December 10, 2024

Advanced Legal Operations Strategy Delivers Law Department Value

In corporate law departments, legal operations strategy requires advanced preparation, attention and critical thinking to showcase value to the enterprise. In fact, when legal operations professionals are in sync with legal operations strategy, the law department can play a pivotal role in leading as a cost center. While the term “cost center” may have a negative connotation to some, especially those in...

December 05, 2024

Law Operations Challenges For In-House Teams

In-house legal and law operations teams continuously face challenges due to various factors. Each team manages daily issues and must also be prepared for the singular issue that draws all hands on deck. Lawyers want to practice law without concern for law operations. Some areas in the legal department overlap legal and operations, primarily associated with vendor management. Often, legal matters can be too complex to...

December 03, 2024

Contract Lifecycle Management Tools Benefit Legal Departments

Contract lifecycle management tools enable legal teams to automate the contract management process within the corporate legal department. This critical benefit helps streamline the entire contract management workflow -- from drafting and negotiation to approval, execution, maintenance, and renewal. Benefits of Contract Lifecycle Management Tools With a contract lifecycle management system that integrates with an enterprise...

November 26, 2024

Simple Legal Billing Software For Legal Ops

In legal ops, managers look for simple legal billing software to pave the way to efficiency and cost-saving strategies in the legal department. E-billing software has been around for decades in many permutations. As the years come and go, technology vendors have perfected simple legal billing software to make things easier for legal ops. Benefits of Simple Legal Billing Software for Legal Ops On the surface, everyone...

November 21, 2024

Product Showcase: CounselLink+ Awarded CLM Platform Of TheYear

LegalTech Breakthrough, a leading independent market intelligence organization that evaluates and recognizes standout legal technology companies, products and services around the globe, recently announced that LexisNexis® CounselLink+™ is “ Contract Lifecycle Management Platform of the Year .” The contract lifecycle management award complements other awards given in other categories for the program...

November 19, 2024

How An ELM Platform Benefits Corporate Legal

In the world of the corporate legal department, an ELM platform provides the foundation for technology that unifies the workspace. For those who don’t know the meaning of an ELM platform, it is an enterprise legal management solution that the legal team and legal operations professionals can use for collaboration, streamlined workflow, matter management, financials, contract lifecycle management, vendor management...

November 14, 2024

What Is Law Operations?

Law operations, legal operations, law department, legal department, in-house counsel, outside counsel, and many other things go hand-in-hand in the practice of law and the delivery of legal services between corporate legal departments and law firms. Legal Operations in Corporate Law Inside companies, a team of lawyers manages all the legal issues affecting the enterprise. These teams can consist of several lawyers...

November 12, 2024

Matter Management Tools for In-House Counsel

The rapidity and complexity of legal matters require in-house counsel to utilize efficient matter management tools , a critical component of software infrastructure in the corporate legal department. As part of the enterprise legal management platform , matter management is the core of the solution that drives cohesive collaboration and internal and external communication with outside counsel. In the legal department...

November 07, 2024

Contract Management Software For All Legal Departments

No matter the size of a business, every business requires contract management software to play a pivotal role. Contracts bind two or more parties with terms, conditions, and expectations. They are the backbone of any business transaction, from hiring employees to making purchases or sealing deals with partners. These essential documents dictate the terms under which business is conducted, ensuring transparency, and setting...

November 05, 2024

Year-end Cost-Cutting Strategies for Legal Departments

Year-end planning with an eye on cost-cutting strategies for legal departments requires a look at historical data and a look ahead to forecast costs, anticipated matters, talent acquisition, technology procurement, and more. One obvious place to explore cost-cutting strategies in the law department is with outside counsel billing and invoicing. Other areas to consider include law firm fees, RFPs, and the vendor selection...

October 31, 2024

Product Spotlight: Using Dashboards to Benchmark Legal Spend

Benchmarking outside counsel hourly rates from one law firm to another provides beneficial insights for general and legal operations professionals who want to better drive legal spend strategy. The LexisNexis® CounselLink® 2024 Trends Report: Dynamics Shaping the Future of Legal indicated that law firm partner rates marked a steady climb in the last four years. The report provides a way for law departments to...

October 29, 2024

Legal CLM KPIs in the Law Department

Legal CLM in the law department pertains to Contract Lifecycle Management , conveniently shortened to CLM for the purpose of this blog post. As a companion to enterprise legal management software for corporate legal departments, legal CLM is the tool law departments need to manage contracts effectively from start to finish and in between. Contract management involves compliance with regulatory guidelines, the ability...

