Consolidated Edison Company of New York Inc‘s Law Department recently concluded a two-year long, Department-wide, Transformation Initiative. Using CLOC’s Core 12 as a guide, the team spent a year in research, analysis, and development. As a result, they were able to produce consistent, standardized processes, implement automation workflows, and improve customer service metrics. They incorporated ideas from customers and stakeholders, focusing on three pillars: (1) enhancing the internal and external customer experiences, (2) optimizing the worker experience by streamlining bulky processes and bolstering professional development opportunities, and (3) promoting sustainable change by equipping lawyers with practical tools and coping mechanisms.
Fundación Appleseed México is a non-profit that provides pro bono legal assistance to Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) that encounter legal compliance issues through its internal lawyers and through a network of law firms. Even with caseload increasing, many CSOs were dropping out of the lengthy process without solving their legal issues. In response, Appleseed partnered with stakeholders to analyze and improve their operating model using lean six sigma and design principles to create a centralized case management and analysis database, a CRM web application, and customer satisfaction surveys. These improvements reduced case length and abandoned cases by 50%, increased law firm participation 2.4x, cut response times by more than half and improved efficiency 10x.
Nationwide’s Office of the Chief Legal Officer (OCLO) was seeking to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of its outside counsel use over the long term. Prior to changes, costs were high, firm relationships were transactional, and internal attorneys and business partners were working inefficiently due to administrative burden. In 2022, OCLO conducted an RFP process with current outside firms, developed a firm selection tool, created a simplified governance process for requesting exceptions and reporting spend, and established centralized firm relationship management. The 79% reduction in outside counsel firms resulted in a savings of $4.5M+ in 2022. Additionally, these changes resulted in stronger relationships with outside counsel, better results, and more consistent, time-saving processes.
In a recent CLOC Ask the Experts webinar, legal operations experts from the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, Uber, NCR Corporation, and DocuSign shared why the digital transformation of contracting processes is essential for legal teams today. A modern contracting process can make your legal team more efficient, unlock scalable support for other business teams, and unearth a trove of useful data. By transforming your contracting process, you can drive efficiency and contribute real value to your organization.
Here are the three important reasons why legal departments and legal operations should modernize their approach to contracts.
Improve efficiency while reducing risk
With increased pressure on margins and a challenging economic climate, legal is beholden to budgets more than in the past. According to Nancy Kumar, law vice president at NCR Corporation, these new constraints make driving digital transformation and continuous improvement all the more critical. By partnering with sales and members of the legal department, legal ops can improve contracting processes and save their organization significant time and money.
Sandy MacDonnell, senior manager of legal operations at DocuSign, saw this firsthand. By implementing DocuSign esignature at her former workplace, she saved the company an estimated $1 million in the first year alone. “We no longer had stacks of papers sitting around,” MacDonnell says. “Legal was no longer being that cost center.”
Just as electronic signature tools and digitization have improved efficiency for countless legal teams, so too can building integrated contract management processes across the organization. A contract lifecycle management (CLM) tool like DocuSign CLM consolidates all contracts and related data in one place, and automates key generation, approval, and signature tasks, allowing for more connected workflows.
It also makes it easy to track obligations and milestones, which can greatly reduce contract value leakage, says David Silbert, senior director of Agreement Cloud strategy at DocuSign. “Everyone works so hard to get their favorable terms into an agreement, but if you’re not actually tracking what you’re entitled to under that agreement in the real world…you’ve left dollars on the table.”
Improving contract management not only enhances efficiency but also helps legal teams reduce risk. Centralized repositories and systems lead to better security and allow you to easily find critical documents, while best contracting practices prevent recency bias or missing unfavorable terms during negotiations.
Allow your legal team to scale
Historically, legal teams have taken a reactive stance to address problems in the contract process instead of a proactive one, entering the picture after a problem has been identified. This hinders an organization’s ability to scale, notes Dan Linna, Jr., senior lecturer, and director of law and technology initiatives at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and McCormick School of Engineering.
“Through innovation and transformation, we really have an opportunity to shift to a prevention mindset,” says Linna, Jr. “We need to think about how we can design systems and processes to identify and prevent problems early when the cost of addressing them is lower.”
A potential solution lies in automation and data. By leveraging automation, legal can build processes that provide employees in other departments access to legal guidance, as well as self-service options like pre-approved terms and clauses. These new systems and processes are not only more efficient, freeing up time and supporting growth, but they also mitigate risk. Pre-approved terms and contract workflows, for instance, help catch non-standard terms, reducing risk exposure. Meanwhile, analytics can help identify and predict outcomes, empowering legal teams to avoid undesirable downstream consequences to poorly written contracts or unclear obligations.
