Legal Transformation and Managed Services
Rethinking corporate legal functions: recognising optimisation potential and unlocking growth
At many companies, the demands placed on the legal function are growing faster than employees can keep up. Increasing competition, cost pressure and an ever-growing number of regulatory requirements are expanding the legal landscape, while company budgets and staffing levels have often remained the same or even shrunk. In order not to fall behind, businesses must embrace the following rule: Run Legal like a business and make it scalable.
Change starts with a rigorous analysis of all processes: Which services are strategically essential? Which routine tasks can be automated, standardised or outsourced to specialised service providers? This initial assessment yields a streamlined process design that maps the entire route from order receipt to filing without media discontinuity. At the same time, the governance model should be updated and the service portfolio recalibrated, as efficiency and quality can only be increased in the long run with clearly defined roles, responsibilities and key performance indicators (KPIs).
Technology is not an end in and of itself, but a means to an end: Contract and matter management systems remain the backbone. Furthermore, legal front doors, self-service portals and AI-assisted document analysis are gaining ever more importance. Meanwhile workflow tools and standardised interfaces are seamlessly linking the legal function, purchasing, compliance and finance, while dashboards make costs, lead times and risks transparent in real time. Service portfolio improvements are resulting in a constant stream of new legal tech use cases, which are being introduced thanks to the close coordination between legal tech and operations teams.
If internal capacities are not sufficient or the requirements change, flexible managed service models can be used to close the gap – from ad hoc assistance to permanent outsourcing of individual functions. However, what will remain crucial is the interplay of expertise from different disciplines: lawyers working hand in hand with data science teams as well as project and change managers in order to bring legal certainty, process innovation and adaptability into alignment.
In this way, the legal function can be optimised not only as a cost center, but also positioned as a real growth engine and strategic partner of the core business − with noticeably lower operating costs, proactive risk management and sustainable scalability.
Legal operations consulting
The transformation of legal functions almost always starts with structure, vision and understanding of roles, rather than technology. Our experts combine extensive experience in organisational consulting and change management with an in-depth understanding of the peculiarities of legal working methods. Together with you, we will develop an individually tailored vision for your legal function as a holistic future target operating model that takes equal account of your corporate strategy, the objectives of the legal function and the specific demands placed on leadership, management and cooperation.
A key element of this process is to precisely gauge the status quo, including task allocation, responsibilities and core processes as well as the identification of relevant optimisation potential. Based on this analysis, we will develop a long-term transformation plan (legal operations roadmap) with specific milestones, timelines, project steps and dependencies.
This will lay the groundwork for a systematic, strategically oriented evolution process for your legal function that can be operatively implemented and measured for success.
How PwC Legal can help you
Our advisors will help you with the following:
- Maturity level analysis and roadmap design
- Legal strategy and business alignment
- Design target operating model
- Process design and optimisation
- Benchmarking
- Legal spend management
- Legal sourcing and outside counsel management
- KPI definition and dashboard
- Governance and key account structures
- Project management office (PMO) and project management
- Legal transparency and client satisfaction
We analyse the maturity of your legal function holistically along all relevant angles – from strategy, structure and processes to technology, management and culture. On this sound basis, we develop a customized transformation roadmap that will further develop your legal function in a structured, sustainable and effective manner.
We will strengthen the strategic positioning of your legal function within your overall corporate strategy, focusing particularly on ESG, compliance, and geopolitical resilience. We believe that the legal function is not only responsible for risk protection, but can also actively drive value: we will help you to position your legal function as a business enabler, demonstrating its contribution to sustainable and resilient corporate development.
We will conceive and implement a scalable, internationally compatible target operating model for the legal function with clearly defined roles, integrated control logic, strategic location architecture, and guidelines that can be operationalised. The goal is a future-proof, efficiently manageable setup with a global impact and local relevance.
We will analyse and optimise key legal processes with a focus on efficiency, standardisation and quality. The result: streamlined processes, shorter lead times and a legal function that makes a measurable contribution to your business’s success.
We will benchmark the structures, costs and processes of your legal function against market standards and best practice. This will provide transparency on efficiency, resource use and strategic positioning as the basis for well-informed decisions and targeted further development.
