The Opportunities Ahead for Legal Operations

I spend a lot of time talking with legal leaders and legal operations professionals about what they’re building, what they envision next, and the experience and skills that could help get them there. Over the past year in particular, those conversations have covered a wide range of needs, from teams establishing foundational legal ops capabilities to professionals thinking about how to grow into more strategic roles.

One thing I find interesting is how often legal operations functions and the careers within them are developing at the same time. Teams are building, learning, and adjusting as they go, and the experience they need can evolve along the way. That creates opportunities both for legal departments deciding what capabilities they need next and for professionals developing the experience to help lead that work.

These ideas also came up during the Minnesota Legal Operations Forum in September, where I moderated a breakout on career development in legal operations. Throughout the day, conversations about AI, technology, data, outside counsel management, and legal ops maturity reinforced many of the themes I’m seeing in my own work with legal departments.

There’s More Than One Way to Build a Legal Operations Function

Legal operations can look different from one organization to another. The priorities, capabilities, and resources that make sense for one department may look quite different for another.

That was one of the ideas we explored during our breakout at the Forum, where we talked about looking at a department’s own needs across process, technology, data, vendor management, and staffing, then sequencing investments based on its priorities and trajectory.

One of the panelists, Jen Lenander of Elastic, shared how her team started with outside counsel management, measuring the results and demonstrating cost savings, then using that success as a building block for another priority, such as contract lifecycle management.

That idea of building in stages resonated with me because I see many variations of it in my own work.

I’ve worked with legal departments that have a defined project and need an experienced legal ops professional to help make it happen. I’ve also seen teams bring in flexible legal talent with legal operations experience to establish processes and capabilities while they’re still determining what the longer-term function should look like. Another of my panelists, Megan Bern of CHS Inc., shared how her team used flexible legal operations support as the function developed before eventually hiring its first dedicated legal operations leader.

I also see teams reach a point where the expertise they need begins to change.

I recently spoke with a legal ops professional who had already made meaningful progress putting foundational pieces in place. Now, she’s thinking about how to become more proactive and strategic in the role and sees value in having access to someone with deeper legal operations experience who can serve as a sounding board as she considers new ideas and priorities.

I think that range is important. Legal operations functions don’t have to be built all at once. Teams can start with the priorities in front of them, bring in the experience they need for that stage, and continue shaping the function as they learn what works and where they want to go next.

Connecting the Pieces

As legal departments explore new technologies, data, and ways of working, legal operations professionals can play an important role in connecting those initiatives to the department’s broader priorities and day-to-day operations.

AI is one example. Earlier this summer, I moderated a conversation with in-house leaders at the ACC Minnesota In-House Counsel Conference about AI from a legal department leadership perspective. At the Legal Operations Forum, I heard some of the same questions from a more operational vantage point.

Once a department identifies a tool or opportunity it wants to explore, someone still has to connect it to the way the team works: where it fits into existing workflows, who needs to be involved, how success will be measured, and what may need to change as people begin using it. The same is true well beyond AI.

With data, for example, the opportunity isn’t simply to collect more of it, but to determine what’s useful and translate it into information that supports decisions. Technology, outside counsel management, and other initiatives similarly benefit from people who can move between legal priorities and the operational details needed to put them into practice.

During our Forum breakout, Tim Melchior of Trane Technologies described part of the legal ops role as being able to “translate legal to IT and IT to legal.”

That creates opportunities for legal operations professionals to grow alongside the function. As they demonstrate results, deepen their understanding of the business, and build relationships across functions, their role can expand from helping execute initiatives to helping shape what comes next.

Growing with the Legal Ops Function

As legal operations functions develop, so do the opportunities for people building careers within them.

There’s no single path into legal operations. People come to legal operations from a variety of backgrounds, and as they take on greater responsibility, skills like understanding legal workflows, working across functions, navigating data and technology, and developing strong business acumen become increasingly important.

What I find exciting is that neither the function nor the career path has to follow a single model. A legal department may begin with one priority and build from there. A professional may enter legal ops with expertise in one area and develop a broader role over time.

As teams continue exploring AI, technology, data, outside counsel management, and other ways of working, there’s a lot of room to build, learn, and evolve. I’m especially interested to see how legal operations professionals help connect those possibilities to the people, processes, and priorities of the department.