Ten Things can help a legal department build a strong plan, set legal priorities, manage risks, control costs, and support business goals. A clear legal department plan connects company goals with legal planning, goal setting, risk management, and legal operations. Based on 25 years of in-house legal experience, the focus should remain on helping in-house lawyers, in-house counsel, and a legal team move beyond a reactive support service. The plan should identify legal risks, explain how to manage legal risks, organize resources, prepare for future challenges, and define how success is measured through performance measurement. It should also address budgeting, technology, staffing, compliance, corporate compliance, and continuous improvement. For a small in-house legal team or large corporate legal function, this approach creates a practical roadmap for daily operations, helping the department achieve a strategic business advantage and lasting business advantage.
The right plan will vary by context, and the specifics depend on the organization’s needs. A useful list, list of ten, or collection of essential items, ten essential items, tasks, ten characteristics, ten tips, productivity tips, and productivity strategies can organize priorities without making the process complicated. Like packing the right essentials for a trip, travel, or trip planning, a legal plan should put the most important work first. A good leader uses leadership, strong leadership qualities, and practical strategy to turn plans into action. My experience as General Counsel, Senior Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer, and Corporate Secretary, including work with Marketo, Inc., Sabre Corporation, NASDAQ, SABR, and Travelocity
com, has shown the value of connecting corporate legal, corporate legal departments, and corporate legal strategy with wider business needs. Earlier experience as an associate at a law firm, work with law firms and corporations, participation on advisory boards, a board of directors, and work with directors, along with writing six books and providing CLEs, coaching, legal coaching, consulting, legal consulting, and speaking engagements through Hilgers Graben PLLC, Dallas office, and St. Louis, all reinforce the need for practical legal work and clear legal strategy.
Quick Answer
A successful legal department strategic plan should cover ten core areas: understanding business goals, assessing the current legal function, identifying legal risks, setting clear priorities, planning the budget, organizing people and resources, improving processes, using legal technology, measuring performance, and reviewing the plan regularly.
The goal is to create a practical roadmap rather than a document that sits unread in a folder. Your legal department plan should explain what the team will do, why each priority matters, who is responsible, what resources are needed, and how progress will be measured.
Comparison Overview
Before building a plan for the legal department, it helps to understand the difference between a reactive legal function and a strategically planned one.
| Area | Reactive Legal Department | Strategic Legal Department |
| Decision-making | Responds after issues occur | Identifies risks early |
| Priorities | Changes constantly | Follows clear business priorities |
| Budgeting | Focuses on unexpected expenses | Forecasts legal spending |
| Risk management | Handles problems individually | Uses a structured risk approach |
| Technology | Relies heavily on manual work | Uses appropriate legal technology |
| Staffing | Adds resources only when overwhelmed | Plans future capability needs |
| Outside counsel | Used without consistent evaluation | Managed through clear criteria |
| Performance | Activity-focused | Measures meaningful outcomes |
| Compliance | Responds to violations | Builds preventive systems |
| Business relationship | Viewed as a support function | Works as a strategic partner |
A strategic approach does not mean that the legal team will never face urgent work. Legal departments will always deal with unexpected disputes, investigations, regulatory changes, and business emergencies.
The difference is that a legal department strategy gives the team a framework for handling those issues without losing sight of long-term priorities.
“If everything is a priority, nothing is a priority.”
This idea is especially important for legal teams because their workload can grow quickly. A written plan helps leaders decide which projects deserve immediate attention and which can wait.
Main Differences Between Ten Things: How to Create a Plan for the Legal Department
The ten things to consider when creating a legal department plan are closely connected, but each serves a different purpose. Some areas focus on strategy, while others focus on execution.
Strategy vs Daily Legal Operations
A legal department strategic plan looks at the bigger picture. It asks where the organization is going and how the legal function can support that direction.
Daily operations focus on the work happening now, such as:
- Reviewing contracts
- Managing disputes
- Providing legal advice
- Supporting transactions
- Handling employment issues
- Monitoring compliance requirements
Both are necessary. However, a department that only manages today’s workload may struggle to prepare for tomorrow’s risks.
