"Across organizations of every size, I am seeing the same operational pattern take shape. Legal teams are carrying more work, adopting more technology, and fielding increasing demands from the business, yet the underlying infrastructure has not evolved at the same pace. The result is a readiness gap that grows quietly and gradually, often in the background of an otherwise high-functioning department. The encouraging part is that the leaders who recognize the pattern early are already finding practical ways to close it."
"When Work Outpaces the Infrastructure Supporting It Many legal departments continue to expand their responsibilities, including AI Governance, Data Privacy Programs, Enterprise Risk Management, and deal acceleration. The volume and complexity of the work have increased significantly, but the operational foundation that supports it has not always kept up. Intake still arrives informally, routing depends on who happens to see a request first, and workflows often rely on institutional memory rather than shared processes."
"Turnaround times begin to vary without explanation. Routine work slows down because every matter feels unique. And teams that want to introduce more self-service or automation cannot do so, simply because the pathways for the work are unclear. One global technology company we supported experienced this firsthand. Once they clarified their intake and routing, the entire dynamic of the department changed. Forecasting became more accurate, escalations decreased, and cross-functional teams finally understood what to expect from legal and how to partner with them effectively."
Legal departments are taking on more responsibilities—AI governance, data privacy, enterprise risk management, and deal acceleration—while operational foundations lag behind. Intake processes remain informal, routing depends on who sees requests first, and workflows rely on institutional memory instead of shared processes. These accumulated gaps cause unexplained variability in turnaround times, slow routine work, and prevent self-service or automation because pathways are unclear. Clarifying intake and routing can transform department dynamics: forecasting improves, escalations decrease, and cross-functional teams gain predictable expectations. Structural changes to processes, not the work itself, drive measurable operational improvements.
Read at Above the Law
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]