To meet ever increasing pressure to become more agile and responsive to business needs, in-house legal functions are investing in transformation initiatives. However, all too often these initiatives disappoint or fail.
A survey of law firms and General Counsels conducted by Bloomberg Law last year found that more than a third did not have a legal operations function.
Of all the future-gazing about what a post-COVID world might look like, predictions about the workplace are proving to be the most accurate. We’ve quickly gone beyond acceptance of home and hybrid working to embrace longer-term trends like contingent staffing and outsourced services. In the topsy-turvy world of lockdowns and supply chain disruptions, a flexible legal workforce made up of your talent and the resources provided by a partner is gaining greater acceptance.
Of all the future-gazing about what a post-COVID world might look like, predictions about the workplace are proving to be the most accurate.
It is becoming more and more frequent that businesses need to review and evaluate specific provisions in a variety of their contractual arrangements – often with speed and decisiveness.
To close off our series I wanted to capture the key take-aways and leave you with a set of steps to help start the journey to an agile legal operation.
Businesses use technology to automate manual processes and become more efficient, freeing people to focus on core responsibilities rather than devoting valuable hours to rote, repetitive tasks. While there’s been lots of worry that advances like AI might replace people entirely, the more likely outcome for legal teams is what’s already becoming normalised in other sectors and professions — machines complementing humans.
The European Green Deal, COVID-19, the United Nations report from their Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and a renewed focus on social justice are putting corporate ESG commitments to the test. While boards naturally tried to reduce costs when lockdowns and commercial restrictions were in place, investors, customers, regulators and other critical stakeholders kept up the pressure to better serve employees, customers, suppliers and communities in which companies operate while advancing the greater good. Emphasising ESG in business plans has turned out to be sound strategy. Investment funds that focused on sustainability last year outperformed traditional funds[see footnote] in the first four months of the 2021.
When we talk about improving collaboration it usually means breaking out of departmental siloes and becoming more cross-functional. Learning from colleagues outside your own group and working more closely towards shared goals is vital, but I wonder if that definition of collaboration isn’t out-dated?
