In-house legal teams are being asked to improve efficiency, adopt AI responsibly, strengthen governance and deliver greater value to the business, often without a corresponding increase in resources.
Against this backdrop, legal operations has moved from a supporting function to a strategic capability.
In a recent episode of In-House Matters by Lawcadia, Lawcadia co-founder Sacha Kirk spoke with Petra Stirling, Regional Co-Chair of CLOC Australia and an experienced legal operations leader working within a financial services organisation.
Drawing on more than 20 years across legal technology, people and culture, organisational transformation and in-house legal operations, Petra shared her perspective on what legal operations brings to modern legal teams, the capabilities teams need to develop and how the broader legal ecosystem is changing.
A consistent message emerged from the discussion: stronger legal teams do not happen by accident. They are built through deliberate choices about people, processes, technology and partnerships.
Legal Operations Has Become a Strategic Capability
Technology has been one of the strongest drivers behind the growth of legal operations.
Legal teams now rely on a wide range of systems, including document management, eDiscovery, matter management, external counsel engagement and emerging AI tools. Many legal technology tools are specifically designed for legal use cases, and legal operations plays an important role in reviewing and assessing these solutions to ensure they meet the needs of the team.
However, a significant portion of the technology used by legal teams sits within broader enterprise platforms that are not designed with legal workflows in mind.
This is where legal operations plays a central role.
As Petra explained:
“Most organisations tilt their technology efforts towards their customers and their broader operational efficiencies. So where enterprise systems aren’t sufficient or aren’t well tuned for legal requirements, that’s where legal operations really plays – adapting and configuring enterprise systems to make sure that our very hardworking legal community is able to deliver the strongest possible value at the lowest possible risk level.”
This role has become increasingly important as in-house lawyers manage higher workloads with constrained resources.
But technology is only one part of the role.
Legal operations also covers service design, data, team capability, external provider relationships, financial management and the broader operating model of the legal function.
The strongest outcomes come when legal leadership and legal operations work closely together, combining legal judgement and experience with operational expertise.
Legal Operations Translates Technology Hype Into Practical Decisions
The legal technology market is moving quickly, particularly in relation to generative and agentic AI.
Legal teams are exposed to a constant stream of product announcements, new tools and claims about what technology can deliver. Evaluating these options requires more than enthusiasm or technical interest.
Petra described legal operations as a type of “Babel fish” for technology adoption within legal practice.
The role involves translating the noise, assessing the claims and identifying which opportunities are genuinely suitable for the organisation.
As Petra explained:
“There’s a genuine role in translating all of this noise, all of the hype about AI in particular, and bringing that in, filtering and making sure that the opportunities that the legal team are considering adopting are absolutely fit for purpose.”
This assessment needs to consider more than functionality.
Legal teams must examine risk, governance, information security, integration, adoption, cost and whether the tool addresses an actual operational problem.
Legal operations also supports implementation after a decision has been made. Selecting a product is only the beginning. Teams need training, practical support and enough time to develop confidence with new systems.
Without that support, even strong technology can fail to deliver its intended value.
Legal Operations Connects More Than People, Processes and Technology
Legal operations roles are often broad.
Petra referred to legal operations professionals as the “Head of Random”, reflecting the range of issues they may be asked to address.
One day, the focus may be AI governance or technology selection. The next, it may be an office move, information barriers, workforce planning or redesigning how lawyers collaborate.
The description is light-hearted, but it reflects an important point.
Legal team performance is affected by the interaction between people, systems, physical environments, information and processes. These elements cannot always be managed separately.
Petra used the example of an office move. While this may appear to be a property project, a legal team also needs to consider confidential conversations, information barriers, access to technology, opportunities for collaboration and the effect of the environment on productivity.
Legal operations brings these issues together and considers how each decision affects the legal function as a whole.
This end-to-end perspective is one of the discipline’s most valuable contributions.
Curiosity Up, Perfectionism Down
Lawyers are trained to be precise, comprehensive and cautious. Those qualities remain critical when delivering legal advice.
However, Petra argued that the pursuit of perfection can slow operational improvement.
Technology, AI and operating models are changing too quickly for legal teams to wait until every question has been resolved before experimenting.
As Petra said:
“There is absolutely no room for perfectionism in testing and selecting operational models, technologies and approaches that will best suit your legal team.”
This does not mean accepting poor quality or unmanaged risk.
Teams still need clear controls, testing and evaluation criteria. They need to understand what level of accuracy is required and where human review remains necessary.
