Real Estate & Procurement Counsel

Digital transformation is delivering high productivity and efficiency gains to Australian corporate legal departments, but also leading to higher stress and flight risk among senior leaders and teams. Conversely, legal teams that aren't on the digital cutting edge report the lowest productivity—but they also have high job satisfaction and the lowest flight risk (just 5% of employees in these firms are actively looking). And legal teams of all maturity levels are increasing budgets to buy more legal tech—and not just AI—although AI is finding its way into every category of legal technology. In-house legal teams are investing in lawyer power as well as tech power, for a variety of reasons, but all related to their team size and tech savvy. Those are just a few of many useful insights uncovered by a new Australian national study, The Impact of Digital Maturity on Australian In-House Legal Teams, designed and fielded by InsightDynamo and commissioned by Axiom."The data show that the money legal leaders are investing in legal tech is paying off—both in ways they wanted and ways they didn't anticipate," said Jacob Flax, Managing Director and Country Head of Axiom Australia. "They're getting the automation and high output on lower-risk work they wanted, so their teams can focus more on the strategic, higher-risk work that requires human reasoning, creativity, and talent

Among the total, about 350 clients turned to Axiom for outside counsel work that would have otherwise been referred to more costly traditional law firms. Over 200 are mid-sized businesses (SMBs) that require legal talent as good or better than traditional and national law firm talent1—but on an SMB's budget.Partnering with Axiom enables in-house and legal ops teams to address the diverse range of needs they encounter day to day, from surge capacity to specialized advice, recruitment solutions, large projects, AI implementations, talent on-demand, and even litigation and traditional secondments—at rates up to 50% less than national law firms."The legal departments that will thrive in the coming years are those that are thinking strategically about talent and service delivery right now," said James Turoff, SVP, General Counsel, and Secretary at The Hershey Company, in Hershey, Pa. "Today's corporate environment demands a level of business insight, flexibility, and expertise that traditional legal models struggle to provide. GCs need to innovate their approach to legal services, finding new ways to balance strategic work with day-to-day operations efficiently and cost-effectively. The key is developing a forward-looking plan that prepares your team to weather any storm—from economic downturns to unexpected legal matters that fall between the cracks of in-house and outside counsel capabilities. With a flexible partner like Axiom, we are reimagining how we access and deploy legal talent, and positioning ourselves to be ready for everything our business requires."Throughout 2024, Axiom has continued to expand its alternative legal services offerings to respond to the needs of forward-thinking corporate legal departments

Many legal ops pros reported friction with in-house legal staff, negatively impacting decision-making and collaboration, increasing risk around AI adoption, and fueling burnoutNEW YORK, July 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Legal operations teams face significant challenges aligning with in-house legal department leadership and managing the rapid adoption of AI technologies, even as they gain influence and budget within the department. Specifically, unhealthy power dynamics are hampering collaboration, productivity, and job satisfaction among many legal ops professionals.Ashlin Quirk, Axiom General Counsel Bridging the Divide: Optimizing Legal Department Performance through Legal Ops, AI, and In-House Collaboration, a new national study of 200 legal operations professionals—100 from companies with annual revenue of $250M to $1B, and 100 from companies with annual revenue of more than $1B—conducted by Wakefield Research and commissioned by Axiom.This is according to Bridging the Divide: Optimizing Legal Department Performance through Legal Ops, AI, and In-House Collaboration, a new national study of 200 legal operations professionals—100 from companies with annual revenue of $250M to $1B, and 100 from companies with annual revenue of more than $1B—conducted by Wakefield Research and commissioned by Axiom.This report explores insights into some of the crucial aspects of corporate legal ops teams and the profession itself, including budgeting and resourcing strategies, the working relationship between in-house and legal teams, legal technology adoption, the people and factors that influence technology implementation, AI policies and usage, career satisfaction and job hunting, and more.These insights highlight the crucial role legal ops plays in driving innovation and efficiency across the legal department, while exposing a key challenge—namely, gaps in business alignment and collaboration among many legal ops and in-house legal teams that can impede the success of the legal department and the business it serves.The good news? The insights offered in Wakefield's report highlight immense opportunities for improving team unity, which can advance a legal department's efficiency and effectiveness, accelerate digital transformation, and enhance job satisfaction and retention. In a nutshell, the research found:A Culture Gap: Nearly all legal operations professionals surveyed reported experiencing tension or conflicts with their legal teams due to power dynamics or decision-making authority, with 41% stating this tension occurs often. Not surprisingly, 99% of respondents believed bridging this gap would improve overall organizational performance.An AI Gap: While the study found AI adoption to be surging, few organizations have clear policies in place to govern the implementation of AI technologies. Nearly all legal teams reported using AI tools, yet 6 out of 10 (64%) businesses surveyed lack AI policies. Only 3% of respondents said the AI tools used by their legal teams have been explicitly approved, creating a "side of the desk use" problem that poses significant compliance and IP risks.A Career Satisfaction Gap: Career mobility, the culture gap with in-house leadership, and high stress levels are contributing to current and potential retention issues