汤森路透|2025年法律部门运营指数

Managing pressures both external and internal In partnership with Executive summary Today, legal department operations (LDO) teams are under increasing pressure not only to slow thegrowth of legal department costs, but also to do more, with fewer resources. This renewed pressure on LDO professionals to do morewith less, from evaluating and implementing rapidly evolvingtechnologies to maintaining and improving the operationsof their legal departments, is not new. Still, it comes at a Departments’ legal operationsfunctions are being asked to Indeed, that push for value was a factor that weighed heavily on the collective minds of GCs, accordingto the2025 State of the Corporate Law Departmentreport.1Increasingly, as our latest data shows, The quest for value As theState of the Corporate Law Departmentreport made clear, the word value is discussed so oftenin corporate legal circles that it runs the risk of becoming a buzzword. That report noted that “GCstoday are considering the value of their legal departments across a wide spectrum of applications Now, following up on theCorporate Law Departmentreport, this latest edition of the Thomson ReutersInstitute’sLegal Department Operations Indexshows that it’s the LDO teams inside each corporate legal To illustrate, we have envisioned the strategic focus for today’s corporate legal department on fourkey areas — four spinning plates, if you will — of effectiveness, efficiency, protecting the business, and Four spinning plates Now, we’re seeing how LDO professionals — who in some cases are the corporate GCs themselves —are increasingly acting as the point of the spear on these initiatives, even as they are under-resourced In this iteration of theLDO Index, we examine the changing role of LDO professionals in theirdepartments, the trends that are influencing how they will operate in the future, the metrics they’re Key findings Key findings in the report include: •Legal operations work is expanding beyond its origins as primarily a cost-control function toinclude a focus on systems, processes, and technology. A large portion (82%) of respondentsindicate their legal department has at least one dedicated legal ops role on their team. However,45% of respondents classify themselves as “General Counsel tasked to run legal operations,” •More than half of legal department professionals (56%) surveyed report that their department isunder-resourced, even though almost half (46%) say they expect to see more work being brought •More than half (55%) report flat or decreasing budgets for the legal department, and a majority(51%) also report flat or no change in their legal tech budgets. •Almost three-quarters of respondents (73%) say they plan to use advanced technology toautomate legal tasks and reduce costs, yet 45% also characterize the pace of technology Methodology The survey that undergirds this report was conducted in July 2025. There were 128 responses collectedfrom respondents within legal departments — including those responsible for legal operations — at Part 1: The role of legal operations:Moving from cost control to How legal ops drive comprehensive department success As noted, our research found that legal operations teams have evolved beyond their origins as primarilya cost-control function to encompass more of the plates we described earlier. Today’s modern legalops team focuses on systems, processes, and technology more than ever before. Moreover, there is “Theroleoflegaloperationsistotaketheeverydaytasksofftheattorney’sdesk so they can perform the high-value work they were hired to do.” - Legal operations, Pharmaceuticals/Bioscience Fully 82% of respondents surveyed say they have at least one dedicated legal ops role on their team —which is impressive. In 45% of cases, legal operations responsibilities are integrated into the GC role,according to respondents. This reflects the reality that many corporate legal departments operatewithout dedicated legal ops professionals. Indeed, this may be influenced by company size. Manylegal departments, particularly ones at smaller companies, don’t have dedicated legal ops roles. And In fact, our research found that when legal operations are overseen by a professional with a legal opsbackground, rather than by a GC who has been tasked with legal ops, departments saw an increaseduse of legal technology tools, along with a growing budget for these solutions, as well as a moresophisticated management of the department’s legal spend. Legal ops leaders also more commonly Legal ops leaders’ priorities When comparing those leaders in GC roles to those with legal ops backgrounds, we see some furtherdivergence in their priorities, although both groups show a strong preference for balance. For example, almost half (47%) of GCs and almost one-third (32%) of legal ops professionals surveyedsay they focus equally on cost reduction and service enhancement. “ Legal ops exists to make the legal depa