The distinction is between perfection in legal advice and perfection in experimentation.
Petra summarised the mindset simply:
“Curiosity up, perfectionism down.”
This is particularly relevant to AI.
Legal professionals need enough technical understanding to recognise what AI can do, where it has limitations and how those limitations affect different use cases.
They do not need to become experts, but they do need to understand concepts such as context windows, model limitations, hallucinations and human oversight.
That knowledge will also require regular updating. AI capability is changing quickly, which means knowledge developed today may need to be refreshed within weeks or months.
Readiness For Change is Also About Energy and Capacity
Technology capability is only one part of being ready for change.
Legal teams also need to manage their capacity to absorb new systems, processes and expectations.
Petra noted that people respond to change very differently. Seniority and experience do not necessarily predict who will adopt technology most quickly.
Some experienced practitioners are highly willing to redesign their workflows and test new tools. Others may need more support, context or time.
Legal leaders therefore need to consider their team’s energy, confidence and enthusiasm for change, rather than assuming that providing access to a tool will be enough.
Adoption is a people issue as much as a technology issue.
Teams need opportunities to learn, practical examples and permission to experiment. They also need clarity about why the change matters and how it will improve their work.
Legal Operations Is Bringing The Legal Ecosystem Closer Together
Legal operations is also changing the relationship between in-house teams, law firms and technology providers.
Rather than treating each part of the industry as a separate provider or customer, legal operations encourages an end-to-end view of how legal services are delivered.
That creates opportunities to examine the full value chain and identify where delays, duplicated effort, unnecessary handovers or inconsistent information are reducing value.
Petra sees co-design as an important part of this shift.
In-house teams, law firms and technology providers can work together to redesign workflows, pricing models, engagement processes and service delivery.
As Petra explained:
“You can only do that if you’re willing to operate in a strong spirit of partnership, where you’re all able to put a little bit of perfectionism on the shelf again. This requires genuine partnership.”
A key objective should be reducing handovers. Every unnecessary transfer between teams, systems or providers creates the potential for delay, error and lost context.
By designing services collectively, the legal ecosystem can deliver outcomes that are faster, stronger, lower risk and, in some cases, less expensive.
Stronger Legal Teams Are Designed Deliberately
The theme of the 2026 CLOC Australia Summit is Stronger by Design.
For Petra, the theme reflects both the work of legal operations and the role of the professional community surrounding it.
Stronger legal functions are built through collaboration, shared learning and deliberate operational choices.
They require legal teams to examine how work flows through the organisation, how technology is selected, how data is used, how people are supported and how external partners contribute to outcomes.
The CLOC community provides a place for legal operations professionals to exchange practical ideas and learn from others facing similar challenges.
This is particularly valuable for people who may be the only legal operations specialist within their organisation.
Petra also emphasised the distinctive character of the Australian community. The work is taken seriously, but the community does not take itself too seriously.
That combination of practical insight, peer support and openness creates the conditions for stronger collaboration and innovative solutions.
What To Expect From The CLOC Australia Summit
The CLOC Australia Summit will be held in Sydney on 5 August 2026, with Legal Operations 101 and 201 workshops taking place on 4 August.
Petra said participants can expect practical case studies, experienced speakers and examples grounded in the realities of in-house legal work.
The program brings together legal operations professionals, in-house leaders, law firms and technology providers within the same community. What makes the CLOC Australia Summit unique is that there is no strict separation between the conference and the vendor space. Participants spend the day together, exchanging ideas and developing solutions.
The agenda includes speakers from organisations including Woolworths, IAG and Allens, alongside legal technology providers including Lawcadia.
The program will also include a keynote from Dr Catherine Ball and a session delivered in partnership with the National Institute of Dramatic Art, providing a different perspective on communication, performance capability, importantly, fun!
Petra’s message to the Australian legal operations community was clear:
“You’ll come away with practical solutions across a range of different domains and new ideas that you’ve never thought about before.”
Final Thoughts
Legal operations matters because modern legal teams cannot meet growing expectations through legal expertise alone.
They need clear processes, useful data, appropriate technology, strong partnerships and the operating discipline to translate strategy into day-to-day practice.
As legal work becomes more technology enabled, legal operations will play an increasingly important role in helping teams evaluate change, manage risk and improve delivery.
The strongest legal teams will be those that build this capability deliberately.
Lawcadia will be joining the legal operations community at the CLOC Australia Summit in Sydney on 5 August 2026. The event provides an opportunity to hear practical case studies, connect with peers and examine how stronger legal functions are being designed across Australia.