Cross-Functional Collaboration

During the CLOC 2023 Global Institute three drivers of Transformation continued to resonate throughout the conference. In my first reflection I focused on Inspiration and the need to create the time and space to envision a diverse, collaborative, and technologically sophisticated industry that leads operational excellence within our companies. Now I want to discuss growth in the context of Collaboration - specifically an ecosystem of professionals, whether in-house, at service providers or technology vendors – who together can level up the profession to achieve this new vision.

On the one hand the sheer growth of legal operations within the legal vertical is staggering. However, the number of people standing in the back and along the sides of the conference sessions this year tells only part of the story. At CLOC I spoke with more attendees who had either been on a legal operations team at multiple companies, or who had built programs and teams several times over. I also had lunch with several in-house professionals who were interested in pursuing certification to further develop their project management skills.  As a conference snapshot the industry appears to be growing both in numbers and maturity.

In Tuesday’s session Building a World-Class Legal Ops Function, seasoned in-house leaders shared their insights into the “engine room” of transformation. Central to their message was the idea that within companies, Legal Ops professionals have opportunities to interface with other Ops functions. The speakers encouraged their peers to show up and plug into the other functional areas as business people with legal skills.  Using illustrations from their careers, each speaker highlighted how Legal Ops professionals can get the attention of other business stakeholders by demonstrating their savvy in project management, business analysis, the language of data and metrics, an understanding of change management and experience implementing technology platforms. This type of collaboration is a force multiplier because it brings legal professionals as close to the business as possible to enable the work of other stakeholders. 

Essentially, legal operations professionals not only make their General Counsels more strategic in their roles, but also function more strategically within the operations of their larger organization. In two other sessions on Wednesday, No Pressure: You’re Building a Leal Operations Function from the Ground Up and Bringing a Sales Ops mindset to Legal Ops, attendee engagement spurred on the speakers, who reinforced the need to understand the entire business operations ecosystem within one’s own organization and align legal operations initiatives with the broader business environment as a cross-functional partner. The No Pressure session also discussed how to develop a visual roadmap for legal operations initiatives that effectively communicates the priorities, timing and alignment of projects to the general counsel and other business stakeholders.

How do Legal Ops professionals level up within their organizations and learn how to leverage these networks? By leaning into the experience of their colleagues, peers, advisors, and service providers.  At CLOC this year I spoke with a few people who have transformed themselves from practicing lawyers into legal operations advisors helping other professionals navigate their organizations and business challenges.  For instance, Aaron Kotok from AdvanceLaw (now part of the Mitratech family) advises in-house counsel on selecting service providers and managing their panels with an eye towards collaboration; Christine Kennedy of Major Lindsey & Africa guides legal operations leaders through the best practices of organizational design, selecting talent and technology and streamlining workflows; and Catherine Krow, founder of Digitory Legal (now part of the BigHand family) focuses on diversity and uses metrics to create impact within a LegalOps department’s sphere of influence. Our conversations focused on the value of collaboration and how each of us brings the best practices of matter management, business analysis and technology insights to our clients. 

Transformation through collaboration has the potential to accelerate both the growth and maturity of the LegalOps function. My colleague Kevin Bielawski, the Director of Legal Operations at Husch Blackwell, serves on CLOC’s Legal Project Management 2.0 Committee, led by Scott Rosenberg, CJ Nicastro and Aileen Leventon, which continues to build upon the Matter Lifecycle Management guide released last year. Kevin also recently responded to an inquiry in CLOC’s listserv detailing other industry organizations who can assist in-house professionals with acquiring business skills and acumen through their certification programs.  As in-house teams connect with their Ops counterparts in other areas of the business and draw on the experience of their external networks, business professionals with legal skills will continue to transform the perception of legal from the office of “No” to a cross-functional business partner.