Investing in a mentoring relationship can have a powerful career impact, but is it worth the time and effort? After all, mentoring is time consuming, mentees can resist advice, and even worse, some who consider themselves mentors do not have a full appreciation of what it takes to be a successful mentor. But if done well, with someone who is both skilled and really cares about being a mentor, the answer is it is absolutely worth the time and effort!   

While the primary goal of the relationship is career development of the mentee, mentoring goes beyond simply offering career advice. It is not a one-time or short-term fix. Mentoring is an investment in an ongoing relationship designed to guide, support, and expand an individual’s growth. 

Mentoring fuels professional goals, engaging regular and periodic “face time,” whether virtual or in-person, to delve deeper into the mentee’s aspirations. This ongoing dialogue allows the mentor to address specific challenges and opportunities, while adapting to changes in roles and professional environments. 

The value for the mentee is in gaining guidance, insights, and encouragement from an experienced leader who they admire as their career progresses. The value for the mentor is in the satisfaction of helping someone else grow, learn, and succeed while further solidifying their leadership skills. 

Guidelines for Getting Started  

When commencing a mentoring relationship, first establish two critical ground rules:  

1. A mentor should never assume the role of a supervisor. Performance evaluations hinder mentoring dialogue. Sessions are not something done once a quarter over lunch or video with an assigned mentee. 

2. The mentor and mentee should have their motivations aligned. They must have a clear understanding of goals and desired outcomes: is the mentee hesitant to take on a new project, considering a different career path, trying to get promoted?  It is imperative that the mentor fosters a safe space to brainstorm, identify gaps in skills, and explore potential solutions and paths forward. 

Attributes of a Successful Mentor  

A great mentor is motivated to cultivate a relationship that empowers the mentee to grow and achieve.   

Mentors focus on leveraging strengths with genuine enthusiasm in sharing knowledge and expertise.  A mentor who is reluctantly forced into the role as a job responsibility and who lacks this desire to help others almost always does a poor job. 

Great mentors celebrate the wins and consider lessons learned when providing constructive feedback and encouragement when setbacks or disappointments occur, creating a safe space along the way. Most people consider feedback a valuable gift, but it needs to be delivered constructively and with care. 

Adapting one’s style shows respect for the mentee’s individuality and sets the stage for a successful and rewarding relationship. Mentoring is never a one-size-fits-all approach. Although mentoring is a collaborative effort, it is incumbent on the mentor to take responsibility for ensuring goal alignment.  

Active listening and communicating for understanding are key. Trust and openness will be established in the relationship when the mentee feels listened to and understood. A mentor guides but does not direct.    

The mentor should stay alert to external influences which can impact the mentee’s trajectory. In today’s competitive landscape, a career journey can detour as unanticipated complexities increase. Focus on situational changes including leadership transitions, re-organization, and the creeping impact of workplace politics. 

Elements of a Successful Mentoring Program 

Mentoring fosters invaluable guidance and support.  There are several essential principles to consider that will cultivate an impactful relationship:   

1. Mentors should be selected by the mentee, and never assigned. 

2. Mentoring is collaborative and requires equal investment between the mentor and mentee.  Both should always be well prepared, be open, and commit to follow-through. 

3. A great mentor will help the mentee navigate company politics. Whether or not one agrees with certain company initiatives, this is an essential career skill. 

4. Relationships that embrace Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging also tend to be successful for the mentee and the mentor and can have a positive impact on company culture. Diversity can be cross generational, ethnic, gender, demographic and other differences or preferences which embody inclusivity.    

5. Mentoring relationships developed outside one’s department or company can be very valuable. Mentees will benefit from different points of view that offer fresh perspectives. 

6. Building and expanding one’s network also has far reaching impact. The mentee will be guided to other networks of professional contacts throughout the industry, both internal and external to the company. Mentees should be encouraged to use LinkedIn to connect with potential mentors and expand professional networks. 

Importance of Self Awareness 

Self-awareness is equally important for both the mentor and mentee. To cultivate self-awareness, the mentor and mentee must embrace open communications and vulnerability. Being open, honest, and direct in discussions is key. This fosters trust and allows for a deeper understanding of each other’s perspectives. 

It is essential to determine the self-awareness of the mentee. Those who are keenly self-aware own their strengths and weaknesses, seek others’ perspectives, and embrace constructive feedback. They are adaptable, accountable and have comfortable, realistic self-confidence.  Those who trend low in self-awareness are often defensive, assign blame, challenge feedback, and tend to be inflexible. 

Self-awareness is crucial for navigating one’s career path effectively. This provides an open and clear path to successful mentoring which will enable tangible results. When individuals are self-aware and are clear on their values, they are better equipped to navigate career goals.   

Interestingly, keen self-awareness helps boost one’s self-confidence. This leads to comfortable openness in refining one’s skill set. 

Reverse Mentoring 

Consider reverse mentoring, where the relationship is flipped for a specific skill. The mentee with more experience in a selected area guides the more senior employee, often a leader.  Reverse mentoring has been around for decades and can be very valuable. Mentors who set aside egos will be welcoming of reverse mentoring and be that much more successful.   

