Five benefits of creating a business plan for your law department

This article is based upon the Practice Note “In-House Counsel Skills Needed to Support Emerging Law Department Responsibilities,” one of the more than 65,000 resources available in Practical Law. 

Corporate counsel are challenged to align the goals of the law department with the business’ goals and to manage their departments like a business. In addition, corporate counsel struggle to demonstrate the value of the law department to internal stakeholders, particularly those in the C-suite.

One way to meet those challenges is to create and implement a law department business plan. The benefits of doing include:

• Creating a shared vision, common goals, and greater accountability for law department employees, all of which leads to better client service and greater job satisfaction
• Setting out an explicit strategy for making the law department more efficient
• Improving resource allocation
• Strengthening relationships within the law department and between the law department and its internal clients
• Demonstrating to the board of directors, company management, and other employees how the law department contributes to the company’s well-being and adds to its bottom line

By creating a business plan for the law department, you are thinking like a business person and speaking the language of business. This simple tactic sends a powerful message to all your internal stakeholders.