If you’re among the half of in-house counsel who say they are too busy “fighting fires” to achieve any long-term goals, it’s time to build and execute an in-house legal department strategic plan to stop scrambling and start affecting purposeful, positive change.
Our Legal Department strategic plan template will help you to define your goals and objectives. We'll also help you to define a law department strategy to achieve those goals.
At Xakia - both in our legal resources and in our matter management software - we focus on Legal Department strategic planning and strategic impact. Our Legal Department Strategic Plan Template will help you create a straightforward strategy that you can share with your department and your C-suite. Here on the blog, we’ll share how your colleagues approach planning, what small departments can do, how to engage company leadership and more.
But first – let’s follow the great advice of management guru Simon Sinek and “start with why.”
According to the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Legal Operations Maturity Model Toolkit, there are five primary reasons to engage in strategic planning:
Laudable goals, to be sure – but on a more human level, committing to and communicating a set purpose will improve the quality of work performed by your Legal Department and the quality of life for the people who work in it. As Sinek wrote, “Imagine a world in which the vast majority of us wake up inspired, feel safe at work and return home fulfilled at the end of the day.”
In a profession that’s perennially ranked among the most stressful occupations, adding some structure and a higher purpose – and getting away from endless fire-fighting – can go a long way.
It’s important to have a strategic plan for your in-house corporate Legal Department. It provides your team with a roadmap that aligns with the business and indicates how legal fits into the bigger picture. A Legal Department strategy plan will help you:
The first step in creating your in-house Legal Department strategic plan is to determine where you want to go: How do you want your in-house law department to look at the end of the year?
We appreciate the advice of Sterling Miller, the General Counsel of Marketo, Inc., who writes: “Legal departments do not always lend themselves to neatly setting goals like the business units, i.e., it can be difficult to measure ‘success’ in legal vs. measuring profits and sales or setting key performance indicators (KPIs). That said, setting goals for the department is important and a fresh opportunity to take stock of many things… Don’t shirk the opportunity and think of goal setting as some kind of pain-in-the-neck HR exercise you have to muddle through… there will be a payoff for you and your team if done properly and with some enthusiasm.”
Every in-house Legal Department is different, and your Legal Department goals will be tailored to your specific situation. But if you’re just not sure where to get started, Miller provides his sample “Big Five” top-level goals, which he would use to build specific steps and measures. Below are some Legal Department strategic goals to consider:
“The key,” Miller writes, “is that everyone is rowing in the same direction under the Big Five.”
Are you ready to craft your Big Five Legal Department goals and strategy? Are you ready to start your year with some strategic direction? Download Xakia’s ready-to-use Legal Department Strategic Plan Template today to get started on your in-house Legal Department goals and objectives.