The article reviews 6 critical success factors, (CSF) for a successful law department – especially if they must add value to the company. The composite score for most departments is only 5 on 10. Priorities for improvement are proposed.

Richard interviewed 5 UK Experts : Mark Ford at E+Y Law, Ian Gray at Eversheds Sutherland LLP, Nick Williams at Proxima, Stuart Dodds at Positive Pricing et Deborah Watson at Coate O’Grady. The article features fresh thinking and energy in the market supporting corporate and government law departments.

Six processes support process improvement. The first three focus on the customer for value engagement. They include value creation, figuring out how the work gets done and removing waste. The fourth requires evidence-based decision-making, fifth is people empowerment, and the last is sustainable process improvement.
Process improvement will be successful when client behaviours change to require less legal service and more self-sufficiency from clients.

Six Chief Legal Officers share their views about the current state of their law departments and the outlook for the next six months. The article covers workflows and workloads, the relationship of the law department with business units, law department resources, performance and the relative use of external counsel.

An effective law department requires six ingredients to be successfully managed. These are a comprehensive business plan, a multi-year forecast of the demand for internal and external legal services, work intake and allocation protocols that business units will accept, technology that is sufficiently advanced to relieve at least 30% of senior counsel time otherwise tied down with routine work, cost-effective non-hourly arrangements with external counsel, and metrics that drive behavior, priorities and resource allocation.

Most inside counsel lack key elements of technology literacy to acquire or customize and use applications that will make them more efficient or their clients more self-sufficient. The article poses six questions designed to help legal departments better understand their workloads, workflows and the relative complexity of the matters being worked on.

Most inside counsel lack key elements of technology literacy to acquire or customize and use applications that will make them more efficient or their clients more self-sufficient. The article poses six questions designed to help legal departments better understand their workloads, workflows and the relative complexity of the matters being worked on.