Not surprisingly, reverse mentoring often centers around technology, use of social media and other digital platforms including Gen AI.   Reverse mentoring can provide the mentor with deep insights into company/department culture from an avenue they may not directly access regularly.  Perspectives represented from the “front lines” can be particularly insightful in supplementing the leadership team points of view.  Reverse mentoring further fosters trust in the mentor/mentee relationship and enhances leadership skills for the mentee.  And it’s fun.   

Why Do Mentoring Relationships Fail? 

Keep in mind factors that can lead to a failed mentoring relationship, including the lack of alignment and understanding of goals. Without clear objectives, the relationship will struggle. 

Be sure that the mentee is fully comfortable with and confident in the mentor’s approach. It is better to cancel the program and re-direct to help the mentee find the right mentor early on. If one of you does not feel the relationship is a good fit, it will not work and should be terminated. 

A mentor who is motivated by money or self-interest, (e.g., “checking a box”) in their leadership track will fail. And remember, the mentor’s primary role is to develop, not supervise. Performance evaluation can hinder progress. 

A mentor who embodies these qualities can become a powerful force in the mentee’s life, helping them achieve their full potential. With the investment of time and ownership in a well-structured mentoring partnership, both mentors and mentees will reap significant rewards throughout their careers.  Is mentoring worth the time and effort?  Absolutely!

About the author

 

Juanita Luna recently retired as Director of Legal Operations, Administration and Claims at Pacific Gas & Electric Company.   She continues active in the Legal Ops community, speaking frequently at industry conferences.  Juanita is a very active and passionate mentor to several mentees around the country. 

The advantages of digitization for law firms

The benefit of digital over analog isn’t always a given. Your legal team may find they generate their best ideas working on paper — similar to how some photographers still prefer film.

Nevertheless, the overall advantages of switching to digital systems in the legal industry are significant and undeniable. They include:

• Increased productivity — By streamlining processes using digital tools, legal professionals can complete tasks more efficiently and with fewer resources. Increased efficiency allows lawyers to focus on higher-value tasks, boosting their overall productivity. Plus, the cost savings associated with reduced overhead expenses can be passed on to clients or reinvested into the firm to fuel further growth and innovation.
• Enhanced client service — Your clients are digitizing too — often faster than the average law firm — and have come to expect the cost savings and convenience technology creates. Through digitization, you can provide clients easy access to documents, case updates and billing information. And by collecting and analyzing data about your clients, you can offer customized solutions that meet their unique needs and preferences.
• Competitive advantage — Firms that harness the power of technology can offer innovative services, respond more quickly to market changes and differentiate themselves from competitors who are slow to adopt digital solutions. By staying at the forefront of legal tech, your firm will be better positioned to attract and retain clients who value speed, convenience and innovation.
• Improved work-life balance — Legal professionals can use tools like video conferencing and cloud-based document storage to stay connected with colleagues and clients while working remotely. This offers opportunities to improve work-life balance and as a result, contribute to increased job satisfaction, stress reduction and overall improved well-being for your employees.

6 tips for hiring tech-savvy legal professionals

To find talent with expertise in areas like data analytics, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, follow these six tips:

1. Broaden your search. When hiring, expand your talent pool to include candidates with experience in technology, data science or business. These professionals can bring fresh perspectives and valuable skills to your firm.
2. Update your job descriptions. Clearly outline the technical competencies required for each role, including any software, platforms and tools that candidates should be familiar with. Emphasizing technical skills can help set realistic expectations for potential hires and encourage applicants who are passionate about integrating technology into their legal practice.
3. Offer targeted perks and benefits. To attract and retain tech-savvy talent, provide benefits that cater to their unique needs, such as flexible working arrangements, professional development opportunities and access to cutting-edge technology.
4. Invest in upskilling and training initiatives. Some of the talent you need may already be on the payroll. Encourage current staff to develop their technical skills through training programs, workshops and certifications like Certified E-Discovery Specialist (CEDS) and LTC4 Core Competency. Partner with law schools and other educational institutions to develop specialized courses and programs for your employees tailored to the evolving needs of the legal industry. This focus on upskilling not only helps your firm stay current with technological advancements but also promotes employee satisfaction and loyalty.
5. Implement reverse mentorship programs. Pair tech-savvy junior team members with experienced legal professionals who may be less familiar with digital tools and trends. This encourages knowledge exchange, fosters a collaborative environment and helps bridge the generational gap in technology adoption.
6. Partner with a staffing firm. Collaborating with a talent solutions specialist like Robert Half gives you access to a diverse pool of professionals — contract/temporary or permanent — with the necessary blend of legal and technical experience.

Bottom line: The digitization of the legal profession is a permanent shift you and your firm must embrace to stay competitive and meet the evolving needs of your clients. By recognizing the need for change and investing in technology, talent and training, you’ll be ready for long-term success in an increasingly digitized world.

This article originally appeared on Robert Half’s blog.

Jamy Sullivan is executive director of the legal practice at Robert Half, a premier provider of talent and consulting solutions for a wide range of initiatives in the legal field, including compliance, contract management, data privacy, litigation support and more. Visit RobertHalf.com.

