Lighting a competitive fire under your outside law firms

Other ways to get more bang for your buck include freeing up in-house lawyer time for more valuable work and getting one-time pre-work funded before asking for a recurring-cost commitment. 

By Robert Freedman • Nov. 7, 2022

How a healthcare CLO cut legal spend by 60%

Much of the outside counsel work could be done in-house or by third-party vendors, says Care Initiatives’ outgoing legal chief.

By Robert Freedman • Nov. 4, 2022

How legal ops can help build a corporate recoveries program

Unlike defense work, recoveries requires someone to be constantly tending the garden, pushing, pulling and poking to keep things growing.

By Jessica Lynch • Oct. 28, 2022

Pressure grows to curb law-firm costs, PE, VC lawyers say

Legal billing often comes in higher than expected and is seen as the hardest to control, a survey shows.

By Robert Freedman • Oct. 28, 2022

Making in-house legal success a concrete reality to the broader business

Quantifying cost savings will only get you so far, legal operations specialists say. Telling the story will seal the deal. 

By Robert Freedman • Oct. 25, 2022

How to build a legal team while keeping the business in mind

Elastic CLO Carolyn Herzog says her approach to creating new legal department positions has been guided by a “one team mentality.” 

By Lyle Moran • Oct. 21, 2022

Streaming platform features in-house leaders providing industry insights

Prominent GCs and CLOs appear in educational series on Luminate+ covering pressing issues and trends facing legal departments.

By Lyle Moran • Oct. 18, 2022

How law firms are helping GCs transform in-house operations

Outside counsel are differentiating themselves by offering matter management and other technology tools that can help general counsel combine legal success with administrative efficiencies.     

By Sheila Gormley • Oct. 14, 2022

More matters without more resources: In-house legal chiefs

Use of outside law firms remains the biggest cost by far but few corporate departments try to lower spend by seeking bids or using alternative fees.

By Robert Freedman • Oct. 14, 2022

153% cost difference between NYC, Phoenix lawyers

On a national average basis, the typical law firm partner hourly rate is $749, up about 6% from two years ago, according to data based on actual billing amounts.

By Robert Freedman • Oct. 13, 2022

Understanding top business objectives is key for legal ops leaders

Legal operations chiefs also need to be ready to pivot quickly when business needs change, experienced legal professionals said during a recent webinar.

By Lyle Moran • Oct. 11, 2022

Banks contained outside counsel spend in 2021

Financial services companies tend to have invested more in rate management than other industries with some success, according to a new Wolters Kluwer report. 

By Lyle Moran • Oct. 7, 2022

Common tech tools can aid legal holds but they’re not optimal

A tool that has in-place preservation, for example, can reduce data security exposure, specialists say.

By Robert Freedman • Oct. 3, 2022

Legal talent platform launches its own mobile app

Lawtrades said the new application will help quickly connect in-house legal departments with freelance talent. 

By Lyle Moran • Sept. 30, 2022

Clean data, cultural awareness key to legal ops transition in merger

Knowing what data you have, where it is, and what needs to be transferred helps make a difficult process easier, says the new legal ops chief at MGM Resorts.

By Robert Freedman • Sept. 29, 2022

Legal ops roles require soft skills

A familiarity with project management and legal technology also come in handy for those wanting to transition to legal operations, according to experts.

By Lyle Moran • Sept. 28, 2022

Data management a key focus of legal department transformation efforts

Automation is also a major area of investment for in-house teams pursuing change, according to a report from the ACC and DISCO.

By Lyle Moran • Sept. 27, 2022

Taking a broad approach to help over-worked in-house attorneys

Adding tech and tweaking processes to maximize in-house attorney work without integration with the broader business isn’t the best way to go, specialists say.

By Robert Freedman • Sept. 27, 2022

Legal ops teams are small but growing

Staff to help in-house legal teams operate more efficiently are prevalent at a wide array of companies, and more legal departments plan to add ops teams in the years to come. 

By Lyle Moran • Sept. 26, 2022

$3.1M median pay for large public-company general counsel

About 25% of what top in-house lawyers make is in salary. Most is tied to performance, both company and their own, Equilar data show.

By Robert Freedman • Sept. 20, 2022

Why Lawtrades shifted its focus to serving mid-market and enterprise companies

The platform has seen rapid growth since redefining its target customers and expanding the type of professionals available to work with in-house legal teams.

By Lyle Moran • Sept. 14, 2022

General Counsel gets lawyer tech buy-in using ‘wrap-around’ technique

By easing in new systems so benefits can be seen immediately, legal ops can get hold-outs to adopt changes on their own.

By Robert Freedman • Sept. 14, 2022

Largest companies buck trend of outside law firm consolidation

A Wolters Kluwer report also found that use of alternative providers remained steady during a 36% increase in overall external legal spend last year.

By Lyle Moran • Sept. 13, 2022

A CLM provider and procurement solution have joined forces

Ironclad and Zip say their integration will protect legal departments’ time and and help companies strengthen their procurement workflows.

By Lyle Moran • Sept. 12, 2022

Thrown into legal ops, a former asset manager tapped his project, budgeting skills

The analytical skills David Evans of Nextdoor developed at a real estate company translated well to his responsibilities managing systems for in-house attorneys.

By Robert Freedman • Sept. 12, 2022