PEOPLE, PROCESSES, DATA & TECHNOLOGY:
UNLOCKING OPPORTUNITIES IN LEGAL OPERATIONS
Agenda Day 1
8:00 am - 8:30 am
REGISTRATION & COFFEE
8:30 am - 8:35 am
OPENING REMARKS FROM IQPC
8:35 am - 8:45 am
OPENING REMARKS FROM THE CHAIRPERSON
8:45 am - 8:50 am
LIVE POLLING
8:50 am - 9:20 am
CASE STUDY: HOW WE AUTOMATED OUR PROCESSES SUCCESSFULLY
Some legal tasks can be long and arduous. Administrative tasks, for instance, such as drafting contracts, take up a lot of time for lawyers, who miss out on the opportunity to devise strategy and innovate. Legal operations professionals are on a journey to make life easier for them, and to free up their time for tasks that will help drive the business forward. But this can be a challenge when tools are siloed, nothing is standardized, and budgets are limited. Join this case study presentation to see how one team successfully automated some of their processes and gave their lawyers time back.
9:20 am - 9:50 am
CASE STUDY: SAFE SAAS – HOW ONE GLOBAL OIL COMPANY REDUCED THEIR COSTS BY SWITCHING FROM ON PREM TO CLOUD
Technology has the transformative power to improve the efficiency of in-house legal teams allowing lawyers to spend more time on valuable tasks ultimately driving the productivity of the whole team, leveraging AI and automation tools. Technically advanced legal teams have implemented tools to automate processes such as contract management, e-discovery, legal research, compliance-specific tools and even scanning contracts to highlight and suggest improved clauses.
- Hear real-life case studies where AI and technologies have improved the efficiency of day-to-day menial tasks
- Learn how to identify automation opportunities and select the appropriate tools to implement
- Gain insight into the implementation process to ensure this is effective from day one and you can realise their benefits immediately
After a long journey of demos and negotiations, a tool has finally been purchased. The vendor has left the building (metaphorically), but the journey has only just begun. Legal operations must now learn how to use this tool – and teach others how to use it too. But while they are figuring this out, another problem is likely to present itself: certain team members are not making use of it. Adoption, even now, is still a major challenge amongst legal operations professionals, and they must be equipped to tackle it. They must be both educators and supporters of any such tool they bring on board, ready to address any concerns, receptive to feedback, and leaders in maintaining a tool’s efficacity.
- Learn the ins and outs of training your team and other departments on how to use your tool, and the importance of selling it efficiently
- Weigh in on the key ways of supporting end user experience, and of assessing and logging feedback (as well as learning to understand what good feedback consists of)
- Understand what you need to do to ensure correct maintenance, including logging end user requests and challenges and collaborating efficiently with your third-party contact
11:40 am - 12:25 pm
PANEL DISCUSSION: DRIVERS OF CHANGE, PIONEERS OF DEVELOPMENT – WHAT WILL THE FUTURE OF LEGAL OPERATIONS LOOK LIKE?
A LexisNexis study recently conducted suggested that nearly 20% of in-house lawyers would consider leaving their roles if their department did not invest in AI, with 65% stating technology skills would be crucial in the next three years. It comes as no surprise, then, that 44% also believed legal operations would become increasingly critical in the coming years. While this is already the case, it is becoming more and more clear that legal operations are the key to whether a legal department falls behind or not – it is up to them to drive and lead the change proactively rather than wait for it to happen to them.
- Assess the role AI will play in reshaping the role of legal professionals, and what new skillsets will be necessary to adapt to the new functioning of the legal team in future years
- Discuss the role legal operations will have to play in the ethical matters concerning the AI tools they choose to establish, and what new ways of thinking they might have to adopt to navigate growing complexity and continuous change
- Explore the changing role of legal operations as it continues to move from support function to central driver of organizational strategy, and what it means to shape business outcomes as opposed to simply enabling them
Budgets are limited, desks are piled up with work, and the legal department continues to face a bad reputation as a project staller or a cost centre. However, legal operations are instrumental in quashing these issues, as they have the tools to gather information around the logistics and functions of the department. With the right ones, and the power of AI, the goal is to showcase the tangible value of the team, in this way building relationships and securing buy-in. But another question also poses itself – how can legal operations provide visibility of the intangible value of their team to members of the C-suite? Increasingly, they are having to bridge the gap between the legal team and the business, meaning that a business-minded approach is now imperative. Join this session to discover the now, next and later aspects of AI and how they will help you deliver better work products faster while cementing your operations group as the substrate that holds the department (and the company) together.
- Delve into the expectations of each member of the team, and what you can provide within your significant role to help move the collaboration along
- Weigh in on a variety of different strategies to present your case to the rest of the business and secure buy-in and support
- Explore different tools to help you access the right data and metrics for your team to help kickstart a conversation with the rest of the business
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
LUNCH
2:00 pm - 2:05 pm
LIVE POLLING
2:05 pm - 2:35 pm
PRESENTATION: DATA 101 – LESSONS FROM A CHIEF ANALYTICS OFFICER
As data becomes more and more central to how legal teams operate, with growing pressure to be a “data-driven general counsel”, legal operations professionals are uniquely positioned to lead the change. With the right tools and strategy, it can be the key to streamlined workflows, smarter decisions and priority allocation, and effective demonstration of legal’s impact and role to the wider business. When data is the key to driving the team forward, legal operations also need to be certain that they are not just measuring easy things, but the right things. How do you make sure you are monitoring the right data for your business case – and who better than a Chief Data Officer to break down the fundamentals to help you with this?
- Learn to master the essentials of data governance, from identifying and structuring to safeguarding and storing your data
- Explore the potential of leveraging metrics to drive automation, improve processes and support key initiatives such as outside counsel management
- Discover practical techniques for using dashboards and data narratives to communicate legal’s ROI to leadership
2:35 pm - 3:05 pm
PRESENTATION: REAL TIME REACTION – PUTTING DATA LIQUIDITY AT THE CENTRE OF YOUR LEGAL OPERATIONS STRATEGY
Timely access to reliable and actionable data is no longer a luxury for the legal operations team – it’s a necessity. In such a fast-paced and demanding landscape, data liquidity and easy-to-access data need to be embedded into the core strategy to reduce friction across workflows and future-proof the legal function. This session will take a look at strategies to break down data silos, enhance system interoperability so that you know where things are at all times, and empower the legal team by putting insights into their hands as and when they need them.
- Learn to identify and eliminate data bottlenecks across your legal tech stack to improve agility and responsiveness
- Discover strategies for achieving data interoperability between legal, compliance and business systems
- Understand the value of real-time insights in optimising matter management, spend forecasting and risk mitigation
A new tool has been deployed. Months, maybe years have passed, and your use of it is still limited in your eyes. Or perhaps you have recently joined a company and are having to grapple with a tool you didn’t choose. Paired with the fact that legal teams are often chasing – or being asked to chase – the next new tool, it is easy to forget the ones that are already sitting in the stack. Many legal operations teams use only a fraction of the functionality they are paying for. In a world of increasingly tight budgets and limited resources, it is imperative to fully understand all tools, and what can be done with to make sure nothing is going to waste.
- Learn to work smarter with vendors, moving beyond sales support to strategic collaboration and ongoing assistance
- Weigh in on simple frameworks for identifying underutilised features, overlapping tools and easy wins already in your toolkit
- Discover winning tactics to get legal and business users aligned, excited and actually using the tech the way you want it used
