Legal operations careers are expanding as law firms recognize the need for budgeting, research, and efficiency beyond legal expertise. According to Thomas Reuters, in 2023, 62% of firms prioritized legal operations, rising to 70% in 2024. Legal ops teams streamline processes, manage budgets, and implement technology to enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and improve client outcomes. 

These professionals bridge law and business, driving innovation and competitive advantage. Choosing a career in legal operations depends on one's risk tolerance and interest in operational strategy.

“I actually started thinking about what is next while working in IT on legal technology, and I thought, Do I go to law school or a graduate school and talking to one of my mentors and asked what should I do next? The work I was doing at that firm looked at practice management and business and taking things in consideration as what will make this organization more successful, and I started to get open to opportunities and not that I was seeking them out, but was open to learning on what’s next.”

~Alexandra Guajardo, Global Director of Commercial Strategy at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP

To learn more about Alexandra's journey in legal operations, listen to the podcast. A career in legal operations can work wonders for your career. Let’s see how. 

What is legal operations?

Legal operations  (Legal Ops) optimize a legal department’s efficiency by improving processes, technology, and financial management. It involves contract management, compliance, vendor negotiation, and data analytics. Legal Ops professionals streamline workflows, reduce costs, and enhance strategic decision-making.

Legal operations specialists require expertise in finance, data analytics, marketing, and learning and development. These skills help law firms monitor compliance, manage risks, leverage technology, and render legal services better.

“I started with an HR background and spent the first 10-12 years of my career in law firms and could see the future - 10-15 years and this is not fulfilling me. I kind of evolved on purpose, while I was with firms taking HR into more practice operations within the law firm and ended up getting my opportunity to go in-house with Hilton as they were looking for their first legal ops hire. So, I was at the right place and right time.”

~Susan Packal, Head of Global Legal Operations at Atlassian

What are the key responsibilities of legal operations?

Running a legal department or being a lawyer isn't a walk in the park. There’s a lot of pressure on the legal team to cut costs, boost efficiency, and deliver results simultaneously. That’s where legal operations come in—they streamline workflows and budgets, giving you more time to focus on keeping clients happy and developing cases.

The Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC) has laid out some major competencies necessary for a legal ops career. Let's look at some core responsibilities. 

Contract Management

Managing contracts can really take up a lot of time and energy. It often leads to missed deadlines and compliance problems. 

Legal operations streamline contract management by automating workflows, centralizing documents, and ensuring consistency. It prevents missed deadlines and compliance issues. In a legal operations role, responsibilities include implementing templates, tracking deadlines, and enhancing team collaboration to accelerate processes.

Also read: SpotDraft Glides Through Contracts While Juro Stumbles

Legal technology implementation

Lawyers often juggle heavy workloads, tight budgets, and manual tasks, which can really slow them down. That’s where legal ops come into the picture. They implement contract management systems and billing software to automate workflows and tackle these challenges.

Financial management and budgeting

Financial management is challenging with increasing demand for transparency and rising costs. In legal ops careers, you will track spending, implement cost-saving strategies, and forecast costs to manage budgets. You’ll also manage vendors and outside counsel costs and set department-wise financial accountability, ensuring the firm stays within budget.

Risk management and compliance

With laws constantly changing and varying by jurisdiction, compliance becomes quite complicated. As a part of the legal ops team, you’ll tackle this by monitoring regulatory changes, creating compliance policies, conducting audits, and protecting the firm’s reputation while ensuring everything is above board.

Vendor management

Selecting, overseeing, and negotiating with vendors is time-consuming and strains the budget. Legal ops handle vendor selection and negotiation while fostering strategic partnerships. They use standardized processes and data analytics to streamline vendor practices and cut costs.

Data analytics and reporting

Inaccurate reports and outdated insights jeopardize decision-making and client relationships. Data analysis is essential in legal operations careers, aiding in collecting, analyzing, and visualizing legal data. It provides insights, trends, and reports to facilitate seamless decision-making.

How do I break into a legal operations career? Are there risks involved?

Before pursuing a career in legal operations, find out if it suits you. While many find it rewarding, a legal ops career can be challenging.

“Leaving the biggest firm where I started was a hard decision and there was a future for me. I took a step back to taking the multipath opportunity in IT where I had to deal with business leaders, but it was pushing me out of my comfort zone.”

-Alexandra Guajardo, Global Director of Commercial Strategy at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP

Now, finding your first job is daunting, but staying open to any opportunity in legal ops is key. Many hesitate to change careers due to risks, like lack of support or losing their sense of self. 

