Exploring Solutions to 5 Common Friction Points

by An Trotter

Attorneys are trained to leap into the breach and solve urgent problems.

While generally an asset, strategic planning is the moment to pause, check assumptions, and diagnose before you deploy solutions.

Here are 5 friction points that show up frequently in law departments — and where to start:

1. Resource Strain: Headcount was hired in response to immediate need that is now the past. Fix:

  • Redeploy and upskill existing talent calibrated to company growth through formal training or secondments.
  • Diversify staffing models (flexible staffing; lower cost regions). Legal is a cost center for almost every company outside the legal industry itself, which means the operating model has to stay lean by design.
  • Incorporate tools (including Generative AI) to extend volume capacity.

2. Unclear demand signals: Without knowing where demand is headed you can’t forecast resourcing and budget and focus on high priority work. Fix:

  • Consolidate intake through a single "legal front door,"
  • Build a dashboard that surfaces revenue growth and risk mitigation opportunities
  • Start simply with tools you already have (Ex: group mailbox or IT ticketing tool), to explore and refine the process before further investment.

3. Sales-to-delivery contract gaps: To meet revenue targets, sales commits to targets not aligned with upstream commitments that procurement and or delivery can support. Fix:

  • Rank customers by revenue and retention
  • Translate client program commitments into program-specific upstream contract requirements
  • Score contracts for value and risk exposure. This holds sales teams accountable and helps the legal team focus effort on highest-value or issue-based work streams
  • Require senior sign-off on exceptions to protect the program.
  • Purchase or enhance a contract analytics tool. Generative AI can significantly reduce deployment and data migration time.

4. Unfocused IP investment: Patent spend can drift toward incremental filings that don't move the needle on company defense or future growth. Fix:

  • Stand up (or refresh) a patent committee with real cross-functional representation, and
  • Set forward-looking filing and renewal criteria.
  • Explore opportunities to transform portfolio imbalance into a revenue-driving patent licensing program.
  • Invest in a tool that maps patent family presence and weaknesses to provide additional decision making input. 

5. Cross-border compliance blind spots: Fast growth outpaces policy enforcement and monitoring in anti-corruption, OFAC, data privacy, and conflict minerals. Fix:

  • Audit what's actually being monitored
  • Quantify compliance rates, and
  • Assign clear ownership.

Note re item 3: If minerals apply, there can be a customer contract requirement difficult to meet without supplier commitments to track.

TL;DR

If you move too fast, the risk is a quick fix that misaligns with the overall context or breaks another component. Problems get solved by a rigorous planning process that aligns legal with C-suite priorities — and proves the function belongs at the table.

On left a fire warden directing a fire being put out in an office building. On the right a construction lead looking at the same building newly completed
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