Feature interview: why legal ops roles are on the rise with Zenefits’ Felicia Chang
It’s clear to in-house professionals that there’s a new legal role that’s proving critical to departmental success – and that role is legal operations. What is so appealing about this role that both legal and non-legal professionals are jumping at the chance to be involved in legal operations?
As part of our ongoing interview series, we raised this trend with Felicia Chang, Head of Legal Operations at Zenefits, to get her take on why legal operations is proving an attractive role for a wide spectrum of professionals. She broke it down into five main reasons:
*Since the publishing of this interview, Felicia has started a new role as the Senior Program Manager – Corporate Engineering at Google.
1. It’s a Diverse and Enjoyable Role
As companies grow and the roles within them become more specific, legal operations presents professionals with an opportunity to continue to work on various aspects of the business, all in one place.
F: “Legal operations specialists implement tools and applications that free up in-house attorney’s time so they can stay focused working on what they do best. Negotiating the next big strategic partnership, advising our product team, focusing on general corporate governance matters, or implementing tools and applications should be left up to the legal operations team. I would tell anyone looking to work in a hyper-growth in-house legal department to expect the unexpected every single day. It’s a lot of fun if you like and can navigate the uncertainty.”
2. It’s a Great Role for Those Who Love Legal, but Aren’t Lawyers
The law is a fascinating field to work in. Until recently, it required a law degree before you could get anywhere near the legal department at a company. Not anymore.
F: “Legal operations gives people like me, who like the legal field, but aren’t lawyers, an opportunity to play a critical role in developing, supporting and building the foundations of a highly efficient and world-class in-house legal department.”
3. You’re the One Building the Legal Team Structure
As companies grow, in-house legal teams are often asked to do more with less. Developing a robust legal operations team ensures the entire department has the tools and applications they need to achieve this goal.
F: “We enable in-house lawyers to be more efficient. In a time where in-house departments are becoming more and more interested in cost savings, the legal operations role is undoubtedly becoming more popular. My interests lie in legal and legal project management, so roles in legal operations give you the chance to guide the development of legal within your company.”
4. You Get to Solve Crucial Challenges Directly Related to the Success of the Business
Working in legal operations, you straddle the in-house and outside counsel teams, helping to facilitate effective relationships while managing expectations on both sides. Legal operations software like SimpleLegal is really helpful to keep it all organized.
F: “One of my biggest challenges is getting all of our legal vendors up to speed with the way our business works. Things like identifying how we want to ingest finance information such as accruals, forecasting and invoicing, and then training the client to fit our needs and adhere to our billing guidelines. e-Billing functionality from legal ops software like SimpleLegal is really helpful in keeping it all organized, and other services like Logikcull are popping up to help automate many of the legal processes for our team.”
5. You Can Shape What the Industry Will Become
Legal operations is by and large a new industry, forged out of the need for more efficient and organized in-house teams. Only recently have we seen the emergence of organizations like the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC) and Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) Legal Ops appear. According to Felicia, the way we define legal operations is changing every day.
F: “I believe we’ll see companies become more creative in how legal operations is defined in terms of function, specific responsibilities and what initiatives fall within this role. I’m interested to see how law firms will adjust and learn from the growing in-house legal operations function in the next couple years.”
Interested in Learning More About Legal Operations?
A big thank you to Felicia for talking all things legal ops with our team! At SimpleLegal, we believe legal ops is here to stay and are committed to providing legal departments with software that helps them manage the modern challenges they face. To learn more about our solution, schedule a demo with one of our team members today!