Unlock more and better data
With a digitized contract management system, legal ops can gather useful information to improve legal processes. Features like centralized storage, automation, and analytics all allow for greater insight and provide legal ops with critical data points, including contract volume, time to signature, and context on where escalations occurred.
Document generation forms, which allow your sales team to stay within Salesforce when generating agreements and other sales documents, are another key tool for gathering data. By looking at document generation templates, legal ops can gather metadata to better support their colleagues, advises Jonathan Johnson-Swagel, senior legal and business operations manager at Uber.
“When groups think intelligently, carefully, and preventatively to identify that metadata at the outset of designing the CLM product and those document generation forms, they end up with a treasure trove of valuable data,” says Johnson-Swagel. “This data can be visualized and tailored to the audience to help them identify and understand trends, highlight risks, and drive business decisions at the management level.”
Kumar adds that document generation forms also provide insight into how often people in the organization use templates. If usage is low, legal operations teams can make adjustments to better meet their needs. Ultimately, better data allows for better decision-making, from financial decisions to hiring.
For Sibert, having technology that provides structured information at scale removes the guesswork from establishing and achieving goals. Rather than answer complex questions about the use case or the business based on best practices or estimates, he can now answer them based on actual information.
“I used to have to explain to people, yes, there’s this thing called AI and it can apply to contracts,” he says. “Now we’ve moved so far past that. People are all bought in on the idea…But the key is having people and organizations think about what they want to attempt to solve for and how to get there.”
Legal ops as drivers of contract transformation
Legal ops teams are well-positioned to help their organizations design and meet goals around digital transformation of contract processes. For one, because the contracting process touches so many disciplines, legal ops works with multiple departments, making them qualified to lead and facilitate cross-organizational change.
Legal ops teams are also practiced at building relationships across the organization and understanding stakeholder needs—essential skills for launching a digital transformation initiative. Kumar suggests legal ops teams consult stakeholders throughout the process to avoid delivering a solution that doesn’t meet end users’ needs.
“As you look for types of transformational activities or process improvements, look at your end-user…and bring them along in the journey,” Kumar says. “You need to understand what their pain points are and what you’re trying to solve for.”
Another strength of legal ops teams is that they’re well-versed in tech evaluation and process improvement, both of which are important for digitizing contract management. They understand the value of an integrated platform, from centralized systems to integrating with other enterprise solutions.
Contracts impact stakeholders across the organization, from legal to sales to finance. Panel members agreed that it’s important to take initiative and not to wait for a business-critical event like a missing contract to start thinking about this technology.
“Everybody should own [this] and be at the table,” says Johnson-Swagel. “CLM is sort of the watering hole where all of the animals of the savanna come together to drink. It’s a peaceful place where we all make business efficiencies and magic happen together in the kingdom.”
To hear more about how and why legal ops leaders are transforming the contract process at their own organizations, watch the full webinar here.
Hiring and retention issues continue to challenge managers in the legal field. Key personnel have been quitting their jobs voluntarily, and in record numbers since the spring of 2021.
Many employees remain confident about their prospects in the current hiring market, which means that hiring managers must continue to be on the lookout for the possibility of their top performers leaving. So, what can employers do to reduce attrition? Managers must be aware of the latest trends in compensation to better address job candidates’ salary expectations and professional concerns, such as wellness benefits and workplace culture. Free resources like the 2023 Robert Half Salary Guide can be helpful tools that offer the latest employment insights.
Here are some important hiring trends that managers in the legal field need to know.
Legal specialists seeing sizable salary increases
The need for specialized expertise is driving hiring in the legal field but nearly 9 in 10 managers (88%) are challenged to find skilled talent. To navigate the competitive candidate market and open new verticals or specialty areas, law firms are hiring associates from adjacent practice areas and corporate legal departments.
On the flip side, corporate legal departments also are expanding internal teams. Many are hiring corporate counsel, paralegals, contract managers, and other specialists to support rising workloads. Many candidates for these roles are seeing sizable pay increases. In addition, corporate legal departments are providing current staff with raises to compete with law firms that try to recruit their employees.
In-demand practice areas include litigation, healthcare and labor and employment, among others. Top candidates for midlevel corporate counsel, paralegal, contract manager and litigation support/eDiscovery director roles are seeing sizable increases in compensation.
