How to improve in-house legal department efficiency and effectiveness

Unlock your legal department’s potential

Companies often press their in-house legal departments to be more efficient, but how can your department deliver the same level of service with fewer resources? The departments that have successfully made that shift credit a purposeful use of technology and data. These resources help the department work better and ultimately demonstrate their value. A clearly defined legal technology road map aligned with business strategy is a critical tool to help your department control cost, drive efficiency and effectiveness, and ultimately demonstrate value by acting as a business enabler.

The 2024 State of the Corporate Law Department report from Thomson Reuters found that legal department leaders see technology as a clear way to help departments be more efficient and meet cost control goals. Despite this enthusiasm, however, many in-house legal teams are not satisfied with the pace of introducing new tech. According to the report, “While law departments seem high on aspiration, 90% admit to making only slow to moderate progress in adopting new tech and only 32% report anticipating an increased legal tech budget.”

Yet, there is an appetite to explore tech further. “More than three-quarters (76%) of in-house legal professionals said they believe that artificial intelligence has the potential to help them achieve their goals of greater internal efficiency, while 72% see using technology to simplify their workflow as a high priority.”

Even as corporate law department leaders express frustration at the slow rollout of some technologies, they’re looking for innovations to support the team and the business.  
Developing and managing a legal technology road map can help the legal department stage the rollout of new technologies to meet the greatest needs of the business. A road map also prevents introducing too much change too quickly.

This work can also help you manage rollouts for greater adoption and communicate the overall vision to stakeholders more effectively. The result of more successful tech rollouts should be greater efficiency, better use of the department budget, and better business outcomes.
By deploying technology, the legal department can better control costs and free up lawyers’ time to focus on strategic, higher-value work. Indeed, more than half the legal department leaders surveyed (52%) said the use of technology and automation was a significant part of their cost control strategy, enabling them to complete in-house work more efficiently.

Now, let’s take a deeper look at what a technology road map is, how to build one, and the risks of not having one.

What is a technology road map?

A legal technology road map is best defined as a plan that identifies the specifics of how technology can support the legal business strategy and priorities over a period — typically a three-year outlook.

Basic legal technology road map example:

How to start building a road map

1. Prioritise

What is the biggest pain point or challenge regarding strategic priorities for the legal department?

Common strategic priority examples

If you don’t have clear strategic priorities for the legal department, you can start by surveying the departments and business stakeholders that regularly interact with legal on areas of greatest need.

1. Process map

Before building a plan, you must understand the current people, processes, and systems in place. You can start by listing current systems used by the legal department and looking at the common legal department responsibilities or the most common business requests.

A great way to identify where process re-engineering or new technology is required is by looking specifically at processes that are high-cost, difficult, cumbersome, time-consuming, repetitive, high-volume, or low-value. As you go a level deeper and map processes leading to a need for technological improvements, be sure to define requirements and success measures along the way.

1. Plan for implementation or procure solution

Technology road maps don’t always mean the addition of new technology. You may have a system that needs an update based on business changes. You may also prefer systems that are both easy to implement and scalable over time. Once you have a map of processes and priorities, start with your highest priority — don’t try to do it all at once. Instead, focus on identifying quick wins and then build on that success.

Look for solutions that can deliver cost savings. Then, promote and report the cost savings to show success and build support. You should be able to re-allocate those savings to procure additional technologies or resources to tackle the next priority on your list.

What are the risks of not having a technology road map?

Operating without a clear technology road map can pose several risks, including:

1. Lack of buy-in from the legal department or leadership when attempting a change. An approved and communicated road map will make the change management journey simpler. 
2. Difficulty securing budget when you find a solution. A clear legal road map builds a better internal relationship with IT, finance, or procurement for faster purchases. 
3. Ending up with the wrong technology at the wrong time. Think through which tools should come first as you build the road map. For example, you may not want to deploy a contract review AI tool before you have contracts in a central repository. 
4. Not considering interconnectivity and overall simplification of tools. There is danger in procuring too much technology that doesn’t work together. 
5. Lack of resources to ensure technology success. Consider legal department staff as part of your road map to support implementation efforts and gain a better partnership with IT for support. 
6. Competitive disadvantage for your organisation. If your competitor’s legal departments are controlling costs by deploying technology, you may be operating at lower levels of effectiveness. Doing so could result in your company having less funds to deploy to other strategic priorities.

How do I ensure I select the right solution for the legal department?

When vetting technologies, identify your priorities — see a sample list on the previous page — and deploy a simple one-to-five scoring method to help compare solutions. Does the solution have or provide: 

• End-user friendliness
• Design for legal workflows
• Strong data security and access controls
• Quick implementation
• Measurable return on investment or cost savings
• Open platform with APIs to connect corporate systems
• Quality of connections to standard business tools like Microsoft Outlook and Office
• Integrations with enterprise systems like AP Systems, HR Systems
• Connection of legal workflows — connection between spend and matter management, contract management, and eSignature, for example
• Cloud-based systems
• Legal department management or ownership with no code or low code to make updates and changes
• Valuable reporting and data visualisation
• Use of modern technologies and capabilities, like generative artificial intelligence (GenAI)

My legal department doesn’t have any technology outside of Microsoft Word and Outlook — where do I start?

When considering core solutions for your legal department:

• Focus on your area of greatest need.
• Consider which solutions are foundational, demonstrate a clear return on investment, and help your organisation minimise risk.

Several surveys have found that e-billing and matter management are the most widely adopted technologies for in-house legal departments. While some technology delivers a broad-based approach to helping manage your legal operations, other simple tools like eSignature can yield significant benefits to drive efficiency within your business processes.

The sample list below provides common legal department technologies that are foundational, advanced, and revolutionary, depending on the sophistication of the department.

Ultimately, you should focus on the areas with the biggest need for your department based on your prioritised road map.

Take the next step toward developing a legal road map

If you’re on a journey to improve your legal operations technology, the best place to start is with a technology road map. Through this process and the resulting documentation, you’ll more clearly understand what you have, what you need, and how to get there. That way, you are more likely to succeed in controlling cost, driving efficiency, improving effectiveness, and mitigating risk.