Legal Operations: Explanation and Career Opportunities
Competition is the name of the game in the business sector. To that end, developing a strategy that accomplishes goals swiftly and efficiently is a key component of success. The right business strategy can shorten the distance between goal setting and goal attainment, which may set innovative businesses apart. This is where legal operations can come in.
Developing a strong legal operations strategy can be critical for organizations to optimize their efficiency. Legal operation teams apply business techniques to a company’s legal obligations. Successfully deploying a legal operations strategy requires skilled individuals who approach the profession through different career paths. Ultimately, their work can yield goal optimization for businesses while affirming concrete risk management. For individuals coming from a legal education background, these career paths can provide them with an opportunity to apply their knowledge and skills uniquely.
What Is Legal Operations?
Legal operations, or legal ops, is a concept designed to help a company’s legal team function as its own business by applying the tactics needed to run a company to running a legal department. Because legal ops can conceptually connect with different parts of an organization, those in legal ops roles should be adept at understanding how these connections work with different components, such as human resources, information technology, and project management.
Legal ops has traditionally been tied to risk management and reducing the cost of outside counsel. In recent years, however, this field has evolved, placing legal ops professionals in positions that play a crucial role in a company’s direction.
Several essential functions are associated with legal ops. These functions highlight the role’s integration of risk management and growth optimization.
Organizational Planning
Planning from a legal ops perspective can establish the road map that dictates the processes and procedures of a company’s legal team. This phase develops various department goals, and it also builds the policies and strategies needed to achieve such metrics.
Business Performance
Once goals and the strategies for meeting them have been established, legal ops will assess the company’s legal team. This analysis helps determine whether a company has the appropriate tools and infrastructure in place to execute the proposed strategy properly. This determination relies on understanding metrics about company structure, financial health, company culture, and currently employed talent.
Outside Legal Services
Part of the risk management strategy of legal ops is to manage any connection that a company may have with an outside legal service. Building synergy between a company and its legal team can help reduce the cost of outside counsel fees. It can also help boost quality, since such synergy may help build a better understanding of the company.
Legal Technology
The evolution of business technology can also impact how legal operations functions. Legal ops pros must be familiar with the current technology-driven innovations that involve risk management; legal compliance; and other components of effective business strategy, such as documentation software or analytics programs. Legal ops professionals adept at these technologies can use them to improve process efficiency and information security.
Project Management
Achieving large-scale goals often involves the completion of various projects. Legal ops professionals can shape the management parameters of these projects, ensuring that the projects are streamlined toward the goal and built to optimize the skills of the involved employees.
People Management
The right goals can only be optimally achieved with the right talent. In legal ops, this means ensuring that the best people possible are on board. It can also involve the development of strategies designed to improve employee retention.
Legal Operations Jobs at a Glance
Several positions fall under the legal operations jobs umbrella that individuals equipped with the right legal education can pursue. While the following roles approach the concept of legal ops differently, all are guided by the core principles of the legal ops concept—to govern efficient legal strategy via the application of business strategies.
Legal Operations Manager
Legal operations managers help develop and design corporate policies and practices to improve efficiency and cost controls. They may be called upon to identify ways to streamline existing practices, and they may also be tasked with creating new processes that optimize effectiveness, keep costs down, and keep companies legally compliant. According to Payscale, the median annual salary for the role was about $72,200 as of November 2022.
Legal Operations Analyst
Legal operations analysts typically handle the data management side of a company’s legal team. They use data analysis to identify vulnerabilities in a company’s legal structure, and they also propose solutions to fill gaps related to cost controls and resource management. According to Payscale, the median annual salary for the role was about $59,700 as of November 2022.
Director of Legal Operations
A director of legal operations oversees a company’s legal ops team. Those in the role develop a team strategy, create and manage projects designed to achieve legal team goals, and manage budget and resource allocation. They also work closely with an organization’s general counsel to select and maintain relationships with outside legal firms. According to Payscale, the median annual salary for the role was about $95,700 as of November 2022.
Play a Vital Role in a Company’s Strategy
As the business landscape continues to evolve through technological innovation and shifting work environments, having a solid legal ops team in place is important for a company to make sense of the changes. Suffolk University’s Legal Innovation and Technology Certificate program offered by the Center for Continuing & Professional Development can help prepare legal professionals from all backgrounds to pursue a role in this dynamic field.
Our program is designed to deepen your expertise in the integration of law and technology, equipping you with the acumen needed to approach legal ops roles and enact positive, impactful change. Learn how we can help you launch into an exciting phase of your career.
Recommended Readings:
Don’t Have Time to Do It Over? Be Efficient: Do the Right Things the Right Way, the First Time, Every Time
The Value of Microcredentials
Why Lawyers Need a 21st Century Legal Education
Sources:
Bloomberg Law, What Is Legal Operations? Top Functions and Benefits
Payscale, Average Director of Operations Salary
Payscale, Average Legal Operations Manager Salary
Payscale, Average Operations Analyst Salary
SimpleLegal, “4 Examples of Legal Operations Jobs to Help Build Your Team”
SimpleLegal, “What Is Legal Operations?”