Here are several examples of average starting salaries at the national level from Robert Half’s 2023 Salary Guide, which contains salary ranges for nearly 50 positions in the legal field.
The salaries are listed by percentile: 50th percentile for candidates with average experience and most of the necessary skills; and 75th percentile for candidates with above-average experience and all the needed skills. Bonuses, benefits and other forms of compensation as well as practice area expertise, special skills and certifications are reflected in the salary ranges and should be taken into account separately.
When weighing a raise, consider both an employee’s value to the firm and the costs of replacing them. To help benchmark compensation packages, the Salary Guide offers average starting salaries for numerous roles in the legal field. Go to the “Find your local salaries” section of the guide and select the city nearest to you to get local salaries, which reflect regional living costs, talent availability and other factors. Some examples of local starting salaries in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., are below:
Title
50th percentile (San Francisco; 35% higher than the national average)
50th percentile (Washington, D.C.; 33% higher than the national average)
Location flexibility can assist recruitment and retention
Over the past couple of years, high attrition rates have left many teams stretched thin, facing inflated workloads. Many employees are experiencing burnout and companies are reporting increased turnover rates.
Employers in the legal field can’t eliminate turnover, nor should they desire to do so because every business benefits from an occasional infusion of new talent. But a consistent exodus of professionals with in-demand skills and experience is unhealthy, particularly when these top performers are difficult to replace in the current, candidate-driven market. Flexible work arrangements that support employees in maintaining their work-life balance can be the cornerstone of a successful hiring and retention strategy. Contract managers, corporate counsel and litigation support/eDiscovery specialists are among the legal roles that are expected to remain remote long-term.
Contract talent is changing the game
Contract employees with strong legal backgrounds, who can jump right in and be added to or removed from teams based on changing needs, are being used by more and more companies and law firms.
This approach not only gives law firms and companies more financial flexibility and the ability to diversify their legal services, it also can boost the morale and motivation of permanent staff, who may take on new projects without being concerned or overwhelmed as their workloads increase. That might be one of the reasons 44% of hiring managers plan to increase their reliance on contract professionals in the upcoming year.
Employees’ expectations have changed
Since the start of the pandemic, employees’ expectations have changed and the demand for flexibility is here to stay. Our research reveals that 46% of legal hiring managers have had a strong candidate turn down a job that doesn’t offer remote work options. Law firms and companies that are offering more flexibility and remote or hybrid roles are attracting higher numbers of skilled applicants, and these businesses are also retaining key employees.
Employees also want a clear career path within their company. Offering training (upskilling and reskilling) can help keep them engaged while addressing skills gaps and strengthening teams.
Perks and benefits in demand
More than 4 in 10 legal hiring managers (44%) surveyed for our research said inflated workloads and burnout are the primary reasons for their retention struggles. And although money still talks, work-life balance is an important part of the conversation.
When given at least some control over their work arrangements, employees frequently increase their productivity and reduce their stress levels. Flexible schedules, remote work options and condensed work weeks are some of the perks and advantages that are most in demand since they directly support work-life balance.
Employees also are looking to enhance their health and wellbeing, and these benefits go beyond just health insurance and subsidized gym memberships. Fitness, stress reduction, nutrition, mental health, increased vacation time, mindfulness and meditation classes, and financial wellness and retirement planning are a few issues and perks that employees are interested in.
Make professional developmenta priority
If legal professionals feel their careers are stagnating, they will make the rational decision to move elsewhere. To increase employee retention, launch professional development initiatives, make investments in their training, and assist them in identifying a career path.
Offer training in skills that are in demand in the current business environment. Upskilling in litigation software, online document management, and e-filing systems, for instance, will be welcomed by support personnel, while attorneys will value continuing legal education (CLE) that helps to expand their practice area knowledge.
Reward and recognize achievements
Don’t forget about additional compensation or benefits. Signing, year-end and performance-related bonuses can make employees feel appreciated. Expanding the availability of popular perks or adding new offerings also can help to move the needle.
And keep in mind that showing your appreciation for a job well done and explaining to your legal team how their efforts contribute to the overall success of your law firm or company can go a long way toward improving employee job satisfaction. It might also be a thoughtful gesture to give a token of appreciation, such as a gift card to a favorite shop, restaurant or meal delivery service.
