operations

Subscribe to operations via RSS

This piece from FT confronts head-on the well-worn notion that law departments slow down business progress. Thomas Laubert, group general counsel of Daimler, the German carmaker, says the depiction of legal departments as bottlenecks holding back the rest of the business is an outdated cliché. “In-house counsel is the one that is [pushing] and has to push digital innovation,” he told FT. While it is still common for business heads to complain that a project or contract has been “stuck in legal,” many general counsel believe this notion of in-house teams always blocking progress is unfair.
Continue Reading Stuck in Legal? No Way

Thomson Reuters, drawing from its recently released 2021 State of Corporate Law Departments Report, says forward-thinking in-house leaders are poised to accelerate value optimization by continuing to invest in the “technology, processes and smart resourcing” the pandemic’s disruption forced upon them. “Through unprecedented disruption, crisis management and immediate shifts to new ways of working, critical gaps and shortcomings within departments were revealed and many corrected through the implementation of new processes and technologies,” says Lisa Hart Shepherd, VP of Research & Advisory Services for Thomson Reuters. “Law department leaders who quickly realized traditional methods of work could evolve and still meet department goals were able to pivot faster and more successfully during this year of unexpected challenges.” Download the complete free report here.
Continue Reading Pandemic’s Silver Lining for Law Departments

The newly released survey report, “Legal Pricing & Project Management,” was 13 years in the making, according to David Cambria, former corporate ops leader at Archer Daniels Midland, who now hangs his hat on the other side of the fence at megafirm Baker McKenzie. From that vantage, Cambria says he increasingly saw law firms deploying the same disciplines and capabilities as legal ops professionals.
Continue Reading Good Fences Make Good Neighbors