We will create transparency and controllability in legal spends through zero-based budgeting, forecasting and a comprehensive understanding of the total cost of legal ownership. This will make your legal costs predictable, comparable and strategically manageable.
We will develop a customised legal sourcing strategy based on the question: What should be handled in-house and what should be outsourced? On this basis, we will optimise the management of external law firms and service providers with clear control models, selection criteria, remuneration logic and performance indicators. Our goal is to ensure resources are used cost-efficient, controllable and strategic manner.
We will develop a comprehensive Key Performance Indicator (KPI) system for your legal function that distinguishes between impact KPIs (e.g. business value and enablement) and operational KPIs (e.g. efficiency, quality and time to legal advice). This system will then be used to create interactive dashboards that enable data-driven management and demonstrate the value that the legal function adds to the business.
We will define governance structures and role-based control models for your legal function, supplemented by a key account setup that allows for targeted coordination between departments and proactive legal consulting.
We will set up a legal transformation office within your legal function as a central control unit for your transformation projects. It will bundle initiatives, safeguard synergies, provide structure to project management routines and enable systematic impact tracking – for sustainable, measurable further growth of your legal function.
What do your individual departments actually think about working with your legal function? We will gauge your departments’ perspectives on the legal function systematically through structured satisfaction surveys as a control instrument for quality, relevance and service culture.
Technology for the legal function
The legal tech market is both highly dynamic and highly fragmented. For many legal functions, this raises the question of which solution actually fits for their strategy, from selection through to successful implementation. At the same time, support from the internal IT department is often limited due to factors such as limited resources, a lack of market knowledge, and poor familiarity with the specific requirements of legal functions.
Our experts bring in-depth expertise to current legal tech solutions and their successful integration into businesses’ legal functions. We will support you when it comes to choosing a supplier, developing your own technology-based roadmap and defining strategic goals based on an individual maturity level assessment. We will also provide comprehensive guidance during implementation, from the development of customised low-code applications to integration in your system landscape. This ensures that technology delivers real added value right from the start.
How PwC Legal can help you
Our advisors will help you with the following:
- Legal tech strategy
- Software/vendor selection and implementation
- Data-driven legal and analytics
- Low-code platforms and self-services
- Microsoft for legal departments
- AI applications and AI governance
- Technological support through subject matter experts (SMEs)
We will evaluate your existing IT landscape and conduct targeted interviews in order to identify pain points and optimisation potential. We will develop a tailored legal tech strategy through profitability analyses and prioritisation of system requirements. We understand the processes involved in legal functions and the resulting requirements. Furthermore, we know the legal tech market and base our strategic recommendations on our benchmarking knowledge.
Software selection and implementation (contract lifecycle management, or CLM, matter management, intake, spend management, etc.)
We will help you to successfully introduce new technologies that create added value. Be it CLM, matter management, intake, spend management or other legal applications, our team of experts will support you from the initial definition of system requirements to the final implementation of a new provider.
We support you with every step of the process, from requirements elicitation and market analysis to supplier presentations and profitability analysis, and finally supplier selection. Once a decision is made, we can also help you design a new governance model, define detailed requirements and implement the new model.
We will develop high-performance data infrastructures for your legal function. Through advanced reporting tools and dashboards, we can offer transparent support with decision-making that is based on in-depth analyses. This will maximise the value of your data in the context of legal matters.
We will support you in workshops when it comes to identifying suitable use cases and we will help you to better understand the low-code platform you select. As the licences for Microsoft Power Platform are already included in the existing Microsoft licence package for many companies, the platform can often be used without any additional costs. We will work together with the legal function to conceptualise new apps, self-services, workflows and dashboards and implement them directly in your IT environment. We will also ensure that you get the most out of your new tools through test and change management.
Microsoft is widely used in many companies. Applications such as Teams, Office and SharePoint are used every day. However, the full potential of the platform often remains untapped. With Power Platform, you can meet individual requirements quickly and economically, and Copilot is a powerful and integrated AI tool. In addition, there are software providers for CLM, matter management, etc., which are based on Microsoft technology and can be linked to the aforementioned systems. We highlight these synergistic effects, design a Microsoft-based tech strategy together with your legal function and support you during implementation.
