Legal operations debt: how to tackle it

Every in-house legal team has an accumulation of inefficiencies, outdated processes and neglected improvements, either small or large. Here, Lucy Powell explores why now is the right time to start to tackle your legal operations debt.

What is legal operations debt?

We are familiar with financial debt – borrowing funds to allow something to happen.  It can be good as it enables you to buy that dream house but also bad if mismanaged as interest will rack up.  

Similarly, all technology businesses and teams have technology debt. Perhaps some code that nobody wants to touch or is built on an old framework, but if not maintained will gradually accumulate bugs and slow things down.

If we apply the same thought process to legal operations, and the accumulation of outdated ways of working, technology that has not been updated or people are used to working a certain way will begin to impede a legal team’s agility and effectiveness.

The challenge is there is rarely a burning platform which required immediate focus on the underlying issues.  If high quality legal advice is still being provided, what is the need to look under the bonnet? And if we can fix any issues with sticking plasters, or rely on acceptance of the norm, is it really a priority for time and effort?
The answer is yes.  The longer you leave something that doesn’t work, the more effort and cost is required to address it in the long term.

Where do I start?

Prioritise, be realistic about your debt status and be intentional about your approach. 

What does this mean in practice?

Here are a few top tips to start tackling your legal operations debt:

1. Bring people on the journey with you 

The biggest change will be on people, mindset and culture so starting with all your stakeholders is critical to success.

Understand your team and colleagues in the business – what makes them tick (and what doesn’t) and how open are they to change and leaving old habits behind.
Identify support from leadership. Those at the top should understand the need for change in the legal team, that the team wants to be productive but is constrained by the accumulated weight of outdated technology and past edge cases.  Leadership needs to know that if nothing happens the legal team is in danger of grinding to a halt.

2. Build your list of projects  

Identify all possible legal operations projects, including a brief description of the problem statement, the benefits of fixing it and a broad idea of effort (using a simple High / Medium / Low analysis).

Classify the projects based on consolidated view of the benefits and effort and develop a prioritisation pyramid – fewer high priority activities at the top, more lower priority projects at the bottom.

3. Make a start

Identify the top three projects and get into the detail – what’s the problem statement, why does this need to change, what information do you need and how do you get it?  
Consider what could yield an easy win to establish trust in what you’re doing.

Be clear in your scope and plan – changing your mind is ok but clarity on activities, timeline and effort will lead to a higher success rate.  If you focus on delivering value, the legal team will see regular progress and that projects are set up for success.

Lastly, recognise and reward everyone who works on legal operations debt clean-up – it’s just as important as providing legal advice and will deliver many benefits in the future. By acknowledging and tackling decisions and ways of working that were made before, you open the potential for transforming the legal team and building a resilient and agile function for the future and one that truly supports the business.