General Counsel are entering 2026 with a new set of pressures.
The business expects faster responses. Budgets are tightening. Outside counsel rates continue to rise.
And AI is no longer a distant concept. It is already embedded in the enterprise tools your teams use every day.
The legal departments that will thrive through this shift are the ones that build operational strength early. Q1 is not simply the start of the year. It is the window to set the direction for everything that follows.
Here are the five areas that matter most to legal departments looking to thrive in 2026 with confidence, predictability, and the capacity to support the business at scale.
- Establish intake and workflow clarity.
GCs feel the impact of inconsistent intake more than anyone. When work arrives through a mix of emails, phone calls, and Slack requests, it becomes impossible to understand true demand or set realistic expectations.
Q1 is the time to create a single, reliable path for how work enters Legal and how it moves across the team.
Once this clarity exists, you can answer the questions every GC gets from the CEO and CFO: What is on Legal’s plate, and where are the bottlenecks?
This visibility strengthens the GC’s ability to forecast needs, plan resourcing, and demonstrate control over service delivery.
- Put AI governance in place and launch early use cases.
GCs are being asked to have a point of view on AI, often before they feel ready. The pressure is real.
Most business functions have already experimented with AI. Many tools include AI features by default.
Q1 is the moment for Legal to step into a leadership role by establishing policies, review paths, and guardrails that allow the organization to move responsibly.
At the same time, Legal should begin testing a few targeted use cases that reduce manual work and provide measurable impact.
These small, practical pilots help the GC demonstrate responsible innovation to the executive team while protecting the company’s risk posture.
- Begin a value-based pricing pilot.
GCs continue to face rising outside counsel costs without corresponding increases in predictability.
Hourly billing makes it difficult to manage budgets or tie spend to outcomes. The gap will only widen as AI creates efficiency on the law firm side.
Q1 is the right time to shift one practice area to a value-based pricing pilot. A focused experiment gives the GC clear data on how outcomes, cost, and service levels align when time is no longer the metric.
It also signals to firms that the company expects modern, outcome-driven pricing.
Over time, this pilot can become the foundation for a broader strategy that creates a shared risk model, improves forecasting accuracy, and reduces year-end surprises.
- Conduct a realistic technology readiness review.
Many GCs are asked why their current tools are not delivering the value the business expected.
In most cases, the answer is not the technology itself. It is the lack of clear processes or data readiness.
Q1 is the time to step back and evaluate the department’s systems with honesty.
Understanding what is working, what requires adjustment, and what should be retired prevents costly missteps and ensures that any future investments are grounded in operational reality.
When the GC can demonstrate a clear technology strategy, it becomes much easier to secure IT partnership and executive support for upcoming initiatives.
- Refresh the legal operating model for the work ahead.
The demand for legal support has outpaced legal department headcount growth.
A modern operating model allows Legal to meet this increased demand without burning out the team.
Q1 is the opportunity to determine which work genuinely requires in-house counsel, which should move to law firms, where alternative legal service providers can offer efficiency, and where automation or self-service can relieve pressure.
When this alignment is in place, the GC gains the ability to scale service delivery without proportional increases in headcount, which is exactly the type of operational discipline executive teams expect.
A strong Q1 gives GCs the leverage and momentum they need for the rest of the year.
When Legal has intake clarity, responsible AI governance, modern pricing models, a realistic technology plan, and a right-sized operating model, the GC gains what every executive wants: predictability, control, and the ability to support the business with confidence.
These are the foundations of a Legal function ready not only for 2026 but also for the accelerating pace of change that will define 2027.
Investing in these five areas during Q1 positions Legal to move with purpose rather than react to pressure.
It sets the team up for informed decisions, predictable outcomes, and a stronger relationship with business leadership. And it allows General Counsel to lead the department through a period of transition with clarity and stability.