Key takeaways:
- Jenny’s first year in legal ops has passed more than quickly. She is sure that the coming years will fly by as well. When asked what a typical workday looks like, the answer is short – there isn’t one. Every day offers new insights, lessons, and challenges. Which is what Jenny finds so interesting and inspiring.
Working as a legal operations professional
Working in legal operations is all about designing systems, processes, and tools that help legal teams work better. In practice, that means owning contract workflows, selecting and implementing legal technology, training colleagues on new tools, and continuously looking for ways to reduce friction in how legal work gets done.
Jenny’s biggest lesson from year one: you cannot improve what you cannot see. Visibility into where contracts are, who is waiting for what, and which processes are breaking down is the precondition for everything else. For more on what legal operations involves at a structural level, see Legal Operations: Everything You Need to Know.
The importance of getting contracts right first
For Jenny, the first year centred heavily on contract management. Getting templates standardised, approvals structured, and signed contracts into a searchable archive was the foundation that made everything else possible. Once the basics were solid, it became much easier to make the case for expanding self-serve contracting to other departments.
For practical steps on improving the contract process, read How to Improve Contract Management: A Comprehensive Guide. For a look at the trends shaping how legal ops is evolving, see The 10 Must-Know Legal Operations Trends.
Managing expectations and building credibility
One of the harder lessons was learning to manage expectations – both upward and across the business. Legal ops is often asked to solve problems that require organisational change, not just tool deployment. Jenny’s advice: underpromise, overdeliver, and make sure every stakeholder understands what success looks like before you start.
For a framework on navigating this in the context of CLM adoption, see Avoiding Common Pitfalls in CLM Adoption.