Risk Prevention vs Risk Response
A strong legal plan includes both prevention and response.
Risk prevention may involve:
- Compliance training
- Contract controls
- Policy development
- Regulatory monitoring
- Internal audits
- Better approval procedures
Risk response may involve:
- Litigation management
- Investigations
- Crisis support
- Regulatory inquiries
- Data breach response
The best legal department planning process balances these two responsibilities instead of focusing entirely on problems that have already happened.
Cost Control vs Value Creation
Legal departments often face pressure to reduce spending. Cost control matters, especially when outside counsel and litigation expenses are significant.
However, a low-cost legal strategy is not automatically a good strategy.
For example, reducing preventive legal work may appear to save money today but create a much larger expense later. A well-designed plan considers both legal costs and legal value.
Value can include:
- Avoiding expensive disputes
- Reducing regulatory exposure
- Speeding up contract processes
- Supporting business growth
- Protecting intellectual property
- Improving governance
- Helping leaders make better decisions
Short-Term Goals vs Long-Term Capability
Some legal priorities must be completed quickly. Others require sustained investment.
For example, resolving a major lawsuit may be an immediate priority. Building a contract management system may take several months or longer.
A useful legal department roadmap should include both types of goals.
| Timeframe | Example Legal Priorities |
| Short term | Address urgent compliance gaps |
| Short term | Review major legal risks |
| Medium term | Improve contract workflows |
| Medium term | Develop reporting dashboards |
| Long term | Build legal technology capability |
| Long term | Develop succession and talent plans |
Now let’s look at the ten key elements of an effective plan.
Understand the Organization’s Business Goals
The first step in creating a plan for the legal department is understanding what the business is trying to achieve.
Legal strategy should support business strategy. A legal team cannot create meaningful priorities without knowing the organization’s major objectives.
For example, a company planning international expansion may need legal support related to:
- New regulations
- Local employment laws
- Tax coordination
- Intellectual property protection
- Commercial agreements
- Data protection
- Licensing requirements
A company planning rapid acquisitions will have very different legal priorities. Its legal department may need to focus more heavily on due diligence, transaction support, corporate governance, and post-acquisition integration.
Questions to Ask Business Leaders
Before writing your legal department strategic plan, speak with key decision-makers and ask questions such as:
- What are the organization’s biggest goals this year?
- Which markets are growing?
- Are new products or services planned?
- Is the organization entering new locations?
- Are mergers, acquisitions, or partnerships being considered?
- Which business risks concern leadership most?
- What regulatory changes could affect future operations?
- Where does the business expect the legal department to provide more support?
These conversations help legal leaders move beyond assumptions.
Why Business Alignment Matters
Imagine a business plans to launch a major digital product while the legal department spends most of its improvement budget on a project unrelated to digital operations. Even if that project is useful, it may not support the company’s most urgent strategic needs.
Business alignment helps the legal department answer an important question:
What legal work will create the greatest value for the organization?
This should become the foundation of the entire legal department plan.
Assess the Current State of the Legal Department
You cannot build an effective plan without understanding where the department currently stands.
A current-state assessment should examine the team’s strengths, weaknesses, workload, costs, systems, and major risks.
Review the Legal Department’s Current Work
Start by identifying the major types of work handled by the team.
These may include:
- Commercial contracts
- Employment law
- Litigation
- Corporate governance
- Intellectual property
- Privacy and data protection
- Regulatory compliance
- Real estate matters
- Mergers and acquisitions
- Insurance claims
- Investigations
Then look at how much time and money each area requires.
This analysis can reveal surprising patterns. A team may believe that one type of work consumes most of its resources, while actual data shows that another area creates the largest workload.
Conduct a Simple SWOT Analysis
A SWOT analysis can provide a useful starting point.
| Category | Questions to Consider |
| Strengths | What does the legal team do especially well? |
| Weaknesses | Where are delays, gaps, or resource problems occurring? |
| Opportunities | What improvements could create better results? |
| Threats | Which legal or business developments could create future risks? |
For example, the department may have highly experienced lawyers but weak contract systems. That means the organization has strong legal knowledge but may lose time because routine work depends too heavily on manual processes.
