In-House Teams Can Bridge IT–Legal Divide to Shape Digital Needs

Most in-house legal teams lack a technology roadmap, usually because they struggle to define their strategy or prioritize new solution needs.

Part of the challenge is separation between legal teams and IT departments, which can result in an environment of fractured technology buying, both within the department and across an organization.

The growing appetite to implement artificial intelligence is adding another layer of complexity as organizations clamber for the new and shiny objects before addressing their core digital transformation needs. To fix this issue and prepare for effective use of AI, general counsel and legal operations professionals should improve collaboration with IT and shift to a holistic, platform-centric approach to technology solutions.

Legal department technology initiatives often suffer from false starts, stalled adoption, and strategy shifts amid leadership changes. When there’s a high rate of people, vision, and technology turnover within a department, a longstanding vision and technology strategy can’t fully materialize.

In parallel, deficient relations between IT and legal reduce oversight and guidance from technology experts. The compounding debt of budget approval and purchased tools, followed by a series of stalled implementations, leaves legal departments with an array of tech they dislike or don’t use.

Within many enterprises, digital transformation typically focuses on use cases and departments outside of legal; legal use cases then lag while the organization advances. It’s become increasingly important for legal to speak the same language as the rest of the organization when it comes to technology investments. This is improving as in-house counsel better understands what digital transformation means for them.

An important step is to start from the viewpoint of technology as an enabler for speeding up and increasing the quality of an organization’s legal services. If those objectives aren’t at the core of a technology project in a measurable and practical way, the department shouldn’t do it.

Legal leaders must then shift their approach from a point solution focus to a platform focus. While point solutions may appeal to perceived needs and AI enthusiasm, departments that are mature in the way they use technology are the ones that implement holistic platforms.

A few examples include matter management, e-billing, document management, intellectual property systems, and contract lifecycle management. These aren’t platforms that a department would ask IT to build; rather, the legal department would partner with IT and expert advisers to go to the market and select a system that meets the needs. Once platforms are established, additional point solutions can be built around them.

When the time comes to consider point solutions (i.e., after the required platforms are fully in place), legal teams can reach out to IT to determine whether it would be best to purchase a tool or build something in house.

Workflow automation, for example, is a capability that many legal departments need but don’t have. AI may be useful here, but a significant amount of value can be achieved through creating basic robotic automations on low-risk, high-volume activities. By starting with foundational workflow automation layered onto their core platforms, legal teams can meet a basic need and then build on their automations to incorporate AI.

Often, IT or a shared services department within the organization will have already built automations for other teams. They will know how to launch these solutions efficiently—while meeting security, privacy, trust and safety requirements—making it easier for legal to achieve digital transformation wins without necessarily investing in new software tools.

When legal departments revise their approach to digital transformation to follow a strategic roadmap rooted in platform needs, all parties win. In addition to the inherent benefits to legal department efficiency and productivity, technology implementations will see improved adoption across the legal department; IT and shared services teams will have greater involvement and oversight over technology investments and decisions; and software vendors will be set up for success with customers that have appropriate expectations and processes built around their systems.

Not too long ago, a successful digital transformation in legal meant scanning paper documents to make them searchable on a computer. General counsel are now being asked to bring AI into the mix when they are still grappling with the fundamentals of digital transformation.

Progress in this environment will require teams to approach all technology from the same standpoint: whether transformation is necessary, and, if so, the business objectives for it. This baseline will enable better decision making for new technology investments and AI alike, ensuring that implementations provide lasting value and flexibility to adapt to future needs.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg Industry Group, Inc., the publisher of Bloomberg Law, Bloomberg Tax, and Bloomberg Government, or its owners.

Author Information

Mike Ferrara, managing director at FTI Technology, is a legal technology expert with nearly two decades of experience advising organizations and legal departments through complex, effective digital transformation initiatives.

Write for Us: Author Guidelines