If there is nirvana for in-house lawyers it is the following: delivering high-quality legal services at lower cost and with better results.  The search for this legal “Eldorado” has gone on for decades with mixed results.  Typically, you can solve part of the equation but only at the cost of other parts.  For example, you can get lower costs but not always higher (or even the same) quality as provided by more expensive firms or systems.  Moreover, given their workload and other priorities (i.e., legal work), it’s rare that the search for a solution to this conundrum becomes an imperative for in-house counsel.  Still, the alluring value of solving the puzzle means that there is tremendous value waiting to be unlocked if and when a solution becomes available.  Over the past few years, hope has appeared in the form of legal operations, a discipline that focuses on the “unique” idea of treating in-house legal departments like any other part of the business.  Along with data analytics (which I discussed in my last post) and legal procurement, legal operations helps form part of the “Big Three” best practices utilized by savvy legal departments of any size.  This edition of “Ten Things” walks you through what you need to know about how legal operations can help in-house lawyers increase efficiency, lower costs, and deliver better results:

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