A well-running legal department can serve as a solid foundation for a business. When your legal team isn't working smoothly, it can cause a ripple effect of issues. One way to streamline legal processes and ensure your department is working effectively and efficiently is to implement legal operations.

What is legal operations? It is a structure to help legal departments provide better services through the application of business practices. In effect, it enables you to run your legal team just like you would run a company to get the best possible results.

Your legal operations professionals can be any size group, and they handle all the business elements of the legal department. They answer to the general counsel and enable the overall team to maximize its ability to provide legal services.

How Legal Operations Benefit In-House Legal Teams

Developing legal operations for your in-house legal operations serves many purposes. One of the top benefits is that the team can handle business issues, leaving the legal professionals to focus their efforts on legal tasks.

Legal operations functions are to make life easier for the professionals. They are a support service that takes on duties to manage and oversee projects and the running of the department. Through technology, the team can help with everything from project management to general office organization.

Meanwhile, the attorneys and other legal professionals can focus on providing legal advice and handling all the other specific legal processes. It is like having a group that comes in and takes care of all the extraneous duties, so that those with legal training can put their efforts into handling matters that really benefit clients.

Key Functional Areas of a Legal Operations Team

The legal operations team has several areas where it will perform. These areas do not require specialized legal training, but are essential to keeping the legal team running.

Contract Management

Managing contracts is a very demanding process. Putting attorneys on the task is a waste of their time. Instead, the legal operations team will manage and oversee contracts to ensure fulfillment of the terms.

They will watch over deadlines, provide alerts, and ensure that everyone is on the same page about a contract from start to finish. They will track milestones and ensure communications flow properly.

Process Improvement

One of the top benefits of legal operations is transforming the department from doing ok to excelling. The team's goal is to ensure everything the department does is as efficient as possible. They will analyze and review to clean up waste and streamline wherever possible.

The legal operations team will also work to identify problems and find solutions to things that may slow down the department or lead to issues. Ultimately, they are like a personal trainer who comes in and whips everyone into shape.

Financial Management

Legal operations responsibilities also include managing the budget of the legal department. The team will carefully look over the finances to help improve the budget and work through any billing issues. They will work on reporting and forecasting for the department as well.

Operational Strategizing

Operational assistance is a top reason for bringing in a legal operations team. The many tasks they will take over from the legal professionals lifts a huge load off their plate. These things are general business duties that keep the department running but that aren't necessarily linked directly to handling legal matters.

For example, legal operations will handle staffing, analytics, records management, regulatory compliance, meeting planning, and project management. The various duties the team oversees allow the department to run like a business.

Business Performance

Legal operations management is a good move for a business that wishes to improve overall. Adding this element not only increases the efficiency of the legal department but company-wide the improvements and the benefits will be apparent.

The business will increase its ability to perform at a higher level because there is a legal department that is running like its own entity. The wheels are moving smoothly, and the effectiveness will increase exponentially.

Understanding the 12 Core Competencies

The most effective legal operations team will ensure it focuses on 12 core competencies. These are specific areas that a legal department needs to ensure are in order if it wants to operate at the highest level.

1. Financial Management: Ensuring the department is spending money properly and managing the funds coming in to make better financial decisions.
2. Vendor Management: Overseeing the relationships with vendors to get the best value.
3. Business Intelligence: Using data and technology to improve decision making.
4. Information Governance: Minimizing security risks and ensuring clarity in policies.
5. Knowledge Management: Increasing the knowledge base by gathering, organizing, and building information usable company-wide that will prevent loss with employee turnover or changes.
6. Organization Optimization and Health: Creating a healthy and productive work environment.
7. Practice Operations: Allocating tasks based on skills and abilities to make the department more effective.
8. Project and Program Management: Improving management of projects and programs while ensuring quality remains high.
9. Service Delivery Models: Using resources more effectively.
10. Strategic Planning: Creating goals that help reach the priorities of stakeholders.
11. Technology: Leveraging legal technology to handle repetitive tasks and duties to free up human workers.
12. Training and Development: Targeting new hire training and continuing professional development to increase the function of the team.

Support Your Legal Department With Contract Automation Software

Aline works with legal departments to offer software solutions that can complement a well-rounded legal operations team. By providing a document platform using artificial intelligence, Aline provides a service that can help to increase the effectiveness of a department and make the most out of the legal operations team contributions.

When everyone works together more effectively, a department runs more smoothly and provides a work environment where everyone feels more fulfilled. Contact Aline today to see how our AI-power SaaS platform can help transform your department.