October 24, 2024

Legal Department Budgeting With Smart Financial Tools

Legal department budgeting is enhanced with accurate forecasting and smart financial budgeting tools essential for law department stability. To that end, legal department budgeting not only aids in the financial and economic health of the law department but also contributes to strategic decision-making for legal department leadership and those in other business units. Legal Department Budgeting Strategy Step by Step...

October 22, 2024

Improve Legal Matter Management with Enterprise Legal Management Software

In corporate law, legal matter management is the primary focus of the in-house lawyer and the legal operations team , helping to streamline workflow, collaboration, performance, and team communication. While lawyers manage the intricacies of cases, they also pay attention to corporate governance as the gatekeepers of corporate integrity and risk mitigation. That’s why legal matter management is so critical for...

October 17, 2024

Implement Legal Department Financial Planning

Conducting a comprehensive financial analysis of spending trends in the legal department is a pivotal step towards optimizing resources and delivering exceptional value to the enterprise . Delving into the intricate details of legal department financial planning and the way expenditures are incurred allows organizations to uncover invaluable insights, especially cost-savings strategies. This paves the way for strategic...

October 15, 2024

Eight Ways to Improve Legal Spend Management

Legal spend management in the law department is the number one challenge facing the senior leadership team in a corporation. This pressure is not only confined to the legal department; it reaches finance and the C-suite, as well. While factors throughout the enterprise and with external parties influence legal department finances, the largest aspect of budget control is attributed to outside counsel spend. Demand for...

October 10, 2024

What Is Legal Operations?

In the in-house corporate legal department, two sides comprise the whole: legal services with in-house lawyers and the legal operations team. The latter is the business side of processes and technology that help streamline collaboration and workflow. While legal operations manage the technical aspects of legal services, the lawyers deliver the legal services either independently or aligned with outside counsel, based...

October 08, 2024

Legal Spend Management Software Revolutionizes Law Departments

Managing legal spend without legal spend management software is impossible in today’s high-pressure law department. As budgets tighten and demand for legal services increases, legal operations professionals are challenged to find optimal legal spend management software to assist with budget management, outside counsel billings and analytical reporting for leadership. Legal spend management software is a game-changing...

October 03, 2024

Pitfalls Of Traditional Matter Management In The Legal Department

Matter management with in-house legal teams can be highly automated with enterprise legal software , or done manually with the customary and traditional spreadsheets, forms and email. The 11th annual CounselLink 2024 Trends Report: Dynamics Shaping the Future of Legal indicates the rising cost of Large Law share of wallet. In fact, over the last three years, legal spend with outside counsel has increased dramatically...

October 01, 2024

Employ Attorney Case Management Software

The legal profession has undergone a significant transformation with the advent of technology, particularly in the area of matter management and attorney case management software. Historically, attorneys relied on manual processes and paper-based systems to manage their cases. This often led to inefficiencies, disorganization and potential errors. However, the introduction of attorney case management software has revolutionized...

September 26, 2024

Benefits of Legal Vendor Management Programs

The benefits of vendor management programs in today's complex legal landscape deliver greater ability to measure performance and showcase added value for the corporate legal department. Vendor management is a critical offering within the enterprise legal management arena. Those legal departments using enterprise legal management solutions can realize improved financial management with smart invoice and billing tools;...

September 24, 2024

Benefits of Legal Matter Management Software

Legal departments face an ever-increasing workload. With a shrinking world, the complexity of legal matters shows no signs of abating. Effective management of legal matters is crucial for ensuring compliance, mitigating risks, and optimizing resource allocation. That’s why ensuring that the benefits of legal matter management software come into play. The legal team and operations professionals require a comprehensive...

September 23, 2024

Product Spotlight: LexisNexis CounselLink Counsel Selector

LexisNexis® CounselLink® is pleased to announce a new feature, powered by the Lex Machina® Legal Analytics® engine, to help general counsels identify the most appropriate outside attorneys and law firms to meet their litigation needs. Outside Counsel Selector, now accessible through CounselLink, is available to existing CounselLink customers as part of a commercial preview running through the end of...

September 19, 2024

Activate Legal Department Financial Management Capabilities

In the arena of legal department financial management, legal operations professionals must manage the critical aspects of operations, managing legal spend and budgets, tracking expenses, and ensuring compliance with financial regulations, to name a few. In this blog post, we review some of the challenges and ways to improve featuring legal financial management software. Further, we explore enterprise legal management...

September 17, 2024

How To Create A Functioning Contract Database

Guess what? Your business might be losing a major portion of its annual profit due to inefficient contract database management systems. Contracts are an essential part of any business, as they contain information about every dollar that enters and exits the business. Not being able to keep track of this information can cause serious financial and reputational harm to organizations. With a functioning contract management...