For in-house legal departments, relationships with Outside Counsel are integral to overall management of matters and outcomes. A solid relationship creates synergy and partnership; a dysfunctional one creates frustration and typically increases costs. One of the most common tools to enhance client/firm relationships is setting effective Outside Counsel Guidelines (OCGs). Read this article written by Brenda Hansen, Sr. Legal Operations Consultant, Epiq Legal Business Advisory, for tips on drafting effective and impactful Outside Counsel Guidelines.
It seems to us that although the dizzying number of technology solutions entering the market daily (not to mention the avalanche of new AI possibilities that accompany them) are intended to make everyone’s life simpler, it’s more challenging than ever to cut through the noise and figure out how or where to start your journey to simplifying contracting for you and your organization. Read more.
Just a few decades ago, a private practice lawyer in a law firm who decided to go “in-house” endured constant questioning about why they were taking a step back in their career. Was it because they were tired of the breakneck pace of a law firm? Were they OK making less money? Essentially, these lawyers were viewed as “stepping off the treadmill,” and getting “out of the game.” Not a complimentary description. Click here to read more.
When Christine Ho and her team at Confluent began to consider a CLM implementation, her biggest fear was that they would go through a long, painful, drawn-out process and end up overpromising and under-delivering on the potential for success we knew was possible. In this article, she's outlined a few of the lessons they learned along the way in the hopes that they can inspire and assist other Legal Ops teams going through this exciting but challenging process.
The following flowchart is designed as an internal guide to assist managers in making a preliminary assessment of whether a job position may qualify for exempt status under the FLSA. This document is only designed to be a tool to assist in the implementation of new job positions. This flowchart does not take applicable state law into account which may impact the exemption analysis.
Many eagerly await the day when genuinely advanced artificial intelligence (AI) becomes a reality, and we're seeing more and more discussion of AI and another related technology, Bots. Understanding key distinctions between the two can help legal professionals make the best use of each. Both are important and useful in different ways, and this article is an introduction to their capabilities and applications.
In this article we take on some common myths with Julie Johnson, Senior Manager of Legal Operations at Align Technology. Julie and her team were faced with an incomplete repository and tools that were not designed with legal in mind, which caused a lot of frustration for Legal and their stakeholders. With Julie’s leadership and the guidance of consulting firm UpLevel Ops, the Legal Ops team selected and implemented Checkbox, a workflow automation tool, to tackle the problem of the incomplete repository and lack of search functionality Julie provides insights on how her teams have achieved success by utilizing and customizing tech solutions at Align.
Jeff Isaacs has given much thought to the evolution of legal services over his 30-plus year career in the industry, both in legal operations and as an attorney acting as both outside and in-house counsel. I recently had the opportunity to catch up with him on his career and his decision to join KPMG LLP as Director, Global Legal Managed Services. Click here to read more.
In a recent article in Harvard Business Review, a team of researchers showed that 78% of transformations fail. Their analysis showed that “people are the catalysts of successful transformation.” Check out this article to find out how to move beyond working in silos, incremental improvement, and isolated innovation to achieve transformation and why it’s important to have a structured process to engage leadership in setting objectives and guiding transformational change.
The number of legal ops roles was exploding. More positions were being given more responsibility and being empowered to run departments and make impactful change. Legal ops leaders were being asked to do this without tools. The ACC Legal Ops group set out to create the first of its kind maturity model, toolkit and Legal Ops 101 (the bootcamp) to really jumpstart the industry.