Legal departments are under more scrutiny than ever before. As organisations expand globally and regulatory demands rise, legal leaders are under pressure to balance cost control with agility and value creation. This shift demands a smarter approach that prioritises legal department efficiency without compromising quality or compliance. This is where legal operations strategy comes into play, helping unlock greater productivity and value while turning legal operations from a cost centre to a strategic enabler. Getting it right is not just beneficial; it is essential for future-ready legal departments.
understanding legal operations
Legal operations refers to the business function that enables legal teams to deliver high-value legal services efficiently. Its primary goal is to improve legal process efficiency and control costs while aligning legal strategy with business priorities.
A strong legal operations framework typically relies on four key pillars, namely:
- Strategy: Aligning legal goals with business outcomes.
- Talent: Deploying the right legal and operational resources.
- Process and workload: Streamlining legal workflows and workload management.
- Contracts: Improving contract lifecycle management.
With legal teams now under pressure to manage higher contract volumes with lower headcounts, optimising legal operations strategy matters more than ever. The pressure to automate is also rising, with 93% of CEOs and CFOs expecting legal teams to accelerate AI adoption. Cross-functional collaboration is also becoming central to enterprise success and facilitating legal operations transformation.
building an optimised, data-driven legal operations strategy
Despite the pressing need, many organisations still struggle with legal operations transformation and improving their legal department’s efficiency. Some of the most common barriers hindering progress include:
- Resistance to change within legal teams.
- Budget and resource constraints.
- Uncertainty around the value of legal operations.
- Limited time for long-term planning.
A well-defined legal operations strategy can help address these challenges head-on, helping enhance financial, operational, and strategic efficiency. With this, legal teams can move from reactive firefighting to proactive value delivery.
Here’s how organisations and their legal teams can start building an optimised, data-driven legal operations strategy:
assess your current state of legal operations
Begin with a maturity assessment. Evaluate your existing capabilities, workflows, technologies, and team structure. Consider how well your current operations support overall business goals and pinpoint areas lacking visibility or accountability. This helps identify key inefficiencies and areas for improvement.
define clear goals and build a roadmap
Set realistic, measurable objectives aligned with business priorities. Develop a phased action plan that balances quick wins with long-term improvements. Include milestones and stakeholder responsibilities to maintain momentum and ensure accountability.
invest in smart, scalable technology
Leverage next-gen technology solutions to automate routine tasks, streamline contract management, and gain real-time visibility. Focus on tools that integrate well with your existing stack. Prioritise platforms that support scalability and offer analytics capabilities for better decision-making.
empower legal operations talent
Skilled legal operations professionals act as change agents in legal operations transformation and strategy optimisation. Invest in roles that blend legal knowledge with process, tech, and project management expertise. Equip them with tools and authority to drive meaningful transformation across legal and business functions.
break silos through cross-functional collaboration
Legal teams cannot operate in isolation. Connect legal operations with procurement, finance, HR, and IT to ensure shared workflows, compliance, and visibility across departments. Strong collaboration helps reduce risk, improves data consistency, and accelerates decision-making.
build strategic vendor partnerships
Vendors can extend your capabilities and fill critical skill gaps. Plan your outsourcing and technology vendor strategy with long-term scalability in mind. Prioritise vendors that understand your business context and can evolve with your legal needs.
track performance with meaningful metrics
Use KPIs to measure efficiency, cost savings, contract cycle times, and risk mitigation. Data-driven insights will help continuously improve decision-making. Regularly review these metrics to adjust your legal operations strategy and ensure alignment with evolving goals.
Infosys BPM offers advanced legal process management solutions that help enterprises drive legal operations transformation at scale. Infosys BPM combines deep domain expertise with innovative tools and a consultative approach. It helps clients to boost legal department efficiency by reducing lead times and standardising tasks. Its AI-powered hybrid operating models and accurate reporting and managed services ensure legal processes stay aligned with overall business goals.
conclusion
A modern, data-driven legal operations strategy is key to unlocking greater agility, cost and process efficiency, productivity, and long-term value. By combining the right talent, technology, and cross-functional collaboration, legal teams can move beyond day-to-day tasks and become a strategic asset for the business. Embracing legal operations transformation is not just a way to boost legal department efficiency. It is also an enabler of enhanced risk management, data-driven decision-making, and better business alignment. These capabilities position legal teams as critical enablers of enterprise success in an increasingly complex world.
