{"id":152399,"date":"2026-05-19T15:21:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T23:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/05\/19\/what-biglaw-can-learn-from-corporate-legal-ops\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T15:21:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T23:21:06","slug":"what-biglaw-can-learn-from-corporate-legal-ops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/05\/19\/what-biglaw-can-learn-from-corporate-legal-ops\/","title":{"rendered":"What Biglaw Can Learn From Corporate Legal Ops"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When law firms think about client service, they often focus on the in-house lawyers they work with.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But what about other professionals in a corporate law department?<\/p>\n

There may be no better place to address this question than the CLOC Global Institute, the largest U.S. legal operations event, which took place last week in Chicago.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a conversation held last Wednesday, Emma Stedman, a Husch Blackwell partner and host of \u201cThe Grace Period\u201d podcast<\/a>, led a community discussion on the subject.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here are what conference attendees, including legal ops pros and in-house lawyers, had to say about their relationships with outside counsel.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Question: What do you wish outside counsel knew about legal operations?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cThat they exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

From a Biglaw perspective, legal ops oversees many of the elements that can be critical to a successful engagement \u2014 things like budget, scope, timelines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As one attendee noted, client companies are sure to focus on these areas. Legal ops can work with a law firm to ensure they\u2019re all executed to the client\u2019s satisfaction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cThat they should be engaged in your matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a follow-up to the first response, one attendee noted that law firms should proactively ask in-house lawyers to also engage their legal operations team in a given matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are strong incentives: Law firms that do so will get paid faster, and they\u2019ll have a lot more efficiency in finding the proper company stakeholders to involve throughout a representation.<\/p>\n

What does outside counsel get wrong in dealing with legal ops? What are your pet peeves?\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 Inefficient use of internal resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One attendee provided a disclaimer: \u201cI don\u2019t want to open the debate about the billable hour.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, she said, \u201cinefficient use of internal resources\u201d is a pet peeve. If law firms can use lower-cost resources on a matter, they should \u2014 and failure to do so will be noticed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2022 Constant upselling.<\/p>\n

For a law department, reaching out to their law firm in the first place can be a painful experience, according to one attendee. It\u2019s made worse when a lawyer responds to a question with a plan that will make the engagement even more expensive.<\/p>\n

What can outside counsel do that wins your approval?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 <\/strong>Involve the pricing committee<\/p>\n

When lawyers decide to handle pricing personally, they can turn themselves into a bottleneck. A law firm pricing committee can relieve this pressure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cInvolve your pricing committee instead of trying to do it all yourself,\u201d one attendee advised.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2022 Be punctual with estimates<\/p>\n

Accurate and timely accrual statements will win the love of legal ops, one attendee noted. Law firms will win her favor if they \u201cget them right the first time\u201d and are punctual with submitting them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2022 Tailor RFP responses\u00a0<\/p>\n

When a law firm responds to an RFP with \u201c300 pages\u201d of bios and other information that was not requested, this makes the process \u201charder, not easier,\u201d an attendee noted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead, firms score points with legal ops by sending representative experience that\u2019s directly on-point with the request.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Firms should also communicate their assumptions behind their price estimates transparently.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The same goes for format. If a firm gets a PDF in a request for a proposal, it should respond with a PDF.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2022 Make the legal ops connection<\/p>\n

Many law firms, of course, have their own legal ops teams.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As one participant noted, \u201csome of the best collaboration happens\u201d when firms facilitate the connection of these professionals on both sides.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

Jeremy Barker is the director of content marketing for Breaking Media. Feel free to\u00a0email him<\/a>\u00a0with questions or comments and to\u00a0connect on LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post What Biglaw Can Learn From Corporate Legal Ops<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When law firms think about client service, they often focus on the in-house lawyers they work with.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But what about other professionals in a corporate law department?<\/p>\n

There may be no better place to address this question than the CLOC Global Institute, the largest U.S. legal operations event, which took place last week in Chicago.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a conversation held last Wednesday, Emma Stedman, a Husch Blackwell partner and host of \u201cThe Grace Period\u201d podcast<\/a>, led a community discussion on the subject.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here are what conference attendees, including legal ops pros and in-house lawyers, had to say about their relationships with outside counsel.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Question: What do you wish outside counsel knew about legal operations?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cThat they exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

From a Biglaw perspective, legal ops oversees many of the elements that can be critical to a successful engagement \u2014 things like budget, scope, timelines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As one attendee noted, client companies are sure to focus on these areas. Legal ops can work with a law firm to ensure they\u2019re all executed to the client\u2019s satisfaction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cThat they should be engaged in your matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a follow-up to the first response, one attendee noted that law firms should proactively ask in-house lawyers to also engage their legal operations team in a given matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are strong incentives: Law firms that do so will get paid faster, and they\u2019ll have a lot more efficiency in finding the proper company stakeholders to involve throughout a representation.<\/p>\n

What does outside counsel get wrong in dealing with legal ops? What are your pet peeves?\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 Inefficient use of internal resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One attendee provided a disclaimer: \u201cI don\u2019t want to open the debate about the billable hour.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, she said, \u201cinefficient use of internal resources\u201d is a pet peeve. If law firms can use lower-cost resources on a matter, they should \u2014 and failure to do so will be noticed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2022 Constant upselling.<\/p>\n

For a law department, reaching out to their law firm in the first place can be a painful experience, according to one attendee. It\u2019s made worse when a lawyer responds to a question with a plan that will make the engagement even more expensive.<\/p>\n

What can outside counsel do that wins your approval?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 <\/strong>Involve the pricing committee<\/p>\n

When lawyers decide to handle pricing personally, they can turn themselves into a bottleneck. A law firm pricing committee can relieve this pressure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cInvolve your pricing committee instead of trying to do it all yourself,\u201d one attendee advised.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2022 Be punctual with estimates<\/p>\n

Accurate and timely accrual statements will win the love of legal ops, one attendee noted. Law firms will win her favor if they \u201cget them right the first time\u201d and are punctual with submitting them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2022 Tailor RFP responses\u00a0<\/p>\n

When a law firm responds to an RFP with \u201c300 pages\u201d of bios and other information that was not requested, this makes the process \u201charder, not easier,\u201d an attendee noted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead, firms score points with legal ops by sending representative experience that\u2019s directly on-point with the request.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Firms should also communicate their assumptions behind their price estimates transparently.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The same goes for format. If a firm gets a PDF in a request for a proposal, it should respond with a PDF.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2022 Make the legal ops connection<\/p>\n

Many law firms, of course, have their own legal ops teams.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As one participant noted, \u201csome of the best collaboration happens\u201d when firms facilitate the connection of these professionals on both sides.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

Jeremy Barker is the director of content marketing for Breaking Media. Feel free to\u00a0email him<\/a>\u00a0with questions or comments and to\u00a0connect on LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post What Biglaw Can Learn From Corporate Legal Ops<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When law firms think about client service, they often focus on the in-house lawyers they work with.\u00a0 But what about other professionals in a corporate law department? There may be no better place to address this question than the CLOC Global Institute, the largest U.S. legal operations event, which took place last week in Chicago.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":152400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-152399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2274414916-1024x683-x4U9VT.png?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}