If you ask your legal team what one of their biggest challenges is, the phrase “contract management” will undoubtedly come up. Improving the contract management process, increasing efficiency and finding the right legal tech stack is a top priority for legal operation teams year after year. Yet, many organizations still struggle with years of disorganized contracts and outdated processes. In many cases, contracts live in multiple locations and it’s anyone’s guess as to which one is the most recent version.

As a legal ops professional, “contract chaos” may not directly impact your day-to-day, but it’s a huge barrier to your legal team’s productivity. It costs the company money, whether from spending time inefficiently or paying for unnecessary outsourced legal hours. And it creates risks: the risk of no centralized visibility to contract terms and requests, the risk of missed opportunities to accelerate deals or remove unfavorable terms at renewal – just to name a few.

Even if everyone is resigned to using the current system, regardless of these costs and risks, legal operations should never be satisfied to let bad processes go unquestioned.

Generative AI can be the “assistant” your legal team needs

Another blog about generative AI? Before you tune out, we’re not here to tell you that AI is going to replace your legal team.

The truth is, generative AI has huge potential to transform the way legal teams work, but not because it’ll do real, thoughtful, legal work for them. Instead, generative AI will be the assistant your lawyers always wished they had. A tool that can effortlessly read and summarize large document sets in seconds, or instantly pinpoint parts of a contract that aren’t in line with your company’s playbook. Amplifying each legal team’s capabilities by removing admin work is where generative AI really shines.

While we can’t cover everything in one short article, we’ll touch on three of the ways incorporating generative AI into your contract management process can solve many of the traditional CLM shortfalls.

The Challenges of Traditional CLM

Even with a CLM in place, managing contracts can still be a complex and time-consuming endeavor. Traditional CLMs, even when they incorporate some degree of AI, often suffer from these common limitations:

• Without a central (and clean) repository, the system is trying to pull contract data from fragmented sources, or missing some sources entirely.
• The system isn’t able to effectively analyze contract data in real-time, as each new contract is added.
• The system’s functionality is based on rules, which even with the help of AI, fails to capture the full meaning that lives within contracts.
• Rigid templates and workflows can’t possibly work for the large variety of contracts most organizations deal with.
• The system doesn’t have the ability to understand relationships and hierarchies between different contracts within the same document family, nor does it know how to organize these document families on its own.
• The system focuses on individual documents and not the entire library of contracts or the relationship between different documents.

As you might guess, traditional CLMs with these limitations might be a step in the right direction but they’re hardly a full solution to your legal team’s needs. Moreover, any tasks performed by, or information gleaned from, this type of system still needs a thorough review by a highly trained (and highly paid) legal professional. In some cases, investing in a traditional CLM can create more work than it relieves, which doesn’t delight your legal team or anyone else around the company who feels the ripple effect of difficult contract management.

Generative AI is changing the game

Enter generative AI. And forget, for a moment, the publicly available large language models (LLMs) like Google’s Bard or Microsoft’s Bing, which are impressive but not platforms you should trust with the entirety of your company’s contract data.

Instead, we’re talking about generative AI that exists within your CLM platform and only draws from the contracts and documents you provide it. In this way, the AI lives inside a closed environment, known in technical terms as a sandbox.

How is generative AI different?   

Generative AI has the potential to provide unprecedented levels of accuracy and speed for anyone looking to unlock the data within hundreds or thousands of documents. With the right data set and prompts, generative AI can perform a wide variety of detailed contract analyzes that traditional approaches cannot.

Unlike traditional methods, generative AI takes a more flexible approach that centers around learning and simulating human-like language capabilities. This means the models don’t need strict templates and standardized workflows, but rather acquire language skills in an unstructured manner, similar to humans. This revolutionary ability allows legal teams to automate more aspects of their document review process than ever before, all without having to manually create or update templates.

Generative AI can also provide invaluable insights into the risk factors that might otherwise be hidden deep within contracts. It does this by quickly summarizing documents, identifying discrepancies, and analyzing risks from a variety of angles.

By leveraging this technology for your legal team’s needs you can reduce costs while improving accuracy and efficiency across multiple areas of your business. And here’s how!

3 ways generative AI empowers legal teams

All of this sounds great, but you want to know how generative AI will make a concrete difference in your legal team, sales team, procurement team, or others’ processes. Here are just three of the ways generative AI + CLM, when done correctly, can reduce the burden on your legal team and empower them to serve the entire business better.

1. Quickly summarize contracts 

Generative AI can be used to quickly review large numbers of documents and pull out key terms, themes, changes over time, etc. This dramatically reduces the time a highly-trained human needs to spend doing the same. With the right prompt, “Summarize the changes across the master and all amendments,” for example, and the right data set, generative AI can provide an accurate answer that would have taken a person hours of reading to obtain.

2. Instantly analyze risk 

When provided with your compliance and playbook requirements (in plain English, no less!) generative AI can identify terms and conditions in your contracts that present risk or are entirely noncompliant. Having these risks pinpointed removes the most time-consuming step and allows your legal team to address the risks in order of priority.

