In-house legal teams are moving from traditional back-office functions to front-end work, says firm
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KPMG Law has launched a new service to help remake in-house legal teams.
The global firm’s new Legal Operations & Transformations Services or LOTS guides legal departments in making and implementing a transformation plan. This includes assessing and then overhauling the unit’s current operating model, as well as helping identify technology to support service delivery.
“Businesses are engaging their internal legal teams earlier to minimise risk and maximise business opportunity. Essentially, in-house legal teams are moving from traditional back office functions to doing business at the front end. This means that in addition to their existing legal and compliance duties, in-house counsel are being challenged to not only support business activity but to make a strategic impact across the organisation,” said Jamie Levy, leader of LOTS.
“Our new service can support in-house legal teams meet this challenge by partnering with them on their transformation journey. We combine former general counsel, legal project managers, business process engineers and applied legal technologists to assess current processes, define the future operating model, demystify ‘legal tech’ offerings and implement technology-assisted approaches to the delivery of in-house legal services,” he added.
Stuart Fuller, who moved to KPMG to lead KPMG Law late last year, said more drastic change may be needed by in-house legal teams to cope with changes in the business and the market.
“With compounding headcount, technology and budget pressures, simply tweaking the existing model may not be sufficient to meet this challenge. We can help stream-line the in-house function, freeing up capacity for more value-adding work,” he said.
LOTS will tap the global professional services giant’s technology capabilities, expertise, and strategic partnerships, according to the law firm.