However, these fears shouldn’t hold you back from pursuing something new. Every career comes with its risks; it’s essential to stay aware of any red flags and navigate your path wisely.

“One of the biggest risks for me was when I went in-house and went to a 95 year old company that had been public and was bought by private equity. A lot of change and over 60% of the company let go and I was walking in to build a legal ops for the first time.”

~Susan Packal, Head of Global Legal Operations at Atlassian

Akshay Verma, COO of SpotDraft, brilliantly summarized legal ops career as promising and laid out some red flags you must check before applying for a legal ops role. He mentioned to be aware of 3 factors:

• Missing strategy
• Lack of vertical understanding
• Administrative overload

“I was very lucky joining Axiom and taking risks on myself, taking a risk financially with my family, and doing something which had no license then. But doing that and not looking back and it's been 12 years and it's been fantastic.”

~Akshay Verma, COO of SpotDraft 

How do you become ready to make the shift to legal operations career?

Switching careers is tough! It's normal to feel anxious about the unknown, skill gaps, and finances. But with the right tips, you can make it easier!

#1. Check for legal operations career opportunities in your area  

Even though there’s a high demand for legal operations, different companies might have their ways of processing and understanding. To stand out, determine your area's trends, best practices, and opportunities.

Condreda P recently addressed the confusion many have about legal operations in a LinkedIn post. She emphasized the importance of clarifying the role of legal ops, which involves streamlining processes, managing resources, and leveraging technology to improve efficiency in legal departments. 

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Source: Condreda P via LinkedIn

#2. Study and research about legal operations

Legal operations integrate business practices into the legal department, including project management, financial management, business intelligence, technology, and strategic planning. Success in this field requires knowledge of these practices, strategies, and key terms.

#3. Join a legal operations community 

Legal operations is evolving, leaving professionals uncertain about practices and role expectations. Joining a legal ops community provides clarity and additional benefits, such as:

• Expanding your network
• Becoming familiar with common challenges
• Getting answers to doubts and questions 
• Learning from the best

Sara Ajmi, Legal Ops and Technology Manager at TELUS, promotes a free online community to support professionals in understanding legal ops, handling objections, and sharing insights. The community helps with:

• Understanding legal ops
• Handling objections
• Overcoming rejections
• Sharing insights and discussions

Source: Sara Ajmi via LinkedIn

#4. Look for a mentor for guidance 

Getting a mentor’s help can jumpstart your legal ops career. You can learn from their experiences and get practical knowledge on succeeding and acclimatizing faster.

#5. Check your skill set and match it with legal operations requirements 

Legal operations require skills in analytics, strategic planning, and leadership. Conduct a SWOT analysis to compare your skills with legal ops requirements. Identify strengths and pursue roles that match your expertise.

“When I was told by a very prominent GC for more operating budget and he said you are terrible in numbers, why would I give you more budget responsibilities? My ego, I had to pick it up from the floor and I was traumatized and I was no, no, that’s not how I will be perceived, and that was the key for me to look back on my skill set.”

~Susan Packal, Head of Global Legal Operations at Atlassian

Akshay Verma's journey from Meta to COO of SpotDraft illustrates how embracing change can lead to new opportunities. Initially, he turned down a job offer from Coinbase because he felt secure at Meta. However, his wife helped him realize that staying comfortable wasn't aligned with his career goals. 

After listening and engaging in discussions with Coinbase, he discovered opportunities for growth beyond just a job. This story teaches us that comfort can hold us back. If you're considering a career shift, like moving into legal ops, here’s how to prepare: 

1. Self-reflect

2. Seek feedback

3. Research

 4. Network

 5. Keep an open mind

“I worked my tail off to become a lawyer, something I wanted to do all my life and I was leaving it behind. I am still in the legal industry and legal profession, and I very quickly saw I could leverage all those skills and it was 2012.”

~Akshay Verma, COO of SpotDraft 

Also read: How An Opera Singer Became A Legal Ops Pro: Cory Clines, Legal Operations Consultant

How to build a legal operations team?

A strong legal operations team helps solve problems like inefficiencies, outdated processes, and increasing costs by using technology and improving workflows. To build your team, identify your needs, hire the right people, and provide them with the necessary tools. 

Let’s discuss how to hire your legal operations team.

#1. Check whether your department is ready 

A recent Thomas Reuters survey revealed that 70% of companies consider legal operations very important. Figuring out the specific needs first is essential. Many departments aim to align their priorities, minimize resource wastage, or address resistance to change. Legal operations consist of three levels: admin, optimizer, and strategizer, each with distinct responsibilities:

• The admin-level focuses on vendor management, compliance, payment processing, and reporting. 
• The optimizer enhances and streamlines processes. 
• The strategizer works to maximize outcomes and achieve the best results possible for the department.

