Insights on Legal Ops and Tech for Future In-House Legal Leaders

Brightflag’s Chief Operating Officer (COO), Alex Kelly, reports that future in-house legal leaders face increasing pressure to adopt the mindset of business strategists. In a recent interview, Curt McDaniel, Chief Legal Officer (CLO) at Ferring Pharmaceuticals, emphasized that legal leaders must learn to view their departments as businesses. 

This requires not only operational efficiency but also experience with finance. McDaniel stated that understanding financial statements and data is essential to strategic management of the legal function. By cultivating financial proficiency, legal leaders can better align departmental goals with the organization’s broader objectives. “You need to be able to think about your legal department as a business and how to run that efficiently,” asserted McDaniel.

Budgeting, McDaniel stressed, is a critical skill. Legal leaders must not only understand the scope of their budgets but also communicate the story behind them: “The narrative and the numbers need to match up.” Financial transparency plays a central role in earning credibility within the business.

The complexities of legal operations and technical implementation can be overwhelming for an in-house legal leader. With this in mind, McDaniel highlighted the significance of implementing legal technology, specifically how adopting e-billing and matter management tools helps track legal spend and achieve operational control. His colleague Sheila Dusseau, head of global operations, underscored the importance of setting strong foundations when implementing new technology, noting that legal teams often unlock more value if systems are properly configured from the start.

Dusseau also acknowledged that future in-house legal leaders may find that the technology offers more functionality than they first expected. Success depends on how it is configured from the outset, shaping whether, and to what extent, that hidden potential is realized.