There's no surprise that our study of 200 U.S. in-house legal operations teams found AI is fast becoming an integral part of the modern lawyer's toolkit.
The reason: AI can transform traditional workflows and enable legal pros to focus on higher-value strategic work. Done well, AI can drive higher productivity for the team and more rewarding work for the teammates.
But while there’s a growing desire for and reliance on AI tools among legal professionals today, our research also found unhealthy power dynamics in play between in-house and legal ops leaders, hampering the ability of in-house teams to assess, budget, roll out, and de-risk the use of AI and other productivity-enhancing solutions and services in their organizations.
Acquisition of AI tools is a priority for in-house legal teams; however, there is considerable institutional resistance to the technology.
While most legal ops professionals surveyed said they hold influence, they reported a persistent struggle implementing new technologies due to a lack of leadership buy-in and ingrained resistance to change. This opposition is more notable considering only a minority of organizations have established AI tools and policies, exposing them to significant risks associated with unmanaged, maverick AI deployments.
Indeed, ineffective collaboration on internal decision-making, coupled with weak collaboration among external solutions and services partners (such as ALSPs and law firms), emerges as a consistent theme in the survey. The performance of legal teams is significantly enhanced, respondents said, when in-house legal, legal ops teams, and their legal services providers are working as equals when evaluating, implementing, or using performance-enhancing solutions and services.
Legal departments overall continue to face budget, staffing, and recruitment challenges.
While they often turn to ALSPs and law firms to help them address those challenges, the legal ops professionals surveyed reported that collaborating with law firms specifically was inefficient overall, requiring an inordinate amount of time to manage their law firm partners.
In fact, excessive time spent managing law firms was respondents’ biggest concern around how they deal with capacity, complexity, and resourcing issues—adding to their stress and job dissatisfaction. Legal ops pros said they want a stronger hand in finding and hiring external partners, for the process itself to be less time-consuming and difficult (for example, faster and/or digital on-demand access to legal talent), and legal talent that understands how to collaborate effectively and efficiently within a corporate in-house team.
Legal Operations at the Crossroads: Navigating the Intersection of AI, Technology and Talent Adoption, and Cross-Team Dynamics
While 96% of legal departments faced budget cuts and hiring freezes in the past year, investment in legal ops appears to have dodged that fate. Most respondents reported a modest budget increase, and better still, they anticipate that will continue. This could be interpreted as reflective of the rising importance of legal ops as a crucial in-house partner, especially in light of the growing role of AI in law and in contrast to declining legal team budgets overall.
Most legal operations professionals (83%) saw a budget increase last year, with an average increase of 5%. About the same number of legal ops pros (81%) anticipate another increase in the next budgeting cycle, with the average increase predicted to be 6%.
This more aggressive budgeting stance overall could reflect the value in-house teams are recognizing or anticipating from their legal ops functions, as well as the need to invest in legal ops to respond to myriad opportunities offered by AI and other tech and talent integrations.
Underscoring increased interest and investment in legal ops, the vast majority (94%) of legal ops professionals reported they anticipate growth in their departments over the next two years. Close to half (48%) predict moderate to significant growth over this time.
Then there’s the elephant in the room—something many attorneys, paralegals, and other legal professionals will agree has long been the case among legal organizations: power dynamics and office politics fuel disunity between lawyers and non-lawyers and the in-house and legal ops teams writ large.
All (100%) legal operations professionals who responded to the survey reported they experience tension or conflicts between their legal and legal operations teams due to power dynamics or decision-making authority. Four out of 10 (41%) indicated this dysfunction occurs often. The primary sources of tension? A perceived power imbalance or lack of respect, leaving legal ops professionals feeling undervalued.
Legal teams are evenly split on the amount of influence legal ops has over the acquisition of new technology and other resources. A slim majority of respondents (52%) said their legal ops department had “substantial” or “considerable” influence over in-house legal department decisions, while 49% reported “moderate” or “minimal” influence—which is concerning, given legal ops’ mandate to lead innovation, integration, and implementation of legal technology solutions.
Who among the legal ops team, exactly, is wielding that influence? The majority (67%) of legal ops pros responding felt they personally had only “some” or just “a little” influence over driving change among their legal department peers. And just 5% reported the department’s in-house lawyers and paralegals were completely open to making changes based on their feedback and decisions.
