Lawyers and the non-lawyers who help manage legal departments are not getting along too well in corporate America.
Legal departments and legal operations teams are frequently in conflict due to a lack of defined roles and responsibilities, as well as the perceived lack of respect by lawyers towards non-lawyers and support staff, according to a survey of U.S. legal executives at larger companies.
Legal operations teams unanimously held this view and said they experience “tension or conflicts” between the legal and the legal operations teams “due to power dynamics or decision-making authority,” according to the survey findings. This strife also contributed to lower job satisfaction, with “difficult colleagues or office politics” cited as the top reason for work stress or burnout.
“Power dynamics and office politics fuel disunity between lawyers and non-lawyers and the in-house and legal ops teams writ large,” according to a white paper, “Bridging the Divide: Optimizing Legal Department Performance through Legal Ops, AI, and In-House Collaboration,” by alternative legal service provider Axiom.
Legal operations teams help to lead integration and implementation of legal technology tools and foster innovations that can boost legal departments’ efficiency, productivity and, ultimately, overall company profits.
Forty percent of respondents said this internal dysfunction occurs often; 38% said it occurs sometimes. Additionally, only 13% of legal ops professionals said they feel as if they play a crucial role in decisions within the legal department.
The findings are from a survey of 200 U.S. legal operations professionals at companies with a minimum of $250 million in annual revenue, conducted over 11 days ending June 2. The respondents were split evenly between those at companies above and below $1 billion annual revenue.
“To optimize in-house operations, legal ops leaders need to be equal partners with their in-house lawyer colleagues in the decision-making processes that drive innovation, optimize budgets, and flex capacity,” Ashlin Quirk, Axiom’s general counsel and senior vice president, in a July 23 press release.
The discord between attorneys and legal ops is occurring as in-house legal departments embark on integrating new technology: All respondents said they plan to acquire or implement new legal tools within the next two years.
Artificial intelligence tools to provide legal assistance and AI-powered contract review led the pack for new technology through 2027, followed by compliance-management platforms and AI-driven predictive analytics tools.
When asked specifically about AI tech adoption, nearly half (45%) of respondents agreed that AI can’t replace human judgment and expertise and that their company lacked insufficient IT infrastructure and resources.
About two-thirds of those queried (64%) said their company lacked AI usage policies. “Only 3% of respondents said the AI tools used by their legal teams have been explicitly approved, creating a ‘side of the desk use’ problem that poses significant compliance and IP risks,” Axiom said.
In terms of positive news for legal ops personnel, 83% said their teams had seen a budget increase last year, and 81% expect another increase in their next budget cycle, said Axiom. These budgets contrast with legal departments, where 96% reported a budget cut or hiring freeze in 2023.
”This might reflect increased recognition of legal ops as a vital in-house partner, especially in light of the growing role of AI and digital transformation in law,” Axiom said in its press release.