3. Assist in contract authoring 

Sure, there are plenty of cases when you need an attorney to draft a custom portion of a contract. But there are many more instances when standard language will do the job, as long as it’s compliant with your best practices, industry standards, and your contract playbook. Generative AI can be used to speed up contract drafting by suggesting language based on past agreements and current business objectives. It can also detect discrepancies between existing contracts and your standards, and alert attorneys of potential risks that arise based on contract language.

Limitations of generative AI for legal teams

No discussion of generative AI for legal teams would be complete without touching on the limitations of this groundbreaking technology.

While it can provide a powerful tool for quickly reviewing and summarizing documents, identifying discrepancies, and analyzing risks, it’s also subject to the same biases as humans, particularly when trained on biased or incorrect information. Additionally, generative AI can suffer from “hallucinations” where it produces seemingly factual information that simply isn’t.

Most of the major pitfalls of using generative AI in the legal context can be mitigated by high quality, clean data on the input side and skilled prompt engineering, along with an expert human’s review, on the output side.

A new world of AI-powered contract management

These three capabilities are just scratching the surface of how generative AI can aid legal teams (and, as a result, the rest of the company) work faster, smarter, safer, and for less cost. For a deeper dive into the game-changing ways AI can power a new way of managing contracts, check out The Ultimate GenAI Playbook for Contract Management by Pramata.

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: 50^th percentile for candidates with average experience and most of the necessary skills; and 75^th 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:

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 development a 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.

One of the most frequent (and frustrating) charges for a legal department is to find work that can “create business value” across the broader organization. With a goal that nebulous in definition and scope,  it’s easy to see how initiatives to create value are difficult to get off the ground. Even projects that seem likely to provide clear benefits across multiple teams can be delayed or left unfunded without a direct line to track revenue impact. Legal operations teams are the ideal driver for these legal-led initiatives, as they are uniquely positioned to help define, align and track cross-functional value.

Overseeing the adoption of a digital contracting process and platform, is a legal-driven initiative that will provide significant company-wide benefits. But to make a compelling business case for a digital transformation of this scale, legal operations professionals need to draw a clear line between contracts, the data that can be tracked from them, and profitability. In some cases, legal operations will need to translate existing processes into dollars and cents so they can illustrate improvement. In others, they need to track new data points in order to illustrate financial impact.

In this post, we’ll highlight a few ways that a better agreement process can directly create business value and align to larger enterprise goals. It’s part of a bigger conversation about why legal teams (and legal operations in particular) should drive contract transformation. At the core of this discussion is a law department that is empowered with data about the way contracts are searched, created, negotiated, executed and managed throughout the entire organization. As you read through, consider the data your department currently has access to and the additional data you would need to collect to make your case and how you can easily digest and report on that data.

Cost reduction

An extremely straightforward way to increase business value is to find and eliminate unnecessary cost. Every dollar of eliminated waste is a dollar of business value. With a modern contract management platform that serves as a searchable repository for storing agreements in one place, it’s easier than ever for legal operations to give the business more visibility into obligations, unwanted auto-renewals, help consolidate duplicate contracts and flag rogue cost centers.

With robust search and analytics functions built into the repository, contracting teams can also pinpoint specific contract language that leads to penalties, litigation and disputes. By highlighting these problem areas, legal operations and contracting teams can make adjustments that minimize similar costs going forward, and can also lead to reduced outside counsel spend.

Data-based workflow decisions

Digital systems do far more than just create consolidated data about the content of contracts, they track data about and uplevel the contracting process itself. Now, central contracting teams can look at the agreement process from end to end and begin collecting data about contract turnaround time, error rate, volume by geography, hours spent servicing each line of business, etc. For key questions about how dollars are spent or saved in documenting the terms of business agreements, legal contracting teams can use the workflow data generated to find a metrics-based answer.

Integration of your CLM tool and processes with other critical business systems further amplify the value of data generated from an agreement platform. Linking data from other systems—customer or vendor management, payment, compliance, HR, etc.—helps legal understand their own workflows better and uncover areas for business partners where handoffs can be simplified.

Increased speed

Time is money. The faster and simpler you make it for your business to complete contracts, the faster you can achieve desired business objectives and the faster you can generate revenue from those activities. An easy way to increase speed is to replace manual handoffs with automation. Rather than relying on a contract creator to route an agreement to the correct internal approvers, a well-designed digital system can automatically send the document to the next responsible party and alert them to their tasks in the systems where they do their work.

Integration with other systems plays a vital role in increasing the speed of contracting as well. When a sales user can pull contract data and pre-approved clauses directly from their CRM and self-service clause library, legal teams can spend less time on correcting errors during the review process. When changes and alerts can be delivered directly through Slack, teams will spend less time searching email for the latest version of an agreement. And when this time savings are scaled to hundreds of contracts per month, it’s easy to see how deals get done more quickly, directly contributing to the bottom line.

Better forecasting

Earnings forecasts have a lot of financial ripple effects through an organization. Legal teams have an opportunity to create business value by contributing to these forecasts with high-confidence data on terms contained in both completed contracts and agreements currently under negotiation. With a clear understanding of the content of those agreements, dollar value and obligations therein legal teams can create accurate predictions of both revenues and costs related to contract fulfillment, leaving far less gray area in the overall forecast.