To truly own in-house operations, drive innovation, improve efficiency, and execute change management successfully, legal ops leaders must be equal partners with their in-house lawyer colleagues in the relevant decision-making processes that involve technology and talent solutions and services.
They also need resourcing partners (such as Axiom) who can ensure a level of collaboration, knowledge, and in-house experience equivalent to that of an actual member of the in-house team; and who can support the organization’s transition to trustworthy, AI-enabled workflows to drive legal team innovation, efficiency, and job satisfaction.
Those are the challenges and opportunities this national survey explored and the insights that can help spell success or failure for the legal department’s goals overall. They also illustrate the increasingly important role AI and legal tech are playing or soon will be playing on today’s in-house teams, and the importance of recognizing—and dealing with—the power dynamics preventing many legal ops teams from succeeding in their missions.
Clear AI policies. Robust leadership support. Effective interdisciplinary collaboration. Those are the General Counsel (GC)’s keys to unleashing and harnessing the power and potential of AI, tech, and talent in corporate legal settings today.
While 96% of legal departments faced budget cuts and hiring freezes in the past year, investment in legal ops appears to have dodged that fate. Most respondents reported a modest budget increase, and better still, they anticipate that will continue. This could be interpreted as reflective of the rising importance of legal ops as a crucial in-house partner, especially in light of the growing role of AI in law and in contrast to declining legal team budgets overall.
Most legal operations professionals (83%) saw a budget increase last year, with an average increase of 5%. About the same number of legal ops pros (81%) anticipate another increase in the next budgeting cycle, with the average increase predicted to be 6%.
This more aggressive budgeting stance overall could reflect the value in-house teams are recognizing or anticipating from their legal ops functions, as well as the need to invest in legal ops to respond to myriad opportunities offered by AI and other tech and talent integrations.
Underscoring increased interest and investment in legal ops, the vast majority (94%) of legal ops professionals reported they anticipate growth in their departments over the next two years. Close to half (48%) predict moderate to significant growth over this time.
Then there’s the elephant in the room—something many attorneys, paralegals, and other legal professionals will agree has long been the case among legal organizations: power dynamics and office politics fuel disunity between lawyers and non-lawyers and the in-house and legal ops teams writ large.
All (100%) legal operations professionals who responded to the survey reported they experience tension or conflicts between their legal and legal operations teams due to power dynamics or decision-making authority. Four out of 10 (41%) indicated this dysfunction occurs often. The primary sources of tension? A perceived power imbalance or lack of respect, leaving legal ops professionals feeling undervalued.
Legal teams are evenly split on the amount of influence legal ops has over the acquisition of new technology and other resources. A slim majority of respondents (52%) said their legal ops department had “substantial” or “considerable” influence over in-house legal department decisions, while 49% reported “moderate” or “minimal” influence—which is concerning, given legal ops’ mandate to lead innovation, integration, and implementation of legal technology solutions.
Who among the legal ops team, exactly, is wielding that influence? The majority (67%) of legal ops pros responding felt they personally had only “some” or just “a little” influence over driving change among their legal department peers. And just 5% reported the department’s in-house lawyers and paralegals were completely open to making changes based on their feedback and decisions.
To truly own in-house operations, drive innovation, improve efficiency, and execute change management successfully, legal ops leaders must be equal partners with their in-house lawyer colleagues in the relevant decision-making processes that involve technology and talent solutions and services.
They also need resourcing partners (such as Axiom) who can ensure a level of collaboration, knowledge, and in-house experience equivalent to that of an actual member of the in-house team; and who can support the organization’s transition to trustworthy, AI-enabled workflows to drive legal team innovation, efficiency, and job satisfaction.
Those are the challenges and opportunities this national survey explored and the insights that can help spell success or failure for the legal department’s goals overall. They also illustrate the increasingly important role AI and legal tech are playing or soon will be playing on today’s in-house teams, and the importance of recognizing—and dealing with—the power dynamics preventing many legal ops teams from succeeding in their missions.
Clear AI policies. Robust leadership support. Effective interdisciplinary collaboration. Those are the General Counsel (GC)’s keys to unleashing and harnessing the power and potential of AI, tech, and talent in corporate legal settings today.