We will develop practical, legally specific AI use cases and assist you with implementation – from the initial idea to prompt engineering to integration in your existing systems. In interactive workshops, we will train your teams in the use of AI and provide a solid basis for effective AI governance, compliance and responsible use.
Our subject matter experts (SMEs) will support you through all technical challenges. We can achieve this through our extensive experience in requirements and project management. We will configure new tools and we will help you to build your own knowledge in the process. We will also document best practices in order to optimise data processing and software migrations through targeted technological support.
Legal Managed Services
Introductory text: The legal function is under increasing pressure: stretched as it is between daily business, project work and digitalisation. It often has limited capacity, especially when volumes are high or stringent regulatory requirements are in place. PwC Legal will help you to efficiently manage these challenges. Our Legal Managed Services team will take on selected tasks from your legal function on a permanently or project-by-project basis.
Our approach combines legal expertise, project management and modern technology. Through process automation, smart tools and qualified teams in our shared delivery centres, we will increase your efficiency, guarantee quality and reduce costs. Throughout the process, you will retain full control through real-time dashboards, transparent budgeting and scalable service modules.
How PwC Legal can help you
Our advisors will help you with the following:
- Contract management and drafting
- Outsourcing and shared services strategy
- Corporate governance solutions
- Whistleblower and Ethics Reporting Channel
- Rule Scanner
- Service design and scaling
- Operational management of standardised processes
- Automated Processing Solution
- Legal Project Management as a Service
- Mass claims defence
- Objection management for infrastructure projects
PwC Legal will take care of your contract management, ensuring an efficient, scalable and legally compliant service. Our specialised delivery teams will support you with the creation, testing and management of contracts in line with defined standards, within the scope of a managed service model. Whether it's standard contracts, addenda or customised contract elements, we deliver consistent quality at scale, produce audit-proof documentation and collaborate closely with your specialist departments. Thanks to clearly defined service level agreements (SLAs), daily monitoring and transparent status reports, you will always have full control, enabling you to save internal resources and focus on what matters most.
We will support you in developing an individual strategy for outsourcing legal tasks, be it with internal shared services or via PwC delivery teams. Together we will design a scalable service model that is tailored to your mandate volume, level of complexity and governance structure.
We will handle central corporate governance processes for you, such as the management of company information, deadlines or reporting duties. We will also ensure international compliance. Our global Entity Governance & Compliance team offers a holistic managed service that combines legal consulting with technology and operational implementation.
We offer a legally compliant, data protection-compliant and digitally operated whistleblower solution as a full service. Our multidisciplinary team will take care of setting up and operating the reporting channel and will assist you with the legal and organisational aspects of processing incoming reports – and always in an audit-proof and documented manner.
With AI-based horizon scanning, we will help you to identify, assess and address regulatory changes early on. Our solution analyses publications from global supervisory authorities, classifies them according to your taxonomy and sets out the most important risks in an interactive dashboard.
We will develop modular, internationally deployable services for you, including standard contracts, legal reviews, due diligence and compliance monitoring. This results in a bespoke service portfolio that can be implemented efficiently, expanded scalably and adapted flexibly.
We will take care of daily, recurring legal tasks for you, for example supplier audits, contract approval and case-by-case assessments. Thanks to structured handover processes, digital workflows and our experienced delivery team, we can ensure quality, speed and transparency.
We will assist you with the automated processing of equivalent legal processes, for example applications, claims or standardised review processes. Our approach combines text recognition, workflow automation and live status tracking in a scalable system.
Our experienced project managers are on hand to guide you through legal transformation projects, such as the introduction of legal tech or reorganisation, in a structured and methodical way. This ensures that projects are completed quickly, efficiently and to a high standard, without overburdening your in-house teams.
With the PwC Mass Claims Machine, we will help you to efficiently process large numbers of cases, for example in the event of class action lawsuits or standardised claims. Our solution analyses and responds to documents in an automated manner, creates files and provides KPIs in real time.
We will process objections for you within the context of plan approval procedures in railway, energy or road construction while ensuring legal compliance and a structured approach. Our solution automatically analyses and responds to documents, creates files, and provides KPIs in real time.