For the first time, in-house legal teams have a playbook that outlines a new framework — the Connected Legal Function — and provides insights, tools, and quick wins to put into action.

Within the pages of The Connected Legal Playbook: Your guide to becoming a more productive, engaged and impactful legal team in an increasingly complex legal environment, you will:

  • explore emerging trends within the in-house legal profession
  • compare your in-house challenges with your industry counterparts
  • gain insights from senior in-house legal professionals
  • learn how to take action to become a more Connected Legal Function

Why your team needs to be more connected

Many lawyers move in-house to play a more active role in a business by being a reliable partner and positively influencing business success.

Yet, the in-house legal environment is changing, with increasing workloads, increasing complexity, and unempowering tools and resources causing disconnection and impacting your legal team’s day-to-day work.

These demands mean there’s often a struggle to find the time to be involved in the big picture, see issues from start to finish, and play an influential role in the organisation’s success.

Recent research from the 2022 In-house Legal Technology Report reveals that 67 percent of respondents say time spent on daily manual tasks takes time and effort away from working on larger business goals. Combine this with fragmented technology solutions — 90 percent of in-house legal professionals are using solutions from three or more vendors — and it’s no wonder that many lawyers are finding it challenging to do the job they moved in-house to do.

The solution? Re-thinking the in-house legal function so there is more connection between legal and the business.

The Connected Legal Function

A Connected Legal Function is:

1. Connected to work and team, to optimise workflows and team collaboration in order to manage the volume of work better and free up time

2. Connected to the wider business, to develop a deep understanding of the business and engage meaningfully with stakeholders

3. Connected to business outcomes, to step outside of what’s ‘strictly legal’ and focus on enabling the business to achieve its strategic objectives

To become a Connected Legal Function there are four steps — Optimise Productivity, Optimise Engagement, Be Proactive, and Focus on Impact, described in detail in the Connected Legal Playbook.

The playbook also outlines ‘quick wins’ to help you and your team make a start on becoming more connected. For example:

Optimise your productivity by enabling business users to self-serve and submit their own requests to the legal team, and by considering a system of record, such as a legal workspace.

Optimise your engagement by adopting technology that enables the wider business to communicate better with the legal team, and that supports popular integrations.

Be proactive by leveraging historical data, such as matter types and dates to uncover trends.

Focus on impact by leveraging data to report regularly, and by providing creative solutions to help teams achieve their objectives.

Take the Connected Legal Function journey …

Many in-house legal teams are already working in a more connected way, and are realising the benefits both to their team and the wider business.

The Connected Legal Playbook: Your guide to becoming a more productive, engaged and impactful legal team in an increasingly complex legal environment provides a practical guide, together with industry insights, quick wins to get you started, and access to complementary resources, such as the Connected Legal Function Workbook and Self-Assessment.