Reassess succession plans
While no law firm or legal department wants to lose senior leaders, a strong succession plan can help to mitigate the damage. Here are some tips to help identify and prepare emerging leaders to succeed:
Expand your talent pool — Create a group of talented lawyers and managers who could one day take on leadership responsibilities rather than relying on a single leader. A group with leadership and law practice management skills will always be valuable, even if not everyone in it makes it to the top.
Make advancement easier — Top prospects for leadership roles in the future are eager to advance. With these high achievers, time is of the essence because if they don’t have a clear career development plan, they’ll probably leave. Taking away any barriers that can hinder their development will help facilitate their growth. Where necessary, change their usual schedule to provide them time to manage a firm project or work pro bono for a deserving cause or nonprofit. Their ambition for more senior responsibilities may be piqued by the increased difficulty and change from routine. Inform them frequently of their progress and move them up the in-house ladder as rapidly as you can. If these employees invest their time in training but receive no results, they may become frustrated and take a legal job elsewhere.
Provide mentoring — While free CLE and attendance at legal conferences are important benefits, nothing compares to the guidance and expertise of a master mentor. When veteran leaders take the time and effort to share their accumulated knowledge with the next generation, the organization moves one step closer to a smooth transition.
Employers in the legal field that offer work that is both remunerative and flexible stand to gain a competitive edge in these uncertain times. Employee attrition is lower when workers feel appreciated, encouraged, adequately compensated, and given opportunities to grow.
For more strategies to recruit, engage and retain legal professionals, listen to our podcast.
Jamy J. Sullivan is executive director of the legal practice at Robert Half, the world’s first and largest specialized talent solutions firm. Robert Half offers contract and permanent placement solutions, and is the parent company of Protiviti®, a global consulting firm. Visit RobertHalf.com.
* Data referenced is based on online surveys developed by Robert Half and conducted by independent research firms. Respondents included executives, senior managers and employees from small (20-249 employees), medium (250-499 employees) and large (500-plus employees) private, publicly listed and public sector organizations across the United States.
As part of your organization’s legal contracting team, contract details are your domain. During the drafting process you might include every possible clause and rider to cover all the eventualities that might be encountered throughout a business relationship. These lengthy blocks of text can be critical to the success of a contract and anticipating potential risk, but they can also be difficult to wade through to locate specific terms and language. And that’s assuming you’ve found the correct version of the contract in the first place.
Contract search and analysis, powered by AI, reduces the manual tedium—along with the enormous number of hours and expense—required to find and comb through contractual agreements to pull out relevant language on demand.
As a global driver in contracting technology, DocuSign conducted a survey of 1,300 contracting professionals around the world. The results of this survey reveal how legal teams in today’s contracting ecosystem locate agreements, identify terms, and use analysis to enhance business value. The results show: there are compelling benefits to automating contract search and leveraging AI analysis.
Read on for the insightful findings.
1. 68 percent of contract professionals search for completed contracts at least once a week
Imagine having to do the same search tasks week after week, all year long – sound familiar? That’s the case for more than two-thirds of contract professionals. Now what if the volume of your contracts is so extensive that the search for completed contracts is a time-consuming daily task? That’s the impasse confronting 23 percent of respondents.
Why is there so much contract searching going on? Respondents indicate they’re:
Looking for contracts in anticipation of an upcoming renewal (61%)
Using completed contracts as a basis for drafting new contracts (55%)
Identifying deviations from terms and conditions (49%)
Reviewing contractual obligations (45%)
Along with looking at overall contracts, respondents also note they’re looking for specific information, such as:
Payment terms and financial obligations (56%)
Renewal terms (55%)
Details of service level agreements (48%)
Legal and regulatory requirements (29%)
Being able to locate completed contracts quickly enhances business performance. It’s a simple equation: when you spend less time finding and sorting through your contracts, you free up time for fulfilling complex obligations and ensuring compliance. AI analytics and search tools offer the power to search efficiently and effectively for contracts and language within them so that your teams can devote more time to strategic pursuits that protect the company and improve the bottom line.
2. Finding specific language in a contract takes more than two hours, on average
According to our survey, the majority of contract professionals spend between one and six hours tracking obligations in a contract over the course of its lifetime. One in four spend more than a full workday in total. Surely there are more productive ways of spending that time.
Typically, retrieving contracts breaks down into two stages:
Locating a contract (45 minutes)
Finding the relevant section or language (84 minutes)
In total, that’s more than two hours spent just locating contracts and language, not even analyzing or applying the information. And that’s only for a single contract—if you consider on average companies generate over 500 contracts per month, or over 6,000 per year, the time cost is tremendous.