Review Stakeholder Feedback
The legal department should also ask internal clients for feedback.
Business teams may raise issues such as:
- Contract reviews take too long
- Legal advice arrives too late in projects
- Approval processes are unclear
- Employees do not know when to involve legal
- Legal guidance is difficult to understand
Feedback should not automatically dictate every change. Still, it can reveal problems that internal legal teams may not notice themselves.
A good legal department plan combines internal performance data with stakeholder experience.
Identify and Prioritize Legal Risks
Risk identification is one of the most important parts of legal department planning.
Not every legal issue deserves the same level of attention. A minor contractual disagreement and a major regulatory investigation clearly require different responses.
The department should create a structured method for identifying and prioritizing risks.
Build a Legal Risk Register
A legal risk register can include:
- Description of the risk
- Business area affected
- Likelihood of occurrence
- Potential impact
- Current controls
- Responsible owner
- Recommended action
- Target completion date
A simple approach is to evaluate risks based on likelihood and impact.
| Risk Level | Likelihood | Potential Impact | Typical Action |
| Low | Unlikely | Limited | Monitor |
| Moderate | Possible | Manageable | Improve controls |
| High | Likely or significant | Serious | Prioritize action |
| Critical | Immediate or severe | Major business consequences | Escalate immediately |
Consider Different Types of Legal Risk
A complete assessment may include:
- Regulatory risk
- Contract risk
- Litigation risk
- Employment risk
- Privacy risk
- Intellectual property risk
- Corporate governance risk
- Reputational risk
- Third-party risk
- Cybersecurity-related legal risk
The exact categories will depend on the organization.
Case Study: Prioritizing Contract Risk
Consider a growing company that signs hundreds of customer agreements each year. The legal team notices that employees frequently use outdated templates and make unapproved changes.
The immediate problem may appear to be a workload issue because lawyers spend too much time reviewing contracts.
However, a deeper review identifies the underlying risk: inconsistent contracts could expose the company to unexpected liability.
The legal department’s solution might include:
- Creating approved templates
- Developing a contract playbook
- Establishing clear fallback positions
- Training sales teams
- Creating an approval process for unusual terms
This example shows why a legal department strategy should address root causes rather than repeatedly treating symptoms.
Set Clear Goals and Legal Department Priorities
After understanding business goals, assessing the current situation, and identifying risks, the next step is setting priorities.
Avoid vague goals such as:
- Improve legal services
- Reduce risk
- Become more efficient
These statements sound positive, but they do not explain what success looks like.
Instead, create specific goals.
Examples of Better Legal Department Goals
A stronger goal might be:
Reduce the average turnaround time for standard commercial contracts by 20% through approved templates, contract playbooks, and improved intake procedures.
Another example:
Complete a company-wide review of high-risk regulatory requirements and assign ownership for each major compliance control.
Specific goals make it easier to measure progress.
Use a Priority Matrix
A priority matrix can help determine where the department should focus.
| Initiative | Business Value | Legal Risk Reduction | Effort Required | Priority |
| Update contract templates | High | High | Medium | High |
| Improve legal reporting | Medium | Medium | Low | High |
| Replace all legal systems | High | Medium | Very High | Medium |
| Review low-value legacy files | Low | Low | Medium | Low |
The purpose is not to make planning overly complicated. It is to prevent the legal department from treating every possible project as equally urgent.
Limit the Number of Major Priorities
A practical plan for the legal department should focus on a manageable number of major initiatives.
Too many strategic projects can create:
- Employee burnout
- Missed deadlines
- Poor-quality implementation
- Confusion about responsibilities
- Constant changes in direction
Choose the priorities that matter most and give them proper attention.
Create a Realistic Legal Department Budget
A legal department budget should support the department’s priorities.
Start by reviewing historical spending, but do not simply copy last year’s numbers. Consider what is changing.