This is just one example of how a digital contracting platform can help legal operations teams align to the larger goals of the enterprise and set up metrics to track progress. Using real-time data about the company’s contracts, the legal team can create a powerful recommendation engine to help leadership respond to the current business conditions.

Employee resource efficiency

Using traditional methods of contract management, legal team members spend far too much time on repetitive tasks that don’t take advantage of their unique skills. A modern contracting system supported by AI can eliminate much of that busywork, by reducing hours spent searching for the correct contract language, enhancing reporting, decreasing immediacy biases, and making negotiation suggestions based on predetermined risk levels. In the same way that spell check and track changes have become a routine part of contract creation and revision, intelligent contracting analytics can become ubiquitous for legal teams that manage far-reaching contract ecosystems.

With redundant work significantly reduced, legal operations professionals can help create more effective legal teams that have the ability to focus on new projects or further develop their special skills. More effective use of internal resources could also mean less reliance on outside counsel, which is a significant cost savings, as discussed above.

To learn more about how legal teams can create business value with better contracting practices, meet with us at CLOC’s Global Institute in Las Vegas May 9-12! You can visit us at Booth 401 or attend our interactive workshop on “How Simple Can Contracting Get” at 10:30am on May 11th in Monet 3 & 4. 

In the meantime, please check out our quick guide to contract management best practices.

In recent years, environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives have become strategic imperatives for companies as they seek to build trust with employees, partners, and customers. ESG builds brand loyalty, gives a competitive advantage in the marketplace, and attracts and retains talent within an organization. A study by Unilever found that a third of all global consumers choose to buy from brands because of their ESG commitments. Accordingly, across enterprises, all departments are exploring how to best match their respective programs to support ESG initiatives. 

The legal department is often associated with enterprise-wide ESG discussions on account of the General Counsel’s role in providing advice and guidance regarding these efforts. However, beyond providing ESG legal and regulatory counsel to the enterprise, GCs must also consider how the legal department can adopt practices that align with these ESG goals. More and more GCs are turning to their Legal Department Operations practitioners (LDOs), who will play a critical role in operationalizing ESG initiatives within the Legal department. 

In a recent conversation I hosted with a diverse group of legal operations leaders, it was clear that LDOs are already putting a lot of thought into how the legal department can build programs to align themselves with these ESG initiatives. Here are just a few ideas that LDOs might consider deploying within their own departments that surfaced in that earlier conversation: 

Environmental 

While each industry’s operations carry different environmental impacts, every company (and legal department) would do well to consider how they can make their operations greener.  

Reducing waste and consumption are obvious first steps. Some LDOs have implemented some easy wins like policies that ban disposable coffee cups or issuing reusable water bottles to all legal department employees to reduce reliance on single use plastic bottles.  

Other departments are going paperless, which is especially impactful when you consider that approximately 1 billion trees worth of paper are thrown away each year in the United States. Accordingly, many LDOs are reviewing manual, paper-based processes and moving to digital contract management. When contracts are managed digitally, it means no more printing out 70-page contracts to do redlines or to gather wet signatures. It’s staggering how much paper can be saved thanks to a digital document workflow.  

In addition to investigating the impact of going paperless, LDOs are looking at the environmental impact of legal department travel. The pandemic has proven that many of the meetings we thought had to happen in person—like in-person negotiations of a contract–can in fact be done virtually. LDOs should consider whether they can continue some of these practices post-pandemic—not to prevent the spread of COVID, but to keep carbon out of the atmosphere.  

Finally, legal teams are looking beyond contract processes and looking at the substance within the contracts. As LDOs help build templates and make them accessible to the legal department, they might consider creating and deploying standard contract clauses and contract playbooks that address environmental sustainability. Making such clauses available is a unique way for legal departments to contribute to an enterprise’s environmental goals. 

Social 

The “S” in ESG asks companies to think holistically about all their stakeholders—employees, suppliers, customers, shareholders, and the communities that companies work in—and explore how the company might help close the opportunity gap that has historically existed in these populations.  

To be part of the solution, LDOs should consider the legal department’s hiring practices. Reversing historical bias in hiring within the legal department is one way an LDO can make a meaningful contribution to its organization’s social goals. The CLOC competency model identifies Training & Development as a core skill; LDOs can leverage this competency to create professional development opportunities around unconscious bias training for all members of the legal department. This review of hiring practices should extend to all roles in the legal department, from in-house counsel, allied legal professionals and members of the legal department operations team.  

Alignment with these social goals can also come from how legal teams hire outside counsel. Firm & Vendor Management (also a CLOC Core 12 competency) can provide guidance as the legal department engages and hires law firms with track records of diverse hiring and promotion.  

Governance 

Finally, LDOs can play a big role in ensuring the legal team and the company as a whole are operating legally and ethically.  

Top governance concerns for today’s enterprises include issues around bribery, money laundering, cyber-security, and data privacy. While GCs will play a central role in setting the company’s direction around these laws and regulations, LDOs can assist on this front by identifying technology available to the legal department to enable appropriate governance and compliance. 

For instance, LDOs can make sure that all governance policies are easily accessible in a single, shared location (like SharePoint) and simple to read and understand. Transparency and accessibility are key to good governance; accordingly, LDOs can champion the avoidance of legalese and search out opportunities to more clearly explain the rules—so people can follow them. 