What’s more, despite these lengthy searches, in some cases, teams can’t find the right contract. 46 percent of the organizations we surveyed are sometimes unable to locate contracts, and less than half reported feeling very confident that the document they found was the most up-to-date version.
As a result, even with all the hours spent looking for contracts and pulling out language, it’s not always clear that teams manage to identify the final—and therefore actionable—version. By offering customizable, robust search options, AI-assisted tools help legal teams avoid this trap.
3. 65 percent of teams aren’t using integrated tools to manage agreements
Our survey shows why many companies spend so much time on contract retrieval: they’re still using siloed systems which slow them down. The average team uses three or more separate tools to perform analysis, and a majority aren’t using specialized technology: 65 percent still use spreadsheets and email to manage contracts.
The result is lost time. From an efficiency and accuracy standpoint, it’s better to have everything you need to manage agreements in one place, with integrated systems so you eliminate the need to switch between platforms or cut and paste information. Much of the time spent locating contracts and searching for specific language can be reduced by managing these processes from one system.
The absence of automated search and analysis capabilities has deleterious effects on the overall contracting process. According to our survey, the majority of problems are related to the inability to efficiently analyze contracts, which can result in missed payments, missed deadlines and missed opportunities. A more efficient system, making use of integrated technology and advanced AI, helps companies prevent misses caused by disparate workflows.
4. Around half of respondents expect AI to reduce human error and minimize risk in contract management.
Many companies and their legal teams are beginning to heed the call of new contract technology. They’re becoming aware of what AI-assisted tools can do to help their contract management lifecycle: 54 percent of survey respondents say they’ve heard of smart contracts, 37 percent of intelligent search and 35 percent of language flagging during negotiation. And around a third of respondents recognize the power of AI-powered process shortcuts like:
Automatic data extraction
Clause-level text recommendations
Predictive post-execution analytics
By harnessing the power of technology, legal teams can be part of their companies’ efforts to drive efficiency. The rewards for automation are substantial. 53 percent of respondents expect AI to support human decision making and reduce error in the contract management process and 48 percent expect AI to minimize risk.
The financial benefits of a digitized contract process
According to a Forrester study, a composite company saw a 356 percent return on investment in contract lifecycle management technology over the course of three years. The study found that, generally, a robust contract analysis process can reduce the costs associated with hiring outside counsel to analyze documents, as well as errors in agreements and the risk of exposure.
DocuSign helps your legal teams search smarter and analyze better
DocuSign is an innovator in AI-powered contract technology. DocuSign CLM leverages AI to uncover insights from existing contracts and the negotiation process. Beyond intelligent contract analysis, we’re continually developing new AI tools to help your team through every step of managing an agreement.
As we continue to innovate, our priority is always ensuring that our customers have the tools they need to get work done as efficiently and smartly as possible.
If your company has spent years trying to streamline your contracting process, it’s easy to get excited hearing about the ease of implementation or the ability to achieve ROI quickly via a contract lifecycle management (CLM) tool. But once your organization has selected a CLM tool, you might be thinking: how do we get started? How do we turn these promises into reality during implementation?
It’s 100% possible for your organization to implement a CLM efficiently, effectively and with demonstrable go-live success. Here are the top 10 tips for an agile implementation of contract lifecycle management from DocuSign and Spaulding Ridge, a DocuSign platinum partner:
Tips to follow before you kick off a CLM project:
Document your existing process. Whether it’s on the back of a napkin or a color coded swimlane diagram, starting with a visualization of your existing contract process helps your team understand the starting point for developing a process within CLM. Even if this entire process ends up getting scrapped, starting from the same point helps your team get on the same page.
Know your stakeholders. If your process is the “what”, your participants in the contract process are the all-important “who” (legal, for instance). If you hope to design a better process within your CLM system, you’ll need not only their input, but their buy-in.
Designate an executive single point of contact (SPOC) for build decisions. What happens when there’s a disagreement on a path forward between your legal and sales teams? To streamline the process, you’ll need someone to break ties and stalemates to avoid delays. Delegate an involved leader to be the final vote should these situations come up.
Tips to follow before you begin the CLM build:
Focus on the big steps before diving into details. If your team has been working through a manual process for years (or decades), seeing the advanced capabilities of CLM solutions can be eye opening. But a good process is more important than any bell or whistle a system offers. Define your MVP and make sure you align on the larger process steps before diving into nuanced functionalities.
