What to do when a major project lands on the legal team

From M&A to a public offering, there are times when a legal department must become all-hands-on-deck to get the job done. Sometimes external help is needed.

By Justin Bachman • Oct. 31, 2024

How to expand a small legal department’s capability

The secret lies in collecting data to benchmark the legal team’s work and identifying the right tech tools for your department’s needs.

By Justin Bachman • Oct. 14, 2024

How your legal team can ‘find’ the company some extra money

Long tagged as a cost center, the legal department can unlock savings and monetize assets by being creative, in-house lawyers say.

By Justin Bachman • Oct. 9, 2024

How to stretch your legal team’s budget

Legal budgets are rarely as expansive as legal executives would like but there are several strategies that can help achieve better results when finances are lean.

By Justin Bachman • Oct. 8, 2024

Legal AI sees wide adoption but most teams unprepared for talent impact: survey

In-house counsel expect process efficiencies and cost savings but a majority say their companies aren’t ready for the change effects, ACC survey finds.

By Justin Bachman • Oct. 7, 2024

What happens when 3,000 in-house lawyers gather? Lots of AI talk

The Association of Corporate Counsel’s annual meeting in Nashville is underway. Look for plenty of sessions to help in-house legal teams succeed beyond those covering artificial intelligence.

By Justin Bachman • Oct. 4, 2024

2025 in-house legal conferences

General counsel can plan their team’s conference budget for next year by seeing all the top events at a glance using Legal Dive’s list of 2025 conferences for corporate lawyers.

By Robert Freedman • Sept. 30, 2024

Nonprofits look to general counsel to up their game

As the range and complexity of legal needs of nonprofits increase, their leaders will look to their general counsel to fill an expanded role.  

By Eskor Edem • Sept. 20, 2024

Legal budgets will get an AI-inspired makeover in 2025: survey

Nearly every general counsel is budgeting to add generative AI tools to their departments — and they’re all expecting to realize efficiencies by doing so.

By Justin Bachman • Sept. 13, 2024

Applying Six Sigma principles to in-house legal departments

The widely recognized technique for operational improvements was pioneered by manufacturing companies but its principles can work well for legal teams. 

By Mark Wilcox • Sept. 13, 2024

How some legal teams are saving money, keeping talent and integrating AI

Tighter budgets have made retaining in-house lawyers difficult but C-suite executives tend to be willing to fund efficiency-oriented AI tools, legal operations leaders say.

By Justin Bachman • Aug. 23, 2024

PlanSource’s new GC talks risk and how she thinks about AI in legal ops

The employee benefits administrator hired Jenny Zador this summer to help build its legal team and position the company for future growth.

By Justin Bachman • Aug. 22, 2024

How mentorships can be a path to stronger firm-client relationships

Programs that bring the law firm and the in-house team together can boost career development for young lawyers and lead to better outcomes for the general counsel. 

By Brad Vynalek and Cornell Boggs • Aug. 16, 2024

Intake process called key to measuring legal team value

By creating a system for how work gets to in-house attorneys, general counsel can show how much the team contributes to company revenue, a legal operations specialist says. 

By Robert Freedman • Aug. 16, 2024

AI for Legal: 5 tips to help integrate these new tools

In-house legal departments adopting GenAI software must consider several issues around its value, senior leaders’ positions, data integrity and cultural changes.

By Justin Bachman • Aug. 15, 2024

Gen AI is reporting for work duty but who’s in charge of it?

Executives recognize the potential for generative AI in their business operations, but chief legal officers say organizational roles and responsibilities aren’t clear.

By Justin Bachman • Aug. 13, 2024

Lawyers and legal ops teams are clashing at many companies: study

Power dynamics and office politics are blamed for this internal strife, which was found to be common at U.S. companies with legal operations roles.

By Justin Bachman • July 31, 2024

Taking a page from procurement to curb outside counsel spend

Buying legal services isn’t so different from other transactions that it can’t be done strategically, a legal operations consultant says.

By Robert Freedman • July 26, 2024

How GCs can use data to demonstrate their teams’ value

Understanding your legal staff’s work patterns at a more detailed level can offer insights that help change perceptions of legal as purely a cost center.

By Justin Bachman • July 17, 2024

Slowing a rise in costs is enough for this legal chief

The head of a big in-house legal team is waiting to see if his investment in technology and operations staff will give him the results he’s looking for.

By Robert Freedman • July 17, 2024

Cyber insurance prices fall amid rising competition: report

The pricing relief comes even as cyberattacks are escalating and businesses are paying more to recover from them.

By Alexei Alexis • July 2, 2024

AI software use growing among in-house legal departments: report

Artificial intelligence remains a small newcomer in the legal tech toolbox but ‘dramatic growth’ is forecast, according to an in-house counsel survey.

By Justin Bachman • June 27, 2024

Don’t call your business colleagues ‘clients,’ GC says

Doing so reinforces the idea that in-house legal isn’t part of the team, says a veteran corporate counsel.

By Robert Freedman • June 17, 2024

As GCs focus on risk, legal operations grow in importance

A dedicated legal ops role is seen as integral to freeing up the energy of in-house legal leaders, a report indicates.

By Robert Freedman • June 5, 2024

In-house legal conferences for the second half of 2024

Legal Dive’s list of conferences can help corporate counsel learn where to go for the latest on technology, operations and the law. 

By Robert Freedman • June 4, 2024