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Behind every good law department is an equally good legal operations team, but what critical roles do they play? These silent partners to the legal team provide a plethora of roles and responsibilities, the most of which is to ensure that the legal department runs without a hitch. While this is not always possible, because hitches happen, becoming acquainted with the legal operations team structure, who’s on the team, and what they do makes for greater collaboration.
Regardless of the size and complexity of an organization, the legal operations team operates with a vision to support the legal team and corporation, to reduce legal spend into acceptable range, to implement technology that creates efficiencies, and to ensure a smooth-running department.
Legal operations optimize legal services delivery to organizations, combining business practices, technology solutions, and process management to help legal departments run more efficiently and effectively. Here are the various responsibilities and core functions of legal operations professionals:
The legal operations team is charged with myriad functions that center on reduction in legal spend, budget management and targeted focus on outside counsel negotiations and relationships. In addition, procuring the right technology solution, such as enterprise legal management software, and implementing it to advance and standardize processes is an important aspect of the legal operations director role.
Once appropriate technology is implemented, the chief of staff, vice president of legal operations and the director set up analytics and metrics to capture data on performance, KPIs, legal spend and cost-cutting measures, for example. These data-driven insights improve department performance and provide analytical reporting to leadership.
The size of a legal department depends on the legal operations team structure. An assistant to the legal operations manager may be included on the team. Or the legal operations director may take on the role of the vice president of legal operations, depending on the overall size of the department, the volume of litigation and other matters, the number of lawyers, and the size of the company.
Chief of Staff: This position holds top rank among the legal operations team structure. She delegates administrative responsibilities to others in the department and reports to the leadership team about legal spend management, budgets, performance, and matter status, among other critical issues.
Vice President of Legal Operations: In the largest corporations, a vice president of legal operations absorbs the role of executing transformative strategy and developing legal operations KPIs for each role on the team. They work closely with the general counsel and the chief legal officer. Part of the vice president of legal operations role is managing resources and relationships. Internal resources are key focal points, while outside counsel relationship development is also critical.
The legal operations team structure also depends on whether external resources can be utilized to assist with certain functions. Often, a technology provider can help with data management, especially if a professional services team is available. Contact us to learn more about professional services.
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