It's been a turbulent 6 months, but the need to do more with less hasn't diminished. If anything, it has intensified. If you're looking at transformational change but don't know where to start, here are 4 key considerations.
Process management and design
When there is a challenge in the way a legal team delivers its services, it can be hard for the people involved on a daily basis to see the wood for the workload. It may be that there is no formal procedure. Work is simply done as it was handed over – in the same way that it always has been. Add to that the constant pressure to do more with less and there is a recipe not to invest time in actually assessing the work itself and how and where it is done.
The issue is that as your in-house lawyers grow, develop and move to new challenges, there remains a core of legal work that needs to be done to keep the business running. That could be NDAs, merchant agreements, software licences or third-party engagement letters. Ask any GC and they will have a list of the jobs that their team of highly qualified, experienced lawyers are doing that could be done by a junior.
Having a third party come in and map out those processes can help to bring clarity to any problems/ bottlenecks and allows an impartial observer to join the conversation. Often it's the case that work requests are inconsistent, or that one team can take on more of the early stages of a matter before it gets into the legal team. But, it helps to have another party in the room, with the right data to facilitate the conversation.
Standardising key processes
Once the key areas have been identified, it can then be helpful to apply some science to prioritisation. By picking two or three work types to focus on it greatly increases the likelihood of success and the speed of delivery. Once a successful process/handoff is in place it's much easier to have further conversations with different areas. In my experience this can snowball quickly, so be prepared to defend the initial list and not allow teams to be overloaded.
By clearly articulating processes and procedures it gives comfort to managers and clarity to staff.
Apply innovative tools and solutions
Once you have a clear process it's much easier to define where technology can help.
BY CLEARLY ARTICULATING PROCESSES AND PROCEDURES IT GIVES COMFORT TO MANAGERS AND CLARITY TO STAFF
