LEGAL INSIGHTS

Updates and advice for attorneys and law departments.

Top 5 Business Objectives of Corporate Law Departments

Corporate law departments play a unique role in both the business and legal fields. While they exist to provide legal advice to internal clients and to protect the legal interests of the company, they must also constantly consider financial issues as well, such as cost control.

Consequently, General Counsel and Chief Legal Officers often share similar business objectives with other C Suite executives. Here are the top five corporate legal department objectives that should be on your radar – and how working with the right legal staffing agencies can help.

1.       Understanding Cost Certainties and Return on Investment

While managing your corporate law department budget matters, cutting costs won’t benefit a legal department in which the remaining funds are being spent inefficiently.  Cost certainties and return on investment are key issues for corporate law departments, both internally and within the context of the company as a whole.

2.       Tackling Big Data Management

Corporate legal departments are facing a number of growing technological challenges.  One of these is big data management, or the storing, organization, and retrieval of massive amounts of data.  Legal departments that focus attention on how to manage and protect this information will gain a significant advantage over departments that do not.

3.       Increasing Decision-Making Abilities

Gone are the days when tasks could be neatly divided up by department within a large company.  Today, everyone from the chief financial officer to the legal department must be prepared to understand core issues and challenges across departments. They must also be empowered to act decisively when a swift response is called for. Many legal departments are employing Operations Managers to handle human resources, outside counsel relationships, legal spending, and a multitude of other tasks in their day-to-day business operations. Adding this position allows in house counsel to spend more time focusing on pressing issues of the business.

4.       Centralizing Operations to Improve Efficiency

Running “lean” solves two problems for corporate legal department objectives.  First, it helps address concerns about ROI and cost certainties.  Second, when streamlined correctly, centralization improves efficiency while also maintaining or improving the quality of service.

5.       Creating Effective Tools, Reporting Systems, and Metrics

Legal departments that engage tough business concerns like cost control, efficiency improvements, and big data management without creating a means of measuring progress deprive themselves of many of the benefits of their own labor.  Thus, creating effective metrics becomes a key consideration.

At Assigned Counsel, all of our legal recruiters are licensed attorneys. As a result, we understand the importance of having the qualified legal team members you need exactly when you need them. To learn more about the ways we help our clients reimagine their legal staffing, contact us today.

 

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