LDOs can take a more ambitious step by identifying technology that can assist in an audit of third-party agreements to ensure partners are obliged to follow company guidance on questions of governance. Contract management software can assist in centralizing all contract data in a single location, and AI trained to detect obligation language can automate discovery to turn up gaps in compliance. With past contracts analyzed, LDOs can then turn their attention to future contracts by setting up rules to ensure all relevant regulatory clauses—from privacy to anti-corruption and beyond—are appropriately included in every executed contract. 

Conclusion 

Legal is a critical voice in the organization urging management to look beyond quarterly earnings to understand how a company’s behavior impacts its long-term viability and reputation. With the help of LDOs, legal departments can help operationalize these enterprise-wide ESG initiatives through new programs and technology. This is a golden opportunity for legal teams, and especially LDOs, to step up and lead like the world depends on it. 

The art of tailoring an approach that aligns to an organization’s unique needs 

As corporate law departments continue to look for ways to do more with less, the concept of shared services frequently enters into the equation. For most organizations, centers of excellence (COEs) represent a generally familiar approach. Historically, a “typical” COE model was often thought to rely upon lower-cost/administrative resources focused on lower-risk tasks that arise with frequency. And while this type of COE most certainly still exists, gone are the days where this one-size-fits-all approach to shared services is the only option on the table. This blog post will outline the considerations most heavily influencing the design of shared services models today, identify a few potential challenges (most of which can be proactively mitigated) and provide guidance on the next steps toward designing a (successful!) shared services model. 

In exploring how a COE might drive value in an organization, where should a corporate legal operations department start? 

There are many reasons to consider legal shared services: improving client service, reducing costs, standardizing processes, lowering legal costs or spend, supporting corporate strategy, eliminating redundant processes, or helping to introduce new technologies. So — where to start? 

1. Define  short- and long-term goals in collaboration with stakeholders for the shared services initiative 

Shared services centers appear to be underused, according to findings from a 2021 EY study in conjunction with the Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession. While 73% of companies use them to support the legal function in some capacity, only 9% use them extensively. One frequent driver of this lag in shared services adoption is the absence of a clearly articulated set of goals and objectives for the initiative. In the absence of this, shared services models can stagnate, thereby reducing overall value and leaving internal resources frustrated by the lack of progress. To avoid this outcome, formally define goals at the outset and include all impacted stakeholders in the process. 

2. Solicit executive feedback on shared services goals and enlist leadership support to drive stakeholder buy-in 

The implementation of a shared services model can be challenging under the best of circumstances. However, with a well-articulated set of goals and buy-in from appropriate members of an organization’s leadership team, the likelihood of success with a COE initiative will increase exponentially! Once the goals for the shared services initiative have been defined, pressure test them with leadership to confirm alignment with other strategic initiatives that may or may not be in the COE line of sight. Finally, ask for a commitment from leadership or an executive sponsor to help drive stakeholder messaging, thereby confirming a top-down approach to promote enthusiastic acceptance of the shared services initiative and the organizational changes it will bring. 

3. Develop an implementation strategy  

There is no substitute for a well-defined strategy, except a well-defined and documented strategy. With this in mind, be sure to formally capture the requisite details of the implementation plan, socialize and gather feedback as required, and identify a resource to maintain and update the COE plan as required. 

4. Communicate early and often 

No one likes to be surprised by changes to organizational strategy and/or structure. Thus, a change management and communication plan that contemplates stakeholder outreach both early and often is likely to drive the best outcomes. 

Realistically, what legal work can be managed in a shared services setting? 

The law department’s move toward shared services does not necessarily mean making wholesale changes all at once. Typically, law departments will start a shared services journey with activities that are high volume or low risk that have clearly defined and standardized processes, for example, e-discovery, template automation, document review, entity management or contract life cycle management. Starting with high-volume or low-risk areas, companies can design specific workflows and can measure performance according to standard metrics and process guidelines. Begin with one, two or several of these activities during the initial move to this delivery model. 

However, there is a trend for companies to also look at expanding the legal shared services model beyond those traditional activities to include more transactional-type support. These activities may include regulatory remediation and repapering programs, contract drafting and negotiating (vendor or customer) intragroup service agreements, and IP rights management. These types of activities were previously thought to be too high risk to be handled by a shared services format; however, with detailed workflows and proper oversight, there has been success with expanding beyond process support. It should be noted that the expansion typically requires a legal-driven shared services model with the right mix of legally trained professionals or a COE that utilizes professionals with the right legal skills to provide the necessary amount of legal expertise to offer guidance when needed.  

Is it a COE or something different? 

There is often a lot of confusion about the differences between COEs and shared services teams. A shared services center (SSC) usually refers to a dedicated unit, including people, processes and technologies, that is structured as a centralized point of service and is focused on one or more defined business functions. Shared services may come from several different physical locations (regional or global) and can operate onshore, offshore or virtually in some cases. Service delivery may be executed by internal resources or external providers, or a hybrid combination of both, and can involve a single or multiple business functions. Companies sometimes engage external providers to consult with various elements of the design, structure, location and execution options.  

