By Kerry Phillip
If you’re reading this, chances are you recognise the feeling. Your legal team is constantly stretched thin, juggling urgent requests whilst trying to find time for strategic thinking. You’re answering the same questions repeatedly, managing mountains of low-value work, and struggling to prioritise when everything feels urgent.
Sound familiar? You’re not alone. This is the reality for most in-house legal teams. But here’s the good news: there’s a way out of this cycle, a way to shift from firefighting to influencing.
The Problem: Stuck in Reactive Mode
Many legal teams find themselves trapped in a reactive cycle. They’re so busy putting out fires that they never get the chance to prevent them in the first place. This approach not only burns out teams but also limits their ability to add real strategic value to the business.
The solution isn’t working harder or longer hours. It’s about working smarter and more strategically. Here are five practical fixes that can transform your legal function from a reactive service into a proactive business partner.
Fix 1: What Are We Really Working On?
Before you can change direction, you need to understand where you currently are. This means getting honest about how your team spends its time.
The Action: Track all activities for two weeks. For every task, record:
- Who is the work for?
- What type of work is it?
- What’s the value (high, medium, or low)?
- What’s the complexity or risk level?
Once you’ve gathered this data, analyse it for patterns. You might be surprised to discover how much time is spent on low-value, repetitive tasks that could be automated or eliminated entirely.
The Impact: This exercise gives you the evidence you need to make the case for change. Armed with data, you can focus your team’s efforts on strategic work whilst removing or automating the low-value activities that drain resources.
Fix 2: Create an Order Intake System
Without a proper system for managing incoming requests, legal teams often find themselves overwhelmed by ad-hoc demands that arrive from all directions.
The Solution: Establish a single point of entry for all legal support requests. This system does not need to be complicated, and you can absolutely use Microsoft 365 or another system already used in your business. You need something that can:
- Capture essential information at the request stage
- Route requests to the right team member
- Show the status of ongoing work
- Provide data on cycle times
Think of it as creating a proper front door for your legal services, rather than having people climb through windows at all hours.
The Benefits: You’ll gain valuable data to help resource projects effectively, drive business improvements, and identify bottlenecks before they become major problems.
Fix 3: Develop a Clear Strategy
Many legal teams operate without a clear sense of purpose or direction. They’re busy, but they’re not necessarily busy with the right things.
Building Your Strategy:
- Purpose: Why does your legal team exist? What value do you bring?
- Vision: What do you want to achieve? What kind of team do you want to be?
- Reality: Where is your team right now? Be brutally honest.
- Priorities: What are your key goals that align with business objectives?
- Metrics: How will you measure progress and success?
The Result: A motivated team that understands its role in the bigger picture and can make decisions that support both legal and business objectives.
Fix 4: Implement Knowledge Management
How many times has someone in your team answered the same question this week? How often do you find yourself searching through emails for that template you know exists somewhere?
Create a Knowledge Hub with two parts:
- Legal team only: Templates, checklists, external legal advice, how-to guides, and playbooks
- Business facing: FAQs, guidance documents, self-service templates, and compliance training for your business colleagues
The Transformation: Your team will deliver work faster, business colleagues can self-serve for routine matters, and you’ll free up time to focus on genuinely strategic work.
Fix 5: Optimise Law Firm Spend
External legal spend often grows organically without much strategic oversight. It’s time to take control.
The Analysis:
- Review the last 12 months of external legal spend.
- Identify which work is being sent to law firms and why.
- Assess whether you’re using too many firms or have gaps in coverage.
- Evaluate whether the right work is going to the right firms.
- Review how matters and firms are being managed.
The Actions: Create clear guidelines for external instruction, agree billing practices upfront, and implement proper spend tracking.
The Outcome: Reduced costs and a more cost-effective legal function that provides better value to the business.
From Firefighting to Influencing
These five fixes work together to create a fundamental shift in how your legal team operates. Instead of constantly reacting to urgent requests, you’ll be proactively shaping the business agenda. Instead of being seen as a cost centre, you’ll be recognised as a strategic partner.
The journey from firefighting to influencing doesn’t happen overnight, but every step you take towards these fixes will make a difference. Start with the area that feels most urgent for your team, or the one where you can see the quickest wins.
Remember, the goal isn’t just to work more efficiently (though that’s a nice bonus). It’s to position your legal function as a source of competitive advantage for your business. When you stop firefighting and start influencing, everyone wins.
Your Next Steps
- Choose one fix to start with (tracking activities is often a good starting point)
- Get buy-in from your team and key stakeholders
- Set a timeline for implementation
- Measure progress and celebrate wins along the way
The legal profession is evolving, and in-house teams that embrace this strategic approach will be the ones that thrive. It’s time to stop firefighting and start influencing.
If you’d like to learn more, sign up for my free upcoming webinar.
In this short, practical session, I’ll show how GCs can reclaim headspace and increase their strategic impact by optimising the way their legal function runs.
