Legal metrics and budgets
Whether you’re a GC, Head of Legal or Sole Counsel, anyone involved in running a legal function knows it’s difficult to apply genuine metrics to legal work.
Unlike Sales or Marketing, Legal doesn’t have multiple performance indicators that point to where investment is needed.
I’ve certainly seen attempts to identify them - time to signature, turnaround times, redline turns, number of calls - but the simple reality is that contract negotiations (and legal work in general) are unpredictable. Too many external factors make it impossible to truly quantify performance in a meaningful way.
Even if this reality prevents you from presenting clear and compelling data points to budget holders, you remain fully (and painfully) aware of:
The need to close more contracts, faster
That new impactful regulation, which you can’t find the time to investigate properly
The template update which would make your negotiations so much easier – if you could just get to it
That cross-functional project that would add real value - but it keeps getting pushed down the list
In short, you know there’s a lot to do, you need help, but you can’t put a number on it, and there’s limited runway to ask for budget.
If you’re in that situation, you really should consider fractional legal support. It’s flexible, scalable, and it comes without the baggage of head count.
If you are even slightly curious as to how this could work for you, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I am happy to have a no-obligation chat, at your convenience.
