(Author) Paralegal 

I'm looking to make a career transition into Legal Ops:

Are there any former paralegals who have transitioned into Legal Operations? I have been working in-house for two months now and feel more drawn to the kind of stuff our legal ops team works on. It seems way more up my alley compared to traditional paralegal work.

In order to progress here I will need to either complete my Paralegal certificate or some other degree. I was wondering what kind of further education I should pursue to make me look like a good candidate for a legal operations position.

Legal Operations Responses:

• Legal Ops can generally equal legal tech but it’s broader. I would suggest looking at CLOC. Also ILTA has some great resources. I think getting involved and learning ediscovery tools, especially whatever you use right now. If you have a case filing tracking system, get to know it well. If you work with the state or county, learn that system back and front. Take classes and see if the local NFPA or NALA group has any CLE or Lunch and Learns on it. There’s some great articles too about how legal ops is really just legal process and project management. Most of my biggest success has come from Lean/Six Sigma and Project Management/PMI stuff. It really depends on how deep down the rabbit hole you want to go.
• I think highly organized people with a lot of curiosity and a knack for solving puzzles make natural legal ops leaders. If that sounds like you and you are already working on a legal team in another role (e.g., attorney, paralegal, billing clerk, executive assistant), learn as much as you can about other people’s jobs by offering to help with the projects no one else wants to handle. One of my good friends and I joke that this is the essence of legal ops—doing what others don’t want to or don't have time to do. That undersells the legal ops function a bit, but it’s actually great advice for someone looking for a place to start. Jumping into these situations gives them an opportunity to understand a team’s pain points and then get to work solving for those.
• I was a traditional paralegal who now does contracts, CLM, and am heavily involved in legal ops circles. My suggestion is to be involved in any of your normal paralegal duties but look for ways to apply data, metrics, and analytics to those functions. First, most lawyers are atrocious at that type of analytical work, so you will be a tremendous value add to your organization. Second, when transitioning into legal ops, the keys words hiring managers like to hear is legal metrics and legal analytics; how you applied those concepts in a legal environment. Also look up CLOC, the corporate legal operations consortium. It is the premier group of professionals in legal ops. You might also consider if there is a particular area of legal ops you prefer or if you want to be more generalist. E-billing, e-discovery, matter management, contract management are all areas that hire people and/or are a way into the legal ops world. FYI, though: No one particular educational path is required but would strongly recommend either a paralegal certificate or bachelors degree. Moving up in legal ops people will generally expect you to have one or the other. It's not impossible without one, but you have to have a strong skillset and experience.
• I’ve transitions to LegalTech from IP and our company provides LegalOps services. Get a business certification like Six Sigma or a PMP.
• I'm in legal ops now, and it can be very lucrative both financially and with job opportunities. But would caution: be mindful that metrics and data is everything and can make or break your daily work life in my experience. It can be done but has been more stressful than the work I do on a daily basis. I had a few chats with Legal Ops folks, and some of them moved internally in the company, while others took pro-bono work to create the missing skill gap. For myself, I found ten people on LinkedIn with a well-written description of their duties, and mapped my current status and what I should do to show experience to bring me to similar profile. What helped me the most was finding a senior person who could guide me in the transitional role. It took six to nine months from realizing that I wasn't happy with my current situation to understanding where to transition. It might be interesting to give a look at CLOC as well as articles explaining more about legal ops. - Let us know how the transition is going!
• This is a great question and one that I've personally navigated. Transitioning from a paralegal role to legal operations can actually be a pretty smooth process if you're intentional about it. Here's what worked for me:
  • Skill Development: Start by identifying the gaps in your skill set. Legal ops often involves a good understanding of project management, data analytics, and sometimes even budgeting. There are plenty of online courses that can help you build these skills.
  • Be Proactive: Don't wait for someone to hand you a legal ops project. Start identifying inefficiencies in your current role and propose solutions. This could be as simple as optimizing a contract review process or as complex as implementing a new piece of legal tech software.
  • Networking: This can't be overstated. Connect with current legal ops professionals, join LinkedIn groups, and if possible, attend industry events (even if they're virtual). This will not only give you a better understanding of the role but could also lead to job opportunities.
  • Certifications: While not mandatory, having a certification like CLOC can definitely give you an edge. It not only teaches you the basics but also shows potential employers that you're serious about this career path.
  • Mindset: Lastly, it's all about mindset. Be ready to step out of your comfort zone and take on tasks that you've never done before. Being a paralegal already equips you with a unique skill set. It's all about leveraging those skills in a new role.
• For me, I worked as a Paralegal for several years in law firms, corporations and in-house tech companies. It was at the in-house role that I was able to create the legal ops career as I took on a lot of project management work. That being said, I did have to juggle the paralegal role and the legal ops role which takes a lot of prioritization skills. I always ensured when prioritizing my workload, that I am aligning with the companies’ business goals. I took on several projects that included the successful implementation of a CLM, created a matter management with the tools that we already had within the company, creating KPIs via dashboards and implemented an e-billing tool for legal spend. As part of my role as a paralegal was to revise contracts such as MNDAs and vendor agreements, this was a great starting point to a successful implementation of the CLM as I would have already had an insight into the legal team’s pain points and what was required to build an efficient process to streamline these workflows. Leverage your skills as a paralegal and showcase them, combine them with the legal ops role -  it's a great way to transition from paralegal to a full-fledged Legal Ops professional.

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