Transforming Legal Ops: Automate to Elevate Your In-House Workflow

In today’s fast-paced business environment, legal teams face mounting pressure to do more with less. According to a recent survey, nearly 70% of General Counsel expressed a desire to leverage technology to increase efficiency. The critical question is: how can legal teams transform from a reactive support layer to a strategic partner in business growth? The answer lies in embracing automation through smart legal operations.

Legal operations are not merely administrative support; they are the linchpin that connects legal expertise with business needs. By incorporating automation, in-house legal teams can unify processes, enhance decision-making, and ultimately, foster trust within the organization. Here are some key benefits:

Automation can significantly reshape various workflows — for instance, contract lifecycle management (CLM). This function, frequently prone to inefficiency and delays, can benefit immensely from automation. By utilizing platforms like Sandstone, legal teams can automate alerts and renewals, ensuring that contracts are proactively managed rather than reacted to at the last minute.

One of the many ways to harness automation is by creating modular workflows. These workflows can adapt to specific legal tasks and processes, ensuring that every team operates with precision and clarity. Layered data allows legal professionals to access critical information quickly, and streamlined communication enhances collaboration both within the legal department and with other stakeholders.

A pivotal example is the onboarding process for new clients or vendors. By integrating automated tools into this workflow — from initial risk assessments to contract drafting — legal teams can ensure that no crucial step is overlooked while significantly reducing turnaround times.

To succeed in the realm of legal operations, teams must embrace measurable outcomes. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) become an invaluable resource for tracking the efficiency and effectiveness of automated workflows. Consider these vital KPIs:

Utilizing data from these KPIs can help legal teams refine their processes and improve their strategic positioning within the company. If automation leads to consistently reduced turnaround times, for instance, that can yield significant time savings, freeing up resources for more strategic initiatives.

As a starting point, legal teams should assess their most cumbersome processes. Which tasks are repetitive? Where do the bottlenecks occur? By identifying these pain points, teams can prioritize which workflows to automate first. Platforms like Sandstone not only provide automation tools but also integrate seamlessly with existing processes, allowing for a smoother transition into more efficient operations.

In conclusion, the integration of automation within legal operations is not just a trend; it is essential for organizations looking to thrive in an increasingly complex legal landscape. Embracing automation fosters scalability and efficiency that serves as the bedrock of trust and growth within any modern enterprise. By transforming even the most mundane tasks into streamlined, automated workflows, legal teams can shift focus towards strategic contributions and become proactive instead of reactive.