The legal landscape is undergoing a quiet revolution. As businesses grapple with increasing regulatory demands, digital transformation and the ongoing pressure to “do more with less”, the Legal Operations function has emerged as a game-changer. For hiring managers, understanding the value of Legal Ops - and the kind of talent needed to lead it - has become essential. For legal professionals, it represents an exciting career pathway that blends legal expertise with strategic and operational impact.
What is Legal Operations?
Legal Operations (commonly shortened to ‘Legal Ops’) is the business management arm of the legal department. Its goal is to help legal teams operate more efficiently, effectively and strategically; enabling lawyers to focus on practising law, while ensuring the function delivers business value. Core areas of focus typically include:
- Technology enablement: Selecting and managing legal tech platforms
- Vendor management: Optimising external counsel spend and relationships
- Data & analytics: Measuring legal department performance and risk
- Budgeting & financial management: Ensuring cost efficiency
- Process improvement: Streamlining workflows and contract lifecycles
Why Legal Ops is rising in prominence
- Cost pressures: Businesses are demanding more predictable and transparent legal spend.
- Digital transformation: The adoption of AI, automation, and contract management platforms requires specialist oversight.
- Complex regulation: Increasing regulatory scrutiny means legal teams must work smarter, not just harder.
- Strategic influence: Legal departments are no longer reactive; they’re expected to align with business strategy and growth.
Legal Ops brings a more data-driven, proactive, and business-focused mindset to legal teams. The overall impact is that teams become more efficient, more strategic and better cross-functional collaborators.
Skills that define top Legal Ops talent
When it comes to in-house legal ops recruitment, it’s crucial to identify candidates with the following skill sets:
- Project management expertise
- Tech-savviness, especially with contract lifecycle management and AI tools
- Financial literacy and comfort with budgeting
- Change management skills to drive adoption across teams
- Strong communication to bridge the gap between legal and the wider business
How this is changing the shape of in-house legal recruitment
At Leonid, we are seeing a steady increase in the number of legal ops roles we are appointed to fill. As such, employers are shifting towards considering more candidates with non-legal backgrounds, but highly transferable skills. Typical backgrounds include project management, consulting or legal technology.
Investing in Legal Ops talent is no longer optional for large organisations, and doing it right produces a clear competitive advantage. For candidates, it’s an opportunity to be at the forefront of transforming the legal profession. As the function matures, recruitment agencies that understand Legal Ops will play a key role in shaping the legal teams of the future.
If you would like to discuss hiring in legal operations, please contact Phil Redhead for a friendly discussion.