Major expense categories may include:
- Internal legal salaries
- Employee benefits
- Outside counsel
- Litigation expenses
- Legal technology
- Compliance tools
- Professional training
- Expert witnesses
- Investigations
- Regulatory fees
Analyze Outside Counsel Spending
Outside counsel can provide essential expertise, but spending should be managed carefully.
Review questions such as:
- Which matters require external specialists?
- Which work could be handled internally?
- Are firms selected based on expertise?
- Are legal bills reviewed consistently?
- Are budgets established for major matters?
- Does the department compare performance across providers?
The lowest hourly rate is not always the best value.
A lawyer with specialized experience may solve a complex problem more efficiently than a less experienced provider who charges a lower rate but requires significantly more time.
Plan for Unexpected Costs
Some legal expenses are difficult to predict.
Examples include:
- Major litigation
- Regulatory investigations
- Emergency transactions
- Data incidents
- Government inquiries
A good budget should recognize uncertainty. Legal leaders should also communicate major financial risks to senior management early rather than waiting until spending exceeds expectations.
Connect Spending to Outcomes
When requesting budget resources, explain the expected business benefit.
For example:
Investment in a contract workflow system may reduce manual administrative work, improve visibility, and help the legal team focus on higher-value matters.
This makes the budget discussion more strategic.
Plan the Right Legal Team and Resources
People are one of the most important parts of a successful legal department plan.
The question is not simply, “Do we need more lawyers?”
A better question is:
“What capabilities does the legal department need to achieve its goals?”
The answer may involve lawyers, paralegals, legal operations professionals, contract managers, compliance specialists, or outside providers.
Analyze Workload Before Hiring
Before adding staff, review:
- Volume of incoming work
- Complexity of matters
- Time spent on routine tasks
- Peak workload periods
- Work that requires specialist knowledge
- Work that could be automated or delegated
Sometimes the real issue is insufficient staffing. In other cases, poor processes create unnecessary work.
For example, if every standard contract requires extensive manual review, hiring another lawyer may provide temporary relief without fixing the underlying workflow.
Build a Skills Inventory
List the capabilities currently available within the department.
Examples include:
- Commercial negotiation
- Employment law
- Corporate law
- Regulatory knowledge
- Data privacy
- Intellectual property
- Litigation management
- Legal operations
- Project management
- Technology expertise
Then compare current skills with future business needs.
Include Succession Planning
A legal department can become vulnerable when critical knowledge depends on one person.
A strong plan should identify key responsibilities and consider:
- Who can provide backup?
- Which skills are difficult to replace?
- Where is knowledge poorly documented?
- Which employees may need development?
Cross-training can reduce dependency and improve continuity.
Improve Legal Processes and Workflows
Process improvement can significantly strengthen a legal department strategic plan.
Legal teams often develop processes gradually. Different lawyers may handle similar requests in completely different ways.
That can create inconsistency and unnecessary delays.
Start With High-Volume Work
Look first at repetitive activities.
Examples include:
- Non-disclosure agreements
- Standard contracts
- Legal intake requests
- Contract approvals
- Routine employment documents
- Entity management
- Document requests
Improving a high-volume process can create a larger impact than redesigning a process that occurs only occasionally.
Map the Current Process
Ask:
- How does the request enter the legal department?
- Who reviews it?
- What approvals are required?
- Where does the work get delayed?
- What information is frequently missing?
- Which steps create little value?
This can reveal bottlenecks.
Standardize Where Possible
Standardization does not mean treating every legal matter identically.
It means creating consistent approaches for routine situations.
Useful tools may include:
- Standard templates
- Clause libraries
- Approval matrices
- Legal playbooks
- Intake forms
- Checklists
- Escalation procedures
These resources allow legal professionals to spend less time repeating basic work and more time addressing complex issues.
Use Legal Technology Strategically
Technology should support the legal department plan, not become a goal by itself.
Buying software without understanding the problem can waste time and money.
Start by identifying a clear need.
