What to expect in 2020: top 5 trends influencing legal operations
Want to uplevel your legal ops career in 2020? Perhaps you’re interested in expanding your legal ops function and want to know how your peers are tackling the challenge head on? Learn what’s going on in the industry and see how these 5 trends might impact your day-to-day responsibilities and department.
Trend 1: Corporate Counsel Expect Law Firms to Be More Efficient
With the introduction of legal tech, Corporate Counsel have been able to track and manage legal spend, driving cost savings within their legal departments. As a result, they’re beginning to expect the same level of efficiency and organization from their law firms.
To learn what law firms adopting legal tech has to do with legal operations, download the complete white paper, Top 5 Trends Influencing Legal Operations in 2020.
Trend 2: Continued Investment in the Legal Operations Function
In 2019, we saw an increase in average salaries for legal operations professionals, indicating the continued rise of the legal ops profession. In 2020, we are seeing even more growth in scope, responsibilities, and hiring of legal ops professionals.
This increase in demand for legal ops has generated a diversity in the legal department with employees that don’t necessarily come from a legal background. In fact, some of the top skills for legal ops professionals are non-legal skills.
Trend 3: Business Leaders Seeking More Input from Legal
The Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) Chief Legal Officer’s Survey stated that 70% of chief legal officers say the executive leadership team frequently seeks their input on business decisions. This is a great sign for the General Counsel; however, with this rise in responsibilities, they often don’t have the time to focus on day-to-day operational tasks.
This is where legal operations professionals come in! They will be called in to support the legal leadership, specifically providing data that informs decisions at both the departmental and organizational levels.
Trend 4: Prioritization of Analytics
As legal departments aim to become more cost-effective, analytics and goal tracking is becoming a prioritization. Although these are not new concepts for legal, modern legal tech is opening new opportunities for legal departments to have the data they need to effectively track and manage their spend and matters.
In addition, this new prioritization of legal analytics within the legal department is guaranteed to bring greater collaboration between legal departments and legal tech vendors, consultants, and even other departments within the organization.
Trend 5: Focus on Technology Management
2019 showed us there is no stopping the rise of legal tech, and we can expect to see that trend continue into 2020. However, adopting legal tech for adoption sake does not guarantee success. Proper tech management is required to ensure platform adoption while building a connected legal technology stack that benefits the entire legal department.
As a result, tech management will become a top priority for legal operations professionals. To see which legal technologies your legal team could benefit from, check out the 4 tools every in-house legal department needs.
See How the Top 5 Trends Will Impact 2020
Get a closer look at what these trends mean for legal operations by downloading our white paper, Top 5 Trends Influencing Legal Ops in 2020. We’ve analyzed top industry surveys and reports to provide you with a consolidated view of what’s going on in the industry so you can build a plan for long-term success.
