People and Organization: Managing Your Most Valuable Resource
In recent years, sophisticated law departments have been hiring Legal Operations professionals to improve policies and processes, select and implement technologies, manage change, develop and track KPIs (key performance indicators), plan and manage projects and budgets, manage law firm and non-law firm legal service providers, and otherwise drive efficiencies.
If the GC is effectively CEO of the legal department, then the Legal Ops head is effectively the legal department’s COO, responsible for driving peak performance by coordinating the non-lawyering aspects of how the department functions. In 2015, the Association of Corporate Counsel estimated that about one third of GCs at Fortune 500 companies have Legal Ops staff.The most senior Legal Ops professionals frequently serve as Chief of Staff to the GC, with responsibility to enhance the performance of the legal department’s most valuable resource—its people. The Chief of Staff reinforces and communicates the GC’s vision, and the mission, values, and culture of the department. Organizational planning and personnel development strengthens the legal team and the operation in many ways: improving management capabilities, succession planning, fostering teamwork and trust, and increasing job satisfaction and retention. Improved retention reduces the disruption and cost of staff turnover, protecting institutional knowledge and improving the effectiveness of the legal department. Legal Ops leaders serve as champions of culture, ensuring buy-in and adoption of changes and new initiatives among the department’s lawyers. Most Legal Ops people are lawyers themselves, but many have formal business training, often JD/MBAs. Legal Ops leaders often attribute their success to their willingness to experiment and risk failure, coupled with confidence in their ability to course correct while initiatives are underway. Successful Legal Ops professionals “get things done” in the legal department from the inside—by partnering with the lawyers.
As part of this relatively new, but quickly growing discipline, many Legal Ops professionals participate actively in groups such as CLOC and the ACC’s newly- formed Legal Ops sub-group, which meet regularly to share knowledge, best practices and advice. These groups have developed and published several legal industry guidelines for general use, including billing guidelines and a detailed profile of the Legal Ops and Chief of Staff role, with more guidelines in development, e.g. budget templates, e-signature policy, and GC metrics. More information on CLOC is available on their website at www.cloc.org, and more information on ACC Legal Ops is available at www.acc.com/legalops.
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