Common Areas for Legal Technology
Depending on the organization, technology may support:
- Contract lifecycle management
- Matter management
- Legal spend management
- Document automation
- E-billing
- Legal research
- Compliance tracking
- Entity management
- Knowledge management
- Reporting
Ask the Right Questions Before Investing
Consider:
- What problem are we trying to solve?
- How much time does the current process require?
- Who will use the technology?
- Can existing systems already handle the need?
- What training will employees require?
- How will success be measured?
Technology Is Only Part of the Solution
A poor process does not automatically become effective because it is moved into software.
For example, automating an unclear approval process may simply make the confusion happen faster.
The better approach is:
Simplify the process first, then use technology where it adds real value.
Measure Legal Department Performance
A plan needs measurable outcomes.
Without performance measurement, it becomes difficult to know whether the department is improving.
However, legal metrics should be selected carefully.
Measuring only activity can encourage the wrong behavior.
For example, counting the number of matters closed may not show whether those matters were handled effectively.
Useful Legal Department KPIs
Possible metrics include:
- Contract turnaround time
- Legal matter volume
- Outside counsel spending
- Budget variance
- Percentage of high-risk matters
- Litigation outcomes
- Compliance training completion
- Stakeholder satisfaction
- Time spent on routine work
- Technology adoption
- Percentage of work completed within agreed service levels
Combine Quantitative and Qualitative Measures
Numbers are important, but they do not tell the entire story.
Suppose contract turnaround time falls significantly. That may sound like a success.
However, you should also ask:
- Are contracts being reviewed carefully?
- Are business teams satisfied?
- Has legal risk increased?
- Are lawyers under unreasonable pressure?
The strongest legal department KPIs combine efficiency, quality, risk, and stakeholder experience.
Create a Simple Dashboard
A monthly or quarterly dashboard can show leadership:
- Major legal risks
- Progress on strategic initiatives
- Spending trends
- Significant disputes
- Compliance developments
- Key performance indicators
Keep reporting focused. Senior leaders generally need meaningful insights rather than every operational detail.
Build Strong Relationships With Business Stakeholders
A legal department cannot succeed in isolation.
Lawyers need to understand how employees and business leaders work. Business teams also need to understand when and how to involve legal.
Strong relationships can prevent problems before they become expensive.
Encourage Early Legal Involvement
When legal is involved too late, options may already be limited.
For example, a business team may negotiate a commercial arrangement for weeks before sending the final agreement to legal. At that stage, changing a high-risk term may become politically difficult.
Early involvement allows legal professionals to identify issues while there is still time to shape the deal.
Make Legal Advice Easy to Understand
Legal expertise provides the greatest value when decision-makers can use it.
Instead of only describing a legal issue, explain:
- What the risk is
- How serious it may be
- Which options are available
- What each option could mean for the business
For example:
Option A offers the lowest legal risk but may delay the launch. Option B allows the launch to proceed faster but requires additional contractual protections.
This approach helps business leaders make informed decisions.
Case Study: Improving the Legal-Business Relationship
Imagine a sales department that regularly complains about slow contract reviews.
The legal team initially believes the problem is lack of staffing.
After reviewing the process, the department discovers that many requests arrive with missing information. Lawyers repeatedly ask for the same details before beginning work.
The solution includes:
- A structured intake form
- Required information fields
- Standard contract options
- A service-level framework
- Training for the sales team
The result is not simply faster legal work. It is a better process shared by both departments.
This is why stakeholder relationships should be part of every plan for the legal department.
Review and Update the Legal Department Plan Regularly
A legal plan should not be written once and forgotten.
Business priorities change. New laws emerge. Markets shift. Risks evolve.
Regular review keeps the plan relevant.
Create a Planning Review Cycle
Consider reviewing:
Monthly: Operational progress and major risks.
Quarterly: Strategic initiatives, performance metrics, and budget trends.
Annually: Overall goals, department structure, future risks, and major investment priorities.
Ask What Has Changed
During each review, consider:
- Have business priorities changed?
- Have new legal risks appeared?
- Are current projects producing results?
