Today more than ever, legal departments are focused on cost containment. For most, outside counsel services are among their largest cost areas. And high spend on outside counsel often results in smaller budgets for other needs including technology and headcount.

I started my career at QuisLex over 12 years ago. I was a student completing my law degree, and I vividly remember the day I met QuisLex through a recruitment program on campus. I was curious to know more about the organization because back then, the legal process outsourcing market was just picking up momentum. After interviewing, I was informed I was selected to join QuisLex after I completed my final exams.

Lawyers take note: Ethical obligations to secure confidential client data extend to providers

Prior to joining QuisLex, I spent my entire legal career with three of the largest U.S. banks, where I was part of a legal team that moved an entire enterprise to the cloud, stood up a privacy program and worked through two major data breaches. These experiences in a highly regulated environment gave me a unique skillset – building processes from scratch, maintaining existing successful processes and managing and remediating worst-case scenarios.

Legal operations as a functional area isn’t new, but many organizations are still establishing their programs or actively working to advance their current program to its next stage. In doing so, it’s always necessary to begin with a strategy, budget and, importantly, executive support. Even with those priorities, however, there are challenges faced by many organizations that often prevent growth and success.