The Brief
Lander & Rogers was engaged by a prominent logistics solutions company to assess and realign their legal operations. The company faced challenges such as a large backlog, long wait times, and no classification of urgent, strategic work. The objective was to reduce time spent on low-value tasks, empower its Sales and Procurement teams, and allow the legal department to focus on high-value, strategic work. This initiative aimed to streamline processes and lay the groundwork for improved efficiency across the legal function, ultimately acting as a strategic partner for the business.
The Challenge
The legal team was responsible for handling approximately 800 sales and 300 procurement contracts annually, but their capacity was heavily constrained by working on a high volume of repetitive, low-value tasks. This created bottlenecks and limited their ability to concentrate on more complex, high-impact work. It was essential to redesign their workflows to better allocate resources and unlock the full potential of their legal team.
The Solution
We began by engaging with our client's legal leadership team to understand their strategy and goals and to drive change from the top. Next, we interviewed and shadowed key stakeholders, including the Sales and Procurement teams, to understand how they interact with the legal team and ensure the success metrics we delivered reflected the shared priorities of these departments. Leadership engagement was a crucial part of ensuring long-term commitment to the changes and driving momentum in this realignment effort.
A thorough assessment was conducted to map existing workflows, identify bottlenecks, and differentiate between high and low-value tasks. Based on this analysis, we designed future-state processes, which included a triage model and re-evaluated thresholds to rebalance decision-making back to empower the business. Enhanced team capabilities to streamline task allocation were also implemented. Support tools such as playbooks and automated processes for low-complexity decision-making were developed to ensure the organisation was equipped to transition smoothly to these new practices.
The Value
Our work provided the logistics company with a clear roadmap to optimise their legal operations. The recommended changes aim to reduce low-value work, empower the Sales and Procurement teams, and refocus the legal department on high-value tasks. By laying this strategic groundwork, the company is now well-positioned to enhance their efficiency and effectiveness in managing the contract review process and promoting the function as a strategic partner to the business.
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