Comparatively, a COE is typically thought of as a specialized knowledge center. A COE is a team that provides leadership, leading practices, research, support or training for a particular focus area. The focus areas of COEs vary and may include technology, business concepts, strategic initiatives or specific legal skills. In other words, they are smaller groups within an organization that can get better results by devoting themselves to a particular activity or set of ideas. Within COEs, there is an emphasis on advanced training and certification, knowledge sharing, and development of standards and methodologies. For COEs to gain acceptance within an organization, they must be given a clear mission and then provide demonstrable value to the business units. Like SSCs, COEs have many variations and should be implemented to meet an organization’s individual legal needs. COEs can be centralized at the enterprise level, within business segments or in the form of smaller communities of practice.  

This is a big change — what is the best way to bring the shared services vision to life? 

The deployment of a shared services team can represent a big change from a cultural and resourcing perspective. A strong business case that clearly illustrates the overall benefits to the organization and the impacted resources will establish a solid foundation on which to build. From there, internal socialization of both project goals and project approach is key, although a methodical change management and communications plan is equally important to determine the right messaging at the right time. Finally, a flexible, phased approach to shared services implementation will allow for adjustments as needed.  

The views expressed by the author are not necessarily those of Ernst & Young LLP or other members of the global EY organization. 

EY member firms do not practice law where not permitted by local law or regulation. Ernst & Young LLP (US) does not practice law or offer legal advice. 

Co-authored by: 

Christine Sanz, Senior Manager, EY Law – Legal Function Consulting, Ernst & Young LLP 

Melissa Miller, Senior Manager, EY Law – Legal Function Consulting, Ernst & Young LLP 

Legal operations professionals are the cornerstone in any corporate legal department with wide ranging impact across an organization. They are the process visionaries who make sure the legal work gets done on-time and on-budget, that the right stakeholders are included, risk is identified and mitigated, and that the best technology and service partners are tapped to make everything run smoothly. 

When it comes to working with outsourced service providers from managed services or alternative legal service providers (ALSPs), there is both a science and art to managing the vendor relationship to extract maximum value.  Done right, the outsourced relationship can bring tremendous support and expertise to the legal operations function as well as other departments and external law firms.  Handled poorly, the outsourcing effort can fail, creating unnecessary risk, reflecting negatively on the legal operations team and other teams within the organization. 

So how can legal operations pivot to extract maximum value from its outsourced service providers and ensure success?  By focusing on five key areas including Building Trust, Communication, Metrics and Reporting, Active Engagement, and Honesty. 

Building Trust

If trust cannot be established between legal operations and the outsourcing provider, the relationship is doomed; trust is a two-way street.  The outsourcer must consistently and predictably provide excellent communication, quality work, and accountability with proper metrics and reporting to back it up.  All of this instills confidence in their services.  However, the legal operations person also has to become an internal advocate for the outsourcer, someone within the company who is committed to their success. Change can be frustrating so legal operations must ensure that all of the internal stakeholders remain informed and involved as the relationship grows. 

Whether it’s a one-off project or a long-term managed services contract, the legal operations professional has the power to be a champion of the outsourcing effort.  Legal operations often has to make the case for outsourcing, to show proof of concept, anticipated value, and a vision for how it can work best.  There may be some initial resistance and objections at the company, and a preference to use in-house resources.  Legal operations needs to be vocal about the reasons and benefits for outsourcing in order to overcome and address concerns. Service providers need to be very aware that their champion will also be the person taking the brunt of criticism when partners are not performing up to expectations, so their goals must include supporting that champion proactively and substantively wherever possible.

At the outset of the relationship, the provider needs to get connected to the right people and necessary information.  Their client contact within legal operations must help get them what they need to get them off to a flying start.  When both the client and the outsourcing company trust each other and have one another’s backs, the relationship really takes off. 

Legal operations people working at large organizations often face a long process to get an outsourced vendor approved for a Master Services Agreement.  Therefore, it behooves them to support the services provider so that they are able to leverage that resource to the hilt once they finally have the agreement in place.  The company doesn’t need multiple vendors if it makes the most of the ones it has vetted.  Once vendors are approved, give them the training, information, and access they need to succeed.  Document the process with playbooks, briefing documents and workflow maps to establish clarity and uniformity.  Ensure that the company’s legal operations team and in-house lawyers are on hand to provide quality control at key junctures.  Any changes in process, even slight modifications, need to be checked and approved.

Communication

Communication with outsourced providers is more than emails, conference and phone calls – it’s a mindset and modus operandi.  The communication flow must be immediate and mutual between legal operations and the external resource regardless of the information being shared.  This includes sharing good news, relaying bad news, or discussing a process change.

From a troubleshooting standpoint, if an issue or problem arises, the outsourcing company should notify the client immediately and vice versa.  By definition, the outsourcing company has one degree of separation from the company itself, so delayed notification can cause the issue to get exacerbated and potentially more out-of-control.  Communicating the problem promptly and clearly allows for a solution to be devised so resolution comes more swiftly.  Quick issue notification, communication, and resolution are primary factors in building trust in the relationship and being a true partner.