#2. Choose the role to hire

Hiring the right person can be tricky, especially with tech and finance involved. If you're starting to build your team, go for a manager instead of an analyst. They can handle budgeting, strategy, and improving processes.

#3. Give your team the right tools

A Deloitte study found that 46% of the participants did not even have the right tools to perform their jobs. You can’t build a high-performing team without equipping them. Always provide them with the necessary software (contract management and e-billing), automation, and analytical tools to help them be efficient.

Also read: Legal Ops Masterclass:Building Your High-Impact Team

What are the key roles of a legal operations team?

Legal operations manage daily law firm tasks, allowing lawyers to focus on case strategies. Responsibilities include vendor management, process improvement, communication handling, cross-department collaboration, and strategic planning. Balancing these tasks is essential to maintaining work quality.

If you want to excel in legal ops, consider the approach used by Akshay Verma, the COO of SpotDraft. Here's how you can get started:

1. Understand Stakeholders’ Needs: Listen to what different people in the firm require and ensure their needs are met.

2. Automate Repetitive Tasks: Identify tasks that happen repeatedly and find ways to automate them. This will free up your time for more strategic projects.

3. Prioritize Effectively: Use a tool like the Eisenhower Matrix to categorize tasks by urgency and importance, ensuring you focus on what matters.

Once you've tackled these steps, remember to give yourself time to comfortably grow into your new role.

Legal operations career - why is it a great alternate career for lawyers?

Lawyers find themselves overwhelmed by tasks that aren’t directly related to practicing law. According to Martindale’s Attorney Compensation Report, 20% of lawyers work 10-19 hours a week on activities they can’t bill clients for. Also, 18% of lawyers say that long hours are one of the hardest parts of their jobs.

This heavy workload, which often involves manual tasks and coordination with outside partners, leaves many lawyers with less time to focus on their legal work. Alternative legal careers offer a solution in this regard. In this role, you can use your legal knowledge alongside business skills like technology management, improving processes, and making data-driven decisions. 

This shift allows you to expand your skill set and helps law firms become more efficient and productive. The growth in this field is impressive: a recent report noted a 75% increase in legal operations roles since 2018, and 94% of professionals expect this growth to continue over the next two years, according to the Axiom 2024 Legal Operations Survey.

Therefore, choosing a career in legal operations could be a great way for lawyers to enhance their careers while making a meaningful impact in the legal field. 

“I am at a pinnacle of what I feel is legal operations and what’s next and then here you go. The amount of VC money that is coming into legal technology - this year and next five years will be astronomical.”

~Akshay Verma, COO of SpotDraft

What is the prospect of legal operations in times of artificial intelligence?

AI is transforming legal operations by automating e-discovery, contract management, and compliance tracking, allowing lawyers to save time. The 2024 Litify State of AI in Legal Report shows that 92% of AI users have more time for legal work, with 33% saving up to 10 hours weekly.

Beyond time savings, AI enables data-driven decision-making, reshaping legal departments and enhancing strategic planning. A Wolters Kluwer survey found that 62%  believe generative AI will determine law firm success.

AI also helps legal teams manage international regulations by providing real-time risk assessments. The legal AI market is set to grow from USD 1.45 billion in 2024 at a 17.3% annual rate through 2030.

“Legal operations come from everywhere and as research found out Christopher Columbus was not the first European to put foot in the United States, we would probably keep going back in legal operations and may find that probably in the 1800s someone did something cool in a law firm and gave birth to legal operations.”

~Akshay Verma, COO of SpotDraft

Also read: AI Contract Analysis: Saving Time And Increasing Efficiency

FAQs

1. Can non-lawyers also pursue careers in legal operations?

Legal firms hire non-lawyers for legal ops roles. This is a great career opportunity for those with skills in technical expertise, project management, financial management, and business acumen.

2. What are potential career opportunities in legal operations?

Legal ops manager, contract specialist, compliance analyst, legal technology consultant, vendor manager, data analyst, and chief of staff are among the career options in legal operations.

3. What personality traits make an excellent legal operations manager?

A legal operations manager must be extremely organized, tech-savvy, strategic, analytical, and detail-oriented. They also need to be able to communicate, be flexible, lead, and solve problems.

4. What is the highest-paid legal career?

A lawyer is the highest-paid career in the legal industry, with a national average salary of $93,223 per year. Legal ops manager is also a most sought-after job with an average salary of $92,555 per year.

Also read: Legal Operations Manager Salary Report 2024 [US Edition]