The Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (“CLOC”) defines legal operations as follows:

“Legal operations” (or legal ops) describes a set of business processes, activities, and the professionals who enable legal departments to serve their clients more effectively by applying business and technical practices to the delivery of legal services. Legal ops provides the strategic planning, financial management, project management, and technology expertise that enables legal professionals to focus on providing legal advice.

CLOC’s core 12 functional areas of legal operations include:

• Business Intelligence
• Financial Management
• Firm & Vendor Management
• Information Governance
• Knowledge Management
• Organization Optimization & Health
• Practice Operations
• Project/Program Management
• Service Delivery Models
• Strategic Planning
• Technology
• Training & Development

For more information on each functional area, please visit: https://cloc.org

Legal operations in a law firm versus Legal operations in the legal department of a company are completely different in how the law is applied and the legal services or solutions are rendered.

In a Law firm, as a practising attorney, you may specialise in one or two areas of law, for example, commercial law or family law, but as a legal advisor, you are expected to be knowledgeable in a wide range of laws, from commercial law, labour law, compliance to litigation. In addition to providing legal advice to the company, a legal advisor is also involved in the day-to-day non-legal operations of the company which may include project management, financial management and mostly problem/issue management. As the legal advisor, you are the problem solver in the Company. Operating and managing a legal department is a strongly admin-driven process and many times it is overwhelming due to the demands placed on a legal advisor. Legal advisors are also not exposed to the practice of law, and it is very difficult to keep up with the constant changes in the law.

In addition to CLOC 12 functional areas for Legal operations, we believe that the core areas for legal operations or legal administration in operating a legal department are as follows:

Contract Management

Contract management is the process and management of the contract life cycle from the creation of the contract, negotiation, signature, storage, and post-contract management. Contract management includes the management of key contract obligations and metrics, like managing renewal dates or payment dates. Each company has its own unique contracts and contracting processes.  It’s important to have a Contract policy (including SOPs) in place to streamline and manage the contract life cycle.

Matter Management

Matter management is the process and management of legal matters such as legal collections, insurance claims, labour matters (CCMA) and other non-litigations matters. Matter management includes the management of key matter information and metrics such as legal spending, attorney management and key court dates. It’s important to have a Matter management policy (including SOPs) in place to streamline and manage legal matters.

Compliance Management

Compliance management or compliance risk management is the process of identifying, assessing, and mitigating potential losses that may arise from a company’s noncompliance with laws, regulations, standards, and both internal and external policies and procedures. Compliance risk management is a continuous process that involves tracking changes in the regulatory environment to ensure a Company’s compliance is up to date. Companies must create compliance risk management policies and procedures, which are frameworks and mechanisms that are implemented to control compliance risk. It’s important to have a Compliance management policy (including SOPs) in place to minimize legal risks and business exposures for a Company.

Intellectual Property Management

Intellectual Property (“IP”) management is the process and management of IP like trademarks, patents, and copyrights. IP management includes registration, protection, and monitoring of renewal dates for IP. It’s important to have an IP management policy (including SOPs) in place to manage and protect the IP of the Company.

Legal Knowledge Management 

Legal knowledge management is the storing and managing of all legal knowledge, legal precedents and legal documents that are applicable to the company in one central place.  It’s a legal library where the company employees can access legal information, precedents, checklists, contracts and other legal resources regarding the company and its legal operations. It’s important to have a knowledge management policy in place to streamline and manage the legal knowledge as it relates to the company.

Most legal advisors or companies we speak to are still using excel spreadsheets and other less effective ways to manage the core areas of their legal operations. In addition, the legal departments or companies that use legal technology, the technology only manage one core area of legal operations such as contract management and fail to deal with other important areas such as compliance management. Legal departments also don’t have legal policies, guidelines, and standard operating procedures in place on how to manage and operate the legal functions/legal operations in an effective manner.

To support and assist companies and legal advisors in managing the legal operations for the business, Inhouselawyer has worked with many legal departments in implementing legal software to streamline legal operations/legal administration to meet their specific needs thereby reducing time and saving money. Inhouselawyer has also implemented legal policies, guidelines, and standard operating procedures for companies and legal departments to manage and operate the legal functions/legal operations in an effective manner.

For more information regarding the implementation of legal software for companies and legal departments and the implementation of legal policies, guidelines, and standard operating procedures for legal departments to manage and operate the legal functions/legal operations, please feel free to contact us.