The role of the General Counsel is evolving. Legal is no longer on the sidelines; it’s time for GCs to lead from the front. To be no longer viewed as a reactive cost centre but as a strategic partner capable of delivering measurable value.
GCs are expected to advise on risk and compliance and operate with the same precision, accountability, and agility as other business units. Legal technology, data, and process enhancement are key to meeting this expectation.
But how can GCs use legal technology effectively to meet internal KPIs, demonstrate value, and earn a seat at the executive table?
Moving Beyond Legal Advice
The C-suite wants visibility, efficiency, and data to inform decision-making. The finance director wants to know how external spend is being managed. The COO expects legal to deliver service levels aligned with other functions. This means legal leaders are required to manage legal risk plus measure and communicate performance.
Traditional ways of working won’t support this. Manual triage, scattered spreadsheets and inbox-based workstreams make tracking metrics or scaling legal support almost impossible. GCs need a new model that is tech-enabled, data-informed and operationally mature.
Running Legal Like a Business
To operate like a business unit, GCs must adopt tools that enable visibility, control and accountability. Legal tech platforms can transform how legal services are delivered, allowing teams to track workload, prioritise tasks and manage resources more transparently.
One critical capability is intake and triage. Instead of relying on ad hoc emails or hallway conversations, legal tech platforms standardise the intake process, capturing structured requests with clear categories and urgency levels. These tools route matters automatically to the right person or team, helping legal allocate resources more efficiently and reduce bottlenecks.
This operational shift mirrors the service desk approach used in IT or HR. It helps manage expectations, improves response times and creates a data trail that can be analysed for trends and resourcing decisions.
Dashboards: Visibility and Alignment
Executive leaders rely on dashboards for performance insights. Legal should be no different. A dashboard tailored for legal allows GCs to monitor KPIs in real time, track open matters, assess team capacity and identify trends across the business.
What gets measured gets managed, and a well-designed legal dashboard might show:
- Matter volumes by business unit or region
- Average time to response or resolution
- Legal team utilisation rates
- External spend by firm or matter type
- Risk classification and escalation rates
This level of visibility empowers the GC to speak in the business’s language. Instead of anecdotal updates, they can share data-backed insights on legal demand, service delivery, and cost control. It also supports more strategic planning, such as justifying headcount or reallocating budget based on demonstrable need.
Process Automation
Legal teams often face a growing workload without a corresponding increase in headcount. Automation offers a practical solution. From NDAs and low-risk contracts to compliance workflows and approvals, automation reduces manual effort and frees legal talent for higher-value work.
Automation also creates consistency. Legal becomes more predictable and scalable when every routine process follows the same pathway. This predictability is valuable to the broader business, building trust and reducing reliance on informal workarounds.
Reporting
Ultimately, data is only valid if it drives action. Legal reporting tools convert operational data into compelling narratives that show impact and support strategic goals.
Whether reporting to the board, the CFO or the wider business, legal leaders can now present metrics that show:
- How legal supports commercial outcomes
- Where legal risk is concentrated
- How team resources are being used
- How legal is contributing to cost control and efficiency
This positions legal not as a blocker but as an enabler. It shows that the GC is thinking beyond legal risk, taking ownership of business outcomes and contributing to enterprise strategy.
Building Internal Credibility
A tech-enabled GC is not just a lawyer with tools. They are a business leader with legal expertise. By adopting the mindset and methods of other departments, legal leaders can show alignment with broader business objectives.
This includes engaging with internal stakeholders to refine KPIs that matter. It also involves training the legal team to consider service levels, operational efficiency and measurable impact. With the right systems and data, GCs can back up every decision with evidence and make the case for greater legal investment.
Conclusion
The path to the executive table starts with proving value. To enable the GC to move from being a trusted advisor to a strategic operator, a legal function that embraces tools will deliver legal excellence and earn the credibility to influence the broader direction of the business.
This article was originally published on our sister site lawcadia.com.
