General counsel are leading the way on innovation, according to over one in three respondents to the GC Futures 2016 survey. With growing numbers hiring legal operation chiefs to realign legal departments, law firms are in danger of being left behind, respondents say. Growing numbers of companies have employed legal operators as part of their legal departments, charging them with overseeing the legal supply chain, improving internal services to their company and acting as change managers and innovators.  One company, VMware, defines its mission as 'Fearless legal innovators' following general counsel Dawn Smith's implementation of a change management regime headed up by Aine Lyons, Deputy GC and Chief of Staff. Ms Lyons is also a founder member of the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC), a fast-growing membership organisation for legal operators. Ms Lyons will be speaking at the  GC Futures Summit 2016 which discusses the latest innovation trends in law departments. 

Business roles

The survey asked GCs for their views on the future of law departments with a number believing that they were increasingly powerful and at the heart of successful corporate activities. One GC from a TMT multinational said he believed legal departments would 'play a greater role (and perhaps become leaders) in areas such as sales operations, cloud operations and indirect partner management.' Another from the travel industry predicted legal departments would 'maintain size while succesfully increasing their presence as business partners due to technical innovations and change of mentality of its members.' A retail head of legal believed that  legal departments 'will be challenged to set priorities and create strategic diffentiated solutions with less resources,' whilst another predicted inhouse departments  'will unbundle legal activities and diversify in outside services.'  

Innovation

Law firms were criticised for reacting rather than activating innovation and for not sharing their technology with legal departments as this was traditionally a weakness for law departments. How law departments innovate is one of the topics at the GC Futures Summit 2016 on 1 November. Speakers on the panel include: Aine Lyons, Deputy GC and Chief of Staff, VMware; Alessandro Galtiere, Legal Director, Corporate Law and Data Protection, Colt Technology Services; Umar Yasmin, Director, QuisLex and Ruth Murphy, Chief Counsel, Business and Public Sector, BT. For further information on the Summit, contact benmartin@globalcitymedia.com