Case Study
FTI Technology Provides Legal Operations Assessment and Gap Analysis for Global Life Sciences Company
A life sciences startup was looking to scale the maturity of its legal operations function and improve processes to support risk management and increased legal department demand. In-house counsel engaged FTI Technology’s corporate legal department experts to evaluate the maturity of existing capabilities and prioritize future initiatives according to the 12 core legal operations competencies defined by the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC).
Situation
As a startup in high growth mode, the company’s legal department had reached a critical inflection point. The department was comprised of several legal practice area specialists, and the organization had quickly shifted from a limited litigation portfolio to managing multiple cross-border matters concurrently. Additionally, the corporate transaction practice within the legal department had a proactive mindset toward preparing for an uptick in resource demand, both within its team and across the department.
Without a robust legal operations function, the client was not well positioned to quickly and efficiently onboard more practitioners. The legal department needed to conduct a detailed maturity assessment and gap analysis to plan for future improvements.
Our Role
FTI Technology worked with the client team to define the strategic value and benefits of legal operations across risk management, people management, legal processes and legal technology. Through a series of stakeholder meetings, interviews, data analysis and benchmarking of the current functions, the team developed an initial maturity assessment against CLOC’s 12 core competencies.
Additionally, the engagement addressed:
- Internal level setting and education about legal operations strategy and outcomes holistically, rather than solely as a technology implementation function.
- A list of initiatives the client could undertake to mature their legal operations program, with each item prioritized and plotted on a roadmap spanning 2024 and beyond.
- Actionable recommendations with optionality to allow the client to adjust the plan depending on its growth trajectory and potential mergers and acquisitions activity.
- Tactical discussion of legal technology tools, helping the client to expand its operations roadmap beyond its current CLM-centric approach and challenges to encompass knowledge management, legal hold, document management and more.
- Development of a business case and right-sizing of the plan to support the legal team in putting the roadmap into motion. — Ongoing support for subsequent phases of program change within the legal department, including solution development and implementation.
Our Impact
Advisory guidance and education helped expand the remit of the legal operations function and build a strong business case for investing in process and technology changes.
The client now has a much clearer view of strengths and gaps within its legal operations program, as well as a prioritized, phased, flexible roadmap to enable efficiencies in the short term and over time.
FTI Technology has helped the client realize the value and magnitude of cost savings that can be achieved through process, policy and technology transformation as the broader organization navigates rapid growth.