The challenges and opportunities facing legal teams today are many and varied. In a recent webinar, Neil Smith, Head of Legal Operations and Transformation at LawVu, shared his insights into the transformations taking place in the way legal teams are operating, and how better legal service delivery is enabling them to become strategic partners to their business.

In this article, we explore Neil’s key takeaways.  

The problem: New demands increase pressure on legal teams  

For many in-house legal teams, work has become a balancing act: demands placed upon them are escalating while resources are increasingly stretched. Common challenges include overwhelming workloads and a lack of standardized processes.

According to Neil, legal teams are experiencing a notable shift in expectations, increasingly they are regarded as business partners rather than being viewed as the protectors of their organization. “More than ever, the pressure is on them to maximize productivity, reduce costs and streamline processes.” 

Being required to play a more strategic role in the business, means that the days of legal teams operating behind the scenes are fast disappearing. “The rest of the business, sales and commercial in particular, want legal to be sitting in with them on negotiations,” said Neil. “They want the legal team to be as invested in delivering the deal as they are.”  

The paradigm shift in what businesses require of their legal teams has created the following challenges: Too much work and too few resources mean teams feel uncomfortably stretched; lack of standardization – frequent use of inconsistent contract templates or ad-hoc processes; triaging incoming requests – without clear systems to prioritize, demand threatens to overwhelm teams; pressure to deliver value, with businesses expecting legal to drive progress and not just safeguard operations.  

The solution: How legal operations can transform legal service delivery  

Legal operations, also known as legal ops, is the engine that drives efficiency and transformation within in-house teams. Neil stated that successful legal ops initiatives address three core elements: people – building a cohesive team with clearly defined roles and collaboration; processes – streamlining procedures to eliminate redundancies and inefficiencies; technology – leveraging tools like LawVu to automate repetitive tasks and create transparency. 

Neil said that each legal ops transformation must begin with a deep understanding of the current state of operations, followed by the identification of areas which require improvement – and that generally comes down to legal service delivery. “You need to work out where you are now, where you want to be, and how you’re going to get there.”  

His recommended steps to consider when beginning your legal ops transformation journey are: 

1. Lifecycle process mapping: Visually document the step-by-step journey of legal matters entering and leaving the team. 
2. Engagement policies: Create clear guidelines for internal communications, ensuring professionalism and consistency. 
3. Legal traffic light policies: Categorize work into green, amber or red zones based on risk and complexity, allowing non-critical issues to self-serve while focusing resources on high-priority tasks. 
4. Leverage data: Use KPIs and metrics such as Net Promoter Scores (NPS) to gather business feedback and identify areas for improvement. 

The power of technology in legal transformation 

Legal technology is playing a pivotal role in revolutionizing how in-house teams tackle their biggest challenges, from streamlining intake and contract management to empowering self-service workflows and leveraging data-driven insights. Neil highlighted how LawVu serves as a unified legal workspace, providing tools to organize, track and automate key workflows, and said some of the ways legal technology can help solve challenges are as follows:  

• Contract management automation: Tools like LawVu provide consistency through standardized templates and built-in approval workflows. Automation also minimizes the risk of human error and enhances compliance by ensuring nothing gets overlooked. “It’s absolutely vital to protect the business, but also to make the sales and commercial teams love legal,” said Neil. 

• Request management or intake: Legal technology that has dedicated intake portals helps centralize, triage and prioritize incoming legal requests, reducing the chaos of ad-hoc communication via multiple email or messaging apps. 

• Self-service templates: By implementing accessible, pre-approved contract templates for teams, legal can empower other business units to handle low-risk contracts independently while ensuring compliance is still met. This helps improve turnaround times and client satisfaction. 

• Insights and reporting: Holistic legal technology vendors such as LawVu provide centralized, out-of-the-box analytics, offering insights across all legal work including matter complexity, turnaround times and team workload distribution.  

“Sometimes, in-house legal teams are struggling, and they will often reach out for the first thing they can find to try and help alleviate their problems,” Neil said. “But I also argue it’s important to zoom out before you do anything.” 

The value of legal ops transformation 

While updating and changing ways of working may seem daunting, Neil encouraged legal teams to adopt a positive mindset. “The most important thing is to get started: start small, build buy-in and then expand.” 

Neil said that a streamlined and systemized legal operations framework leads to quicker delivery times, reduced legal risks and better legal service delivery. The result? Happier business and legal teams. Also, and perhaps most importantly, transformation enables legal teams to demonstrate their value as strategic partners within the organization.  

Key benefits of legal ops transformation: 

• Quicker end-to-end delivery: Better legal ops and processes result in faster outcomes and better legal service delivery. 
• Greater higher transparency: Business units gain insight into legal’s operations. 
• Improved resource allocation: Complexity analysis helps focus team efforts on impactful work. 
• Data-based decision making and enhanced metrics: Data-driven insights lead to continuous improvement. 

Overcoming hurdles 

As Neil pointed out, transforming legal operations isn’t without hurdles. Some of the most common include: 

• Resistance to change: Legal teams and broader business units can be reluctant to adopt new technologies or processes. Building a culture of collaboration and accountability is essential. 
• Competing priorities: It’s easy to feel distracted by the demands of daily operations. Start small with manageable initiatives to quickly demonstrate value. 
• Lack of resources: Temporary external support, such as consultants or additional paralegal assistance, can accelerate progress while maintaining current operations. 

To combat these hurdles, Neil said it is essential to secure buy-in from senior leadership and he suggested forming a steering committee as a means to help smooth the pathway. He also said it’s crucial to present a compelling business case that highlights the value and impact of legal ops transformation. For guidance on building a strong business case, check out our this guide. 

How to get started 

Actionable steps for beginning your legal ops transformation journey: 

1. Start small: Roll out one initiative at a time, such as automating NDA workflows or refining the company’s legal policy. “We often start with NDAs because it’s a relatively simple document, highly used, and lends itself to automation,” said Neil. 
2. Engage the business: Hold focused discussions or surveys to fully understand pain points and expectations outside of the legal team. 
3. Utilize existing resources: Even simple tools like your company’s intranet can act as a starting point for streamlining some processes. 
4. Measure success: Use metrics like NPS, contract turnaround time and workload analysis to showcase progress and build momentum for additional efforts. 

Redefining legal service delivery 

Transforming legal operations goes hand-in-hand with redefining legal service delivery. By enhancing processes, fostering collaboration and leveraging the right technology, in-house legal teams can elevate how they deliver their services to the business. Improved efficiency reduces turnaround times, while better alignment with business units ensures that the legal function is seen as a true partner in achieving organizational goals. 

In-house legal service delivery isn’t just about completing tasks. It’s about providing measurable value and aligning with the business’s strategic direction.  

Starting small, optimizing workflows and building on early successes can help legal teams transition from overwhelmed departments to proactive contributors driving enterprise-wide impact.  

With platforms like the LawVu legal workspace, and a thoughtful, iterative approach, legal teams can reimagine their service delivery to be both functional and transformational.  

LawVu’s professional services

With more than 15 years experience in helping legal teams optimize their legal operations and legal service delivery, legal operations expert, Neil Smith, offers guidance and consultancy for in-house legal teams. Click here to see how LawVu’s professional services with Neils expert guidance can revolutionize your legal service delivery. And in case you missed it, you can catch the full replay of Neil’s webinar here.