For this month's ACC Legal Ops Observer feature article, ACC acquired insights from Laurie David-Henric on demonstrating the law department strategic value.
Laurie is a binational, bilingual legal professional who worked on two continents and created several global functions from the ground up, always with a focus on operational optimization, efficiency, and excellence. Across her various roles, she has created and led international, distributed, multi-disciplinary teams.
Her extracurricular activities include a Board Member role for an international NGO focusing on global risks and cutting-edge innovation, an involvement with various prominent professional networks and academia, and many public speaking engagements.
At the time of this interview, Laurie is seeking a new professional opportunity as she relocates to Europe after almost a decade spent in North America.
Today we leverage Laurie’s operational expertise to discuss hands-on advice that can help demonstrate the value of the Law Department.
Laurie, how do you believe one effectively showcases the value of a Law Department to the broader organization?
There's no one-size-fits-all solution, but I personally advocate for placing data at the core of the strategy.
Nevertheless, while instrumental, a robust data program alone is not sufficient to convey the complete value proposition: communication and change management, to only name them, are also critical to successfully showcase the value beyond the department’s borders.
Why do you believe data is cornerstone?
Because data is information, and information is power.
Because data-driven decision-making enhances the agility and adaptability of the Law Department in addressing ever-evolving legal and business challenges.
Because in a landscape where 'speaking legal' and 'speaking business' may not always align, data serves as a universal language that bridges the gaps.
When designing a data program to demonstrate the value of the Law Department, which key steps do you take?
While acknowledging again that each Law Department is different, I believe that the fundamental rationale behind the approach remains consistent:
- Collect feedback from all stakeholders
The purpose of this step is to determine how the Law Department is perceived by its stakeholders, as this is that perception that should be changed so the Law Department is not seen as a mandatory service provider anymore, but a trusted business partner.
Initiate the process by doing an informal check in or a formal survey, depending on the culture and size of your organization. Document and consolidate the results as they constitute the baseline against which you will measure your progress.
- Identify the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that matter
Based on the collected feedback, identify both quantitative and qualitative KPIS that are truly impactful and align with the objectives you wish to measure. Defining these KPIs should be a collaborative effort with the legal leadership, and should be clearly communicated to the impacted individuals. It's also beneficial to involve, to a relevant extent, other departments to ensure alignment with the company's overarching strategic vision.
- Establish a Reporting Format, Timeframe, and Automation
In this one-time, time-consuming phase, the focus is on identifying where to obtain the information needed to address each KPI, and on determining how frequently this information should be updated. Once the data mapping is complete, it is essential to automate the retrieval and consolidation of data into a visually appealing and easily digestible reporting format, catered to each audience.
- Analyse the collected data & Identify trends
Dive into the collected data, conducting a thorough analysis to extract meaningful insights. The four primary types of data analytics (descriptive / diagnostic / predictive / prescriptive) are useful. Note that the last step often serves as a prerequisite for designing a transformative roadmap, but that’s a whole different story!
What outcome can one expect from measuring and analysing KPIs?
There are many benefits in measuring and analysing KPIs: increased engagement and transparency, better (human and technological) resources allocation, optimized operating model, more granular and documented performance review, more strategic cost management.
All these data points resonate with each other, and impact the broader organization. For instance, better work-life balance contributes to greater engagement and to a positive culture, transparency fosters trust-building, reasonable workloads lead to greater responsiveness, and effective talent management results in high-performing teams.
Any last piece of advice?
Based on my experience, I would recommend starting with a few but highly impactful data points, on which you can build iteratively along the way. For instance, measuring and improving the turnaround time of Legal influence how the business perceives the function, and interacts with it.
I'd conclude by emphasizing the importance of controls: the quality and consistency of data in the input stage directly impact the quality, accuracy, and relevance of the output. Maintaining rigorous controls ensures the reliability of your data program.