Communication is also crucial from a billing standpoint, and the onus is on the outsourcing company to keep legal operations contacts informed of the financial status of ongoing projects.  Perhaps the work is clicking along fine but the bills are totaling up much higher than the budget allows – that’s a problem.  Or maybe there is not enough work being supplied by the client and the budget is not being used to its full extent; the outsourcer needs to communicate that, too. 

As a legal services provider, there is value in establishing a client’s preferred method of communication. Important emails can be lost in a busy mailbox and phone calls can go unanswered during a hectic day.  Understanding when a short conversation would be more effective than a flurry of email messages should not be underestimated.

Metrics and Reporting

Any discussion about communication these days inevitably leads to accountability through metrics and reporting.  The outsourcing company must track and provide status updates and reporting to the satisfaction of legal operations and its stakeholders.  At any time, legal operations should be able to ask the provider for status on team size, productivity, bottlenecks, and delivery dates and get a quick, thorough response.  Where physically is the work being done, and is the location secure?  Where are the work assignments coming from within the company, and are they in line with the outsourcing agreement?  Weekly check-ins may be necessary at the beginning of an engagement and then less frequent as the relationship becomes more established.  The more granular tracking and details the outsourcer can provide, the more prepared and forthcoming legal operations can be when reporting on progress to the GC and company executives.   

Tracking and reporting on metrics can provide more than updates and status reports. They can deliver valuable insights into a client’s processes, resourcing, data and help frame conversations around methodology or delivery improvements. One of the first operational tasks in a project should be the mutual agreement of the key metrics required to manage the process and risk. Both teams will obviously have different perspectives, but the core metrics needed by both teams will be very similar.

Metrics and reporting can be enormously helpful from a diagnostic point of view if something goes wrong.  Outsourcing companies have human beings on their delivery teams, and they are going to make mistakes, despite their best efforts.  Discovering these errors and mitigating or eliminating them as soon as possible helps to keep risk low and iron out kinks for a smoother, more flawless process.

Active Engagement

Outsourcing companies cannot work in a vacuum – they need frequent interaction to operate as a seamless extension of the corporation’s own team.  The outsourcing resources must be actively engaged with the client via email but also on calls, especially now that in-person meetings are uncommon and most are done virtually. 

The legal operations/outsourcing partner relationship is ever-changing and it can grow over time to serve the client organization more adeptly.  The more the outsourcer becomes familiar with the company’s priorities, protocols and deadlines, the more successfully it can support the client.  Both sides are equally invested in a quality result, both sides are careful not to waste time and money going down the wrong road.  Ideally, both legal operations and outsourcer are empowered to call an audible if a project is going astray. 

One of the secrets of successful outsourcing companies is the personalities of the people they employ.  Client-facing outsourcing team members must be able to speak up, push back, and earn the client’s confidence.  More passive individuals who are less forthcoming may be highly intelligent or knowledgeable but they are not always well suited to client-facing positions.  The best outsourcing providers have client-facing team members who have terrier-like perseverance and who develop the confidence to speak up at the right time.  These inherent tendencies are improved by empowerment and guidance provided by experienced managers.

Honesty and Transparency

The pandemic has brought about a new level of humanity and honesty in the working world.  How many times has a dog barking or child bringing in a school paper appeared in business meetings over the past two years?  Many of the formalities of business have fallen away, giving people the opportunity to be more “real” and connect on a more level playing field.

Honesty and transparency are essential elements to building strong legal operations/outsourced provider foundations.  This involves the culmination of all the principles mentioned above including communication, metrics and reporting, building trust and active engagement.  Over time, the outsourced provider earns trust through being honest and transparent with legal operations and vice versa. 

An honest outsourcing company will admit when a project is out of its wheelhouse and will not overstate its capabilities. While legal operations may be disappointed at an initial no, this is much preferable to the outsourcing company saying it’s capable and then the project fails.  An honest answer paves the way to a possible solution, and the companies may be able to work together to co-create a solution that benefits both.  Both legal operations and the outsourcing resource must be equally transparent about what each is providing and how they meet in the middle to get the job done right.

Conclusion

Legal operations are in a central position to leverage outsourced providers to bring about successful outcomes.  By combining key principles like establishment of trust, communication, measurement and accountability, active engagement and honest transparency, they ensure that outsourcing relationships pay off and deliver on their promise.  Over time, the relationship will shift from being client and outsourcing vendor to an equal partnership.  When legal operations cultivates outsourced teams which are true extensions of their internal resources, that’s a win-win.

About the Authors:

Clare Chalkley, Robert Daniel and Randi Salzberg are all subject matter experts (SMEs) in their respective fields at Integreon, a global ALSP and managed services provider. 

• Clare Chalkley, Vice President – Legal Services, is based in London and runs managed document review and litigation services projects for Integreon, having previously been a litigation support manager at Clifford Chance law firm and other roles in the field for 25+ years. 
• Robert Daniel, Senior Director and Financial Services SME, is based in the U.S., having previously worked for Bank of America in legal discovery and related positions for 25+ years.
• Randi Salzberg is Vice President, Marketing and Creative Services in Integreon’s Business Enablement Services division. Before Integreon, she was a Managing Director in Marketing at investment firm Alliance Bernstein for 25+ years.