Legal Department Operations (LDOs) are now front and center of internal legal departments − as a decade of results show in a newly released survey sponsored by Baker McKenzie. Ten years ago, only 8% of Legal Ops directed or managed the selection of outside counsel for particular matters, and only 16% did so for panels. Today, those numbers are 32% and 36% respectively. This is the new normal.
Increasingly the engine room of law firms and in-house counsel, LDOs are highly strategic yet nimble, and increasingly legal ops functions are driving and aligning law departments to corporate strategy − with the support of their GC.
David Cambria, Baker McKenzie’s recently appointed Global Director of Legal Operations and Chair of the LDO Survey Advisory Board, shares his insights in this significant report which highlights trends in all the key areas that are important in legal operations, including reporting structures, top challenges and KPIs, technology, outside counsel management and cost control.
Put simply, legal ops teams are scoping out the most innovative way to perform legal services – and GCs are taking heed.
