In-house lawyers have increasingly been charged with “doing more with less” over time. Top management now demands that the legal department save money and reduce risk.

Legal departments have hence closely monitored and analyzed their spending, reengineered processes, built or rebuilt work teams, hired legal process outsourcers (LPOs) for specific projects or tasks, and created tools that drive standardization, reduce risks, speed up cycle times, and increase efficiency.Process-driven legal procurement is increasingly involved in addition to the use of legal operations professionals who understand process improvement. Typically equipped with a strong financial background, legal operations people scrutinize legal spending, and analyses go from the 10,000 feet-view down to the granular level of a Uniform Task Based Management System (UTBMS) task code, while invoices are looked atundefinedsometimes literallyundefinedline by line. (read more)