- Has spending changed?
- Are employees facing capacity problems?
- Do performance metrics show improvement?
- Should any priorities be stopped or delayed?
Changing a plan when circumstances change is not a failure.
Refusing to adapt can be the bigger problem.
Keep the Plan Practical
The best legal department roadmap is useful to the people doing the work.
A concise plan with clear actions can be more effective than a lengthy document filled with broad statements.
For each major initiative, identify:
- The objective
- Why it matters
- The responsible owner
- Required resources
- Key milestones
- Success measures
- Review dates
That structure turns strategy into action.
A Practical Legal Department Planning Framework
You can combine the ten areas into a simple planning framework.
Business Alignment
Understand the organization’s goals and future direction.
Current-State Assessment
Review people, processes, workload, costs, systems, and stakeholder feedback.
Legal Risk Assessment
Identify and rank the risks requiring the greatest attention.
Priority Setting
Choose a realistic number of strategic initiatives.
Budget Planning
Allocate resources and monitor major spending areas.
Talent and Resources
Develop the right mix of legal, operational, and external capabilities.
Process Improvement
Standardize and simplify high-volume legal work.
Technology Strategy
Use technology to solve defined problems and support measurable goals.
Performance Measurement
Track outcomes that demonstrate efficiency, quality, value, and risk management.
Continuous Review
Update the legal department plan as the business and legal environment change.
Common Mistakes When Creating a Plan for the Legal Department
Even a well-intentioned plan can fail if it contains common weaknesses.
Trying to Do Too Much
A long list of priorities can make a department feel busy without creating meaningful progress.
Focus on the initiatives with the strongest connection to business goals and legal risk.
Ignoring Business Strategy
A legal plan should not be created without input from business leaders.
Legal priorities need to reflect where the organization is going.
Focusing Only on Cost Reduction
Reducing spending is useful, but the cheapest approach may increase future risk.
Consider total value rather than short-term costs alone.
Using Technology Without a Clear Purpose
Technology should solve a specific problem.
Avoid buying systems simply because other legal departments use them.
Measuring the Wrong Things
Activity metrics alone may not show whether the legal department is creating value.
Measure meaningful outcomes whenever possible.
Failing to Assign Ownership
Every major initiative should have a clear owner.
When everyone is responsible, accountability often becomes unclear.
Never Updating the Plan
A strategy that ignores major changes can quickly become outdated.
Regular reviews keep the legal department strategic plan connected to reality.
FAQs
What are the most important things to include in a legal department plan?
A legal department plan should cover legal priorities, business goals, legal risks, risk management, budgeting, staffing, technology, compliance, and performance measurement. It should also explain how the team will use resources and measure success.
Why does a legal department need a strategic plan?
A clear plan helps the legal department move from reactive work toward a more strategic role. It gives the legal team a practical roadmap for managing risks, controlling costs, supporting company goals, and preparing for future challenges.
How can a legal department control costs?
The department can control costs by setting clear priorities, managing outside law firms, reviewing legal spending, improving legal operations, and using technology where appropriate. Regular budgeting and performance measurement can also reveal areas where resources are being used inefficiently.
How should a small in-house legal team approach planning?
A small in-house legal team should focus first on its highest-risk and highest-value work. Clear goal setting, practical legal planning, organized resources, strong compliance, and simple performance measures can help a small team operate effectively without creating unnecessary processes.
How can legal department performance be measured?
Performance can be measured through factors such as legal spending, response times, contract volume, risk reduction, compliance results, business support, and completion of strategic priorities. The specific measures should reflect the organization’s goals and the legal department’s responsibilities.
Conclusion
A successful legal department plan should connect legal work with the organization’s wider objectives. Ten Things such as goal setting, risk management, budgeting, staffing, technology, compliance, and performance measurement can provide a useful framework for building that plan. The best approach remains practical, flexible, and aligned with changing business needs. When legal priorities are clearly defined and resources are managed thoughtfully, the legal department can become a stronger strategic partner while continuing to manage everyday legal responsibilities effectively.
