This is a safe space to be curious
After attending conferences and events over the past couple of years, a few recurring themes stand out. Firstly, the legal operations and legal tech worlds are really very generous and encouraging environments to play in. People working in this area are very willing to share their experiences and so there is plenty to discover and learn without it feeling like competitors are holding cards close to their chest.
Legal transformation and the desire for improvement and development in our ways of working is here to stay. We’re all at stages on that journey (more of which in my second thought!), but there is plenty of experience to share and understand how to approach this world of change and process improvement. So, for the curious and interested, there is more than enough information out there to not only inform your next steps, but to keep you enthused for the whole journey.
No need to follow the herd – find your own path to follow
Second, there is no one size fits all solution in legal operations transformation. So, take that information you get from others and ensure you adapt it to suit your needs, not just slavishly following the herd. Not everyone has the same pain points, or use cases in combination as another organisation.
We see many people quickly caught up in a focus on specifics such as document automation or the use of generative AI, but without knowing where you’re starting from in terms of the key day to day challenges of your own team and organisation, these topics might not reflect where you are at right now. Taking the time to understand your own current state of play is never wasted and can really benefit how you set the direction of travel for your own transformation journey.
How do we compare with what others are doing?
Third, everyone is always very concerned about where others are up to and where they rank against their peers. A massive amount of FOMO seems to dominate the discussions, particularly for those just starting their transformation journey. Interestingly, we seem to be entering a stage where there is a bit of a split emerging in where in-house legal teams are up to.
The majority of organisations have an in-house team that is just starting to explore transformation and the opportunities for improvement and technology adoption. The common problem for this group is that they can easily find themselves in a rabbit warren of technology product demos. While these are exciting, they can be time-consuming and unproductive without first identifying your problem use cases and prioritising the issues you want to address first. Remember, it’s a marathon not a sprint.
Recently we’ve seen a group emerging of in-house teams who jumped into adopting new legal technology, perhaps a few years ago. This group have now either outgrown their first choice of technology or realised the errors in their initial implementation. This group, although smaller than the first, are now looking to either unpick that initial adoption, find ways of supplementing it or transferring to a new technology choice. At least this time, they have the benefit of hindsight and that experience of what they didn’t know the first time around. It’s like having the SatNav switched on for a journey that previously you just followed your nose on.
Thankfully, as I say, those more experienced, “been here before” groups in the legal operations world, are just as willing to share their experiences and impart their lessons learnt to others just starting their journey. They didn’t just turn the SatNav on, they made sure they updated it for the next user to benefit from live updates.
Whether you’re starting to consider the ways of improving your ways of working in an in-house legal function or have found yourself in the situation of having out-grown your initial technology choices, we’re always happy to chat and add to that knowledge sharing to help improve the journey ahead for others.
Get in touch if you’d like to hear more about our Legal Operations, Technology & Consulting Services.