Get your subject matter experts (SMEs) engaged. During design workshops, it’s extremely important for the core project team to stay involved. The core team should prioritize engaging cross-functional SMEs internally to ensure that the process design is not only streamlined, but all-inclusive of necessary participants. A bonus of this engagement–these SMEs will be more equipped to become future power users and evangelists of the system within their unique department or function.
Formalize your sign-off process. Once you’ve completed your design, put a bow on it via a formalized sign-off. This act may seem symbolic, but it’s a way to ensure your team is fully engaged and bought in. A clearly defined scope of work that is agreed upon across your team, the vendor and the implementation partner is critical to avoid an untimely “re-designs” in the middle of the build, or worse, after the build has been fully completed.
Tips to follow during CLM implementation:
Get trained: Classroom Style. If your CLM solution has formalized training offerings, the best time to take these courses is during the build. That way, as your team completes the technical components of the build, you’ll have your training at the top of your mind and be well prepared for the subsequent testing and go-live.
Get trained: Hands-On Learning. Whether your team is utilizing a solution implementation consultant or not, hands-on learning during the build is a great call. Ask to take some time during the technical portion of the build to facilitate knowledge transfer. That way, you’ll be able to pair your knowledge of the concepts of the system with the real-world example that your organization will be using for years to come.
Tip for user acceptance testing:
Try to break everything. If you’ve followed the tips up until now, you’ll have a good understanding of your process, your people, the CLM tool and your specific CLM configuration. This is where it all comes together: bring a cross-functional team together to test all of the functionality of your configured system. If your team wants to do UAT right, don’t just test the standard path – test the nuances, exceptions, and one-offs. The best CLM systems have been fortified by a robust UAT with engaged participants.
Tip for CLM go-live:
Advocates = Adoption. Congrats – your team has made it to go-live in record time! Now how do you get your team to start using the system right away? If you’ve engaged your cross-functional teams throughout the process, utilize them as departmental trainers and system advocates. Change management is crucial to an efficient start on CLM. The more your team spreads the word and stays involved, the more likely your organization is to adopt usage of your new CLM tool.
The more you invest upfront in these best practices ahead of time and throughout your CLM implementation, the more long-term success you’ll have. The most successful CLM implementations include an experienced system integrator partner and a dedicated vendor account team including customer success managers who’ve helped hundreds of customers navigate these projects successfully.
While these 10 tips can be utilized for any contract management solution, selecting the correct tool increases the likelihood that you’ll have an efficient and effective start with contract lifecycle management. Learn more about how DocuSign CLM helps automate manual contract tasks, streamline workflows, and reduce errors and risk in your contract process.
This blog was contributed by DocuSign and Spaulding Ridge, a DocuSign platinum partner.
2,500. That was roughly the number of people who attended the 2022 Global Conference in May. That’s a lot of people to be in a space at one time. It might also be the first time many people were at a public gathering this large since COVID began in 2020. All of that to say, there was probably a lot of different emotions running through attendees. For me, it was excitement.
Here I was, a law student at a global conference, in one of the newest and most innovative spaces surrounded by thousands of professionals immersed in legal operations and legal technology. I entered day one of the conference hardly knowing what legal operations was, how it actually operates in different size companies, and what the day-to-day looks like of a professional in this field. All I knew was that I was interested in the industry, felt that I had the skills and experience to join these professionals after graduation, and knew that I needed key takeaways to bring to my summer internship program in legal operations to share with the team.
Fast forward several days and I learned that these professionals are not alone in what they do. From managing a team of one, to five, to fifty, these professionals were able to connect with others and understand that they were also encountering the same challenges. What seemed to be the best part, though, was that they heard from professionals who scaled and grew an entire department. They heard what worked, what didn’t work, and what they’re doing now to drive change and improve their companies.
I left the conference inspired and in awe. The legal operations professionals I met are carving a path. They’re carving a path for themselves and their company in an industry that is moving full-speed ahead. This year’s conference was motivating, encouraging, and informational. As a law student, I left with an action plan of skills I can work on developing while I’m still in school, a vast network of leaders making change, and insight into how different sized legal operations departments operate.
Author: Theresa DiCenzo, Campbell Law School and 2022 CLOC Scholarship Recipient
TIM worked with Villa-Visual Law Studio to redesign legal communications through process simplification by restructuring contracts and documents so they would be more easily understood by users. The primary outcome achieved was visual and digital transformation of legal documents resulting in reduction of lawsuits.
