How Legal Ops Is Reshaping Cross-Functional Collaboration

Mitratech’s Lauren Burnside reports that legal ops professionals have evolved into strategic leaders driving enterprise-wide value through technology integration and cross-functional collaboration. With organizations seeking to consolidate tech stacks, 95% of senior IT executives plan to streamline vendors. Legal Ops is well-suited to identify overlaps and promote technology sharing. 

Mitratech’s Liz Logones and Honeywell‘s Sarah Sawvell emphasized this strategic role at a CLOC 2025 Global Institute solution lab, showing how legal departments can lead enterprise-wide innovation. Legal ops professionals’ vantage point spans the finance, procurement, compliance, and IT departments, enabling them to detect inefficiencies, champion shared platforms, and build bridges between siloed teams. 

Their holistic understanding helps prevent “tech bloat,” a common pitfall caused by adopting too many standalone tools. Instead, legal ops professionals are advocating for scalable, integrated solutions that promote data consistency and cost-efficiency to drive enterprise value. This shift minimizes redundancy, boosts security, and ensures smoother operations across departments. Shared technology means that legal ops can maximize ROI from existing platforms, standardize workflows, boost collaboration, and simplify vendor oversight.

Beyond implementing tools, legal ops professionals align stakeholders, build consensus, and ensure that legal and regulatory risks are addressed. They turn collaborative opportunities into actionable strategies and lead the business case for enterprise tech investments. This involves outlining mutual benefits, defining shared ownership, and tracking outcomes that matter to the various departments.

With rising pressure to deliver results amid tighter budgets, cross-functional collaboration and shared technology offer a viable path to achieving more with less. Legal ops are uniquely positioned to lead this charge, translating legal tech into enterprise-wide gains like streamlined workflows, stronger compliance, and better decision-making.