives demand from every business unit across the organization.
All Systems Go
In-house legal teams touch nearly every aspect of the business. When budgets are tightening, the worst thing attorneys can do is stop building and maintaining relationships with stakeholders throughout the business because they’re “too busy.” Executives and stakeholders are increasingly relying on the legal team to drive strategic change across the business. As a result, more legal leaders are using technology to gain valuable insights and streamline the delivery of legal work and services, and using the resulting data to drive the decision-making process. ACC showed that nearly half of the surveyed CLOs intend to invest in new legal technology solutions this year.
Merely purchasing and deploying new tools isn’t enough to move the needle for the business. Legal leaders are responsible for ensuring that the technology is utilized effectively and consistently throughout the entire legal team—and that the resulting data is contextualized and applied to various aspects of the business. Measuring the volume of the legal team’s entire workload and turnaround times, reporting on the specific projects in process, and showing how efficiencies can be gained through consistent, repeatable processes provide the necessary data to show how efficiencies and effectiveness in the delivery of legal work and services allow the business to act with more speed and certainty, and ultimately, propel the business forward.
Understanding Business Needs
Taking a disciplined approach to the investment in technology and the implementation and adoption of key systems will change the operation, effectiveness, and eventually, the reputation of the legal team across the business. Part of that approach requires understanding that every business is different, and there is no one-size-fits-all legal tech solution.
Legal technology should improve three things:
- Visibility: Stakeholders requesting the work being performed by legal teams should have increased visibility as to the status of that work.
- Project management: The in-house teams should have software that establishes a framework that allows attorneys to perform the work in an organized, consistent and uniform way.
- Reporting: Legal team leadership should have data demonstrating the amount of work being performed and the effectiveness of the legal team in accomplishing that work.
CLOs must recognize the most pressing needs of the legal team and the company at large before committing to a solution. Legal leaders can no longer be distracted by bells, whistles and gimmicks, and instead must be focused on identifying and implementing meaningful tools that enable in-house teams to be true catalysts for change across the business.
Contract management may still be the most sought-after technology for CLOs in the immediate term, but decisions on which technology to implement should be based on the legal team’s unique needs and overall business goals. There are various solutions beyond contract management that can meet the common needs of modern legal functions, including board management, entity management, IP management, e-billing providers, etc. Take the time to scope out the major problem you are seeking to solve within the team when starting the process, and find technology that will best solve that problem.
Data-Driven Decision Making
Legal teams are being recognized more than ever for their specialized knowledge and skills. But with more visibility often comes more responsibility. Technology can be a significant boon to in-house teams struggling to keep pace with more demanding internal clients, but ensuring data consistency across all legal tech tools needs to be paramount. Legal leaders can set up a process, but it’s useless if success can’t be measured.
Implementing technology is an excellent way to increase productivity and free up time. CLOs need to ensure their teams use those newly found hours to be proactive with the business and double down on data by analyzing, applying, and contextualizing it within the business.
It should be said that the hours saved can be put towards rest and recuperation, something that often goes overlooked in the legal field. Depending on how critical the staffing crunch is, GCs and CLOs should commit much-needed mental health time to their team and encourage them to use extra hours to take care of their physical health and well-being.
In this challenging economic climate, attorneys on an in-house team should be the absolute last thing that gets cut. Simply put, the in-house team’s contributions directly influence the organization’s bottom line—and their deep knowledge of the inner workings of the organization is invaluable. Depending on what the initiatives are, CLOs should scrutinize vendor and outside counsel spending first and determine the key drivers for the business to demonstrate that the legal team’s function as a key business partner.
This article was originally published by ALM's Legaltech News. Check it out here.
