In today's rapidly evolving global landscape, corporate legal departments (CLDs) within the technology sector face unprecedented challenges. Economic uncertainty, shifting regulatory environments, and the ongoing push for digital transformation call for optimization—especially where matter management and spend control are concerned. With the rise of service-based IT and artificial intelligence (AI), technology companies are witnessing widespread evolution, not just in their product offerings but also in how they manage their legal operations.
The role of AI in legal operations
AI is poised to address some of the most pressing challenges faced by CLDs, such as controlling legal spend and improving matter outcomes. These efforts extend beyond the legal department and directly contribute to the business's bottom line. Managing a diverse set of legal matters across jurisdictions is complex, which can lead to high costs and inefficiencies.
CLDs can streamline matter management, optimize law firm selection, and reduce legal spend by selectively introducing AI and automation into their processes. As legal matters grow in complexity, this modernization becomes increasingly critical and more impactful.
Driving value through innovation
Today’s CLDs play a strategic role within their organizations, with responsibilities that extend across the business. As such, they must concentrate on delivering on key initiatives and continuously driving value despite an unpredictable economic landscape.
The sheer volume, complexity, and diversity of legal matters within the technology industry presents a challenge. However, corporate legal teams that embrace innovative legal technology solutions can increase their efficiency, improve decision-making, and protect their businesses. Implementing these technologies can enhance billing processes, optimize resource allocation, and ensure that CLDs are not only safeguarding their companies but also contributing to their growth.
Four key strategies for optimizing legal operations
There are specific steps that technology sector legal teams can take to modernize and evolve their legal ops performance. In our latest whitepaper, we explore four strategies to help them do so:
Optimizing spend and vendor management with AI: Relying heavily on outside counsel is necessary in the tech sector but can be very costly. To manage outside counsel spend effectively, CLDs need cost predictability. This can be achieved by engaging early with prospective outside counsel, having firms submit competitive bids, and utilizing AI to enforce billing guidelines, reducing spend leakage.
Automating the matter management lifecycle: Technology CLDs handle a variety of matters, from IP litigation to regulatory compliance. Given the breadth of issues, even small matters can be challenging to manage from intake to completion. Automation is key to streamlining these processes, reducing human error, and improving accuracy. By applying rule-based workflows throughout the matter management lifecycle, CLDs can minimize organizational risk, save time, and increase transparency for better legal outcomes.
Consolidating reports from disparate systems: Many legal teams struggle with visibility gaps and increased risk exposure due to disparate reporting systems. Integrating these systems and consolidating data is essential for providing a complete and accurate view of all matters. The right system will create repeatable, automated reports that include spend analysis, budget forecasts, and other critical metrics, enabling leaders to assess the operational success of the department.
Choosing the right legal technology partners: CLDs must ensure their legal technology partners meet their organization’s rigorous security and procurement standards. The ideal partner will understand the specific legal, regulatory, and security needs of the organization and provide innovative solutions that support international collaboration and compliance with varying standards. Working closely with internal IT and security teams, CLDs can choose the best technologies to accelerate their business processes and become true innovators in legal technology.
For more insights and practical strategies, download our latest whitepaper, Innovations for legal operations efficiencies in the technology industry, which includes a legal operations technology checklist to help you evaluate and select the right providers and solutions for your organization.
