A
s legal compliance and opera-
tional issues continue to increase
in many organizations, in-house
legal departments are increas-
ingly expected to accomplish
more in less time. Since many
aren't able to hire additional
lawyers and staff, it often falls
to them to develop new ways of working. This can
be a real challenge, particularly where work on
more long-term initiatives is at the expense of day-
to-day responsibilities. As urgent daily work piles up, it
becomes exceedingly difficult to both create, and sus-
tain, momentum for innovation. An added complexity
is that many of the tools traditionally used to stream-
line processes and innovate aren't easily applied to law.
So how can in-house counsel embrace solutions to
respond to these increasing demands? Fortunately, a
set of tools and approaches, more easily applied to law,
Sponsored by
How In-House
Legal Departments can
embrace Innovation
are beginning to emerge that
can help. Here are eight ideas to
successfully implement innova-
tion initiatives in in-house legal
departments:
1. Secure Management
Engagement – While buy-
in at all levels within the
department is ideal, actual
engagement at the upper
levels is critical (including
the general counsel and
other leaders). Note the use
of "engagement" and not
"support". Support means
your leaders will speak
favorably of the initiatives
in meetings, but real suc-
cess requires your leaders
to roll-up their sleeves and
actively participate in change
initiatives rather than just pay
lip service to them. To help
build engagement, create a
working group or steering
committee, composed of
influencers both within and
outside of the department
at various levels, who can
champion the cause and sell
its benefits.
2. Build a Dedicated Team
– Front-line lawyers and
support personnel are often
too busy keeping on top of
day-to-day operational issues
to be engaged in change
By Paul Saunders
