Extract from Meg McLaughlin’s article “Practical Metrics for Corporate Legal Departments”
KPIs are here to stay
Until fairly recently, most corporate legal teams were exempt from providing quantifiable measurements back to the business. Typically called key performance indicators (KPIs) or metrics, these measurements can be used to demonstrate the legal department’s performance against overall company goals.
Over the last several years, we’ve seen more organizations view every department–legal included–as a contributor to overall company strategic initiatives, especially around risk and cost reduction.
The impact on legal teams is pressure to balance the realities of managing a corporate litigation portfolio with the need to protect sensitive company data and a directive to reign in legal spending. Teams are now looking for quantifiable ways to demonstrate how they contribute to the business’ goals.
