Legal operations professionals are gaining important seats at internal tables and even within C-Suites. They are accompanied by management efficiencies, business principles and a goal to improve practices. But it seems outside lawyers are turning a deaf ear.
One of the most interesting and timely sessions at the CLOC conference this week was titled: What Law Firms Still Don’t Understand About Legal Operations. This was facilitated by Emily Stedmanwho is herself a partner in commercial litigation in a renowned firm, Hush Blackwell.
But it was actually a public discussion session under CLOC’s “Community Conversations” title, where the public was invited to provide comments and ideas. And the audience was primarily made up of in-house legal operations professionals.
The move is timely as more in-house legal departments and senior executives will seek to apply business principles to the way their outside counsel handles and manages matters. This is, of course, the very essence of legal operations.
Does the outside lawyer have an attitude?
I wasn’t sure what I was going to hear. My instinct was that too many firms, and lawyers for that matter, seem to think that it’s business as usual and that they can continue to do things without a working knowledge of what legal operations is and what legal operations professionals do.
Just one piece of evidence: as usual, very few practicing lawyers are attending the CLOC conference. Which is funny, because not only is the conference an opportunity to learn about legal operations and what their clients think, but it would also provide access to outside counsel to legal operations professionals at large firms who often play a role in selecting and managing lawyers. Without this knowledge, one must wonder how outside counsel can hope to be prepared for what is coming. Especially as AI enables greater speed and efficiency, the impact of legal operations will only increase.
And of course, no outside counsel was present at the session to explain what they should know about a discipline that is becoming increasingly important in the legal landscape.
Why was this my instinct? Traditionally, outside counsel has viewed in-house legal services as downright painful. There was an air of arrogance and superiority from the in-house legal teams: they can’t possibly know more than I do about how to run a case. The idea is that because of my skills and expertise, I run the show. And this attitude would be twofold for “non-lawyer” legal operations professionals. I know. I saw it.
On the other hand, I had hope that this attitude and lack of collaboration was a relic of a bygone era. Unfortunately, from the comments I’ve heard, this is still the case.
And the public says
The discussion began with a story about an audience member telling an associate at her outside law firm that she was coming to a legal operations conference. His response: “What does legal operations involve?” » This lack of knowledge about both legal operations and the internal legal needs of outside counsel permeated the discussion.
An opening question to the audience revealed this in spades: What do outside lawyers know or don’t know about legal operations? The first hand rose and shouted: let it exist!
But it goes further: audience members suggested that outside counsel need to understand that legal operations can and does contribute to the delivery of legal services. They need to understand the scope of what they are being asked to do, the budget constraints they face internally, and the deadlines they face internally. All of these pressures are pressures that in-house counsel face on a daily basis from the legal operations team.
And: outside lawyers never even ask about the in-house legal ops team and how they can help them bring the matter to fruition. Audience members noted that outside counsel is still not trying to efficiently use their resources to provide services at a lower cost. They don’t use alternative resources among those who may not be lawyers. They do not follow the directives of external lawyers. They don’t involve their internal pricing teams. There is a lack of transparency. They don’t receive invoices and budgets on time and don’t make sure they’re right.
One audience member said she was just emailing her outside lawyer during the session about something and he immediately tried to sell her something else. His response: I just launched “something else” via AI and I already have the answer. Which of course the outside lawyer could have done. Heads nodded and eyes rolled.
When it comes to RFPs, simple elements like providing a representative experience when responding are overlooked. Instead, companies provide 300 pages glorifying what the company and its members have done, which has little relevance and is self-serving. Respond as requested in the RFP: if they want items in Excel, do so. Follow the instructions.
Another thing that was telling: The audience was asked: What good do outside lawyers do? Silence. Then the answers came right back to what the public wanted their outside lawyers to do better.
All this from a 30 minute program. But it paints a pretty good picture of a big divide that still exists between in-house counsel and outside counsel. It was like going back in time 20 years.
Certainly, the discussion implicitly encouraged a blame session. And it’s easy to focus on the negative in a discussion like this. But still, what I’ve heard is real frustration from those who have a say in how things are run and who gets hired.
Do you want to succeed in the future? Embrace legal operations
Unfortunately, many lawyers will read all of this and conclude that no one is forcing me to change. I’m pretty indispensable. I have news for you: that’s not the case. Not when more than 2,000 legal operations professionals come together each year for the sole purpose of expanding their influence and the services they provide. All this to enable in-house legal departments and executives to manage legal costs and achieve better results.
It has become commonplace to say that future successful businesses will harness AI tools and use them to serve their customers. But this is only part of the overall key to success. AI is just part of what legal operations will use to better serve their clients and the businesses they serve.
What we should really be saying is that future successful businesses will embrace legal operations, hire legal operations professionals, and show up at conferences like CLOC to hear what’s really going on with your clients and where they’re going.
Stephen Embry is a lawyer, speaker, blogger and writer. He publishes Carrefour TechLawa blog dedicated to examining the tension between technology, law and the practice of law.
