Legal teams in every business are constantly under tremendous pressure to perform. Although they are the most exceptionally skilled and highly trained professionals in the company, they need some level of optimization to keep up with their performance. Businesses are increasingly using software such as Dazychain – Legal Reporting Software to support their legal team and provide them the assistance that can elevate their outcomes.
With time, the expectations of c-suite from their legal division have increased significantly. They expect their legal department to contribute proactively to the leadership and deliver strategic value to the company. To get their expectations fulfilled, the management has to take revitalizing steps time-to-time to optimize the legal operations. Here are six essential steps that can do wonders to the outcomes of your legal team.
- Establishing a single source of truth
Centralization can immediately improve the flow of legal operations. In today’s time, information is sought and kept in different formats at different places. Bringing all the legal files and other information such as documents, PDFs, videos, etc in one place can optimize operations to a great extent. It will allow the team to organize the files according to the priorities, goals, and other parameters. It will slash down the time to process a request significantly.
- Access control for documents and emails
Business information is crucial not only for smooth operations but also for survival. You often need to refer to the disclosures, audit reports, etc for customer services or to ensure regulatory compliance. You should establish a process to grant access to these files while ensuring that these do not end up in the wrong hands.
- Predicting the legal budget of the business
Often businesses do not give enough importance to legal division while creating the company’s budget. This increases the pressure on the team to keep the spendings in control while maintaining the service quality. However, as the business grows bigger and more complex, they need to deliver high-value work with greater visibility. Accurate prediction of the legal budget is necessary to optimize the operations.
- Streamlining approvals and other processes
Unclear processing channels would cause unwanted delays and inconsistency in the business operations. Often processes and not the professionals are the real culprit for mishandlings. One stuck approval can cause a significant business to the company which is why the management should define an unambiguous and straightforward procedure to process such requests. This will also help in establishing accountability in operations.
- Establish consist process to handle new matters
New matters are a part of continuous business operations. The company should define a process to open, assign, and manage these new matters to boost efficiency. Also, there are constant updations in state and industry laws that must be effectively incorporated to ensure compliance. The company should make efforts to address new kinds of needs of the legal department as it grows in size and capacity.
- Use efficient dashboards to track KPIs
Apart from empowering the legal division with every possible aid, businesses should also have a tracking method to keep records of the department’s performance. They need to establish definite KPIs to compare the legacy record and current performance status. This will help companies to assess their legal division from different perspectives and take active measures to optimize operations.
