Scaling legal: The modern challenge
In-house legal teams are under pressure to deliver more with less. Linda Grace, Partner and Practice Head at Ashurst Reach, shares her top three practical tips for scaling your legal function sustainably – without burning out your team.
Tip 1: Audit your legal workload
Linda’s first piece of advice: understand what your team is really working on.
Start with a simple audit, even just a spreadsheet, that tracks:
- The type of legal requests
- Where they come from
- How long they take
This gives visibility into priorities, helps align the team’s work with business goals, and highlights what can be delegated or automated.
Tip 2: Use tech tools to support scaling legal teams
Linda says technology is one of the easiest ways to scale efficiently.
“Leveraging AI and online tools is a great way to introduce efficiencies, particularly for low-value or repetitive work.”
Her example: a retail business that built an online tool for self-service lottery permits, reducing the load on Legal and speeding up processes.
If budgets are tight, she recommends low-tech improvements like:
- Updating precedent or clause banks
- Simplifying templates
- Using flexible resourcing to finish long-standing projects
Tip 3: Resource smartly and up-skill the business
Linda’s final tip focuses on people and structure.
She suggests keeping a small, agile core team and bringing in specialists for complex, one-off projects.
She also encourages upskilling the business through playbooks and training, so non-lawyers can handle simpler issues confidently.
The takeaway
Scaling legal isn’t about doing more – it’s about working smarter.
Audit your workload, introduce practical tools, and use flexible resourcing to keep your team focused on what really matters.
Crafty Counsel is the UK’s most dynamic and fast-growing legal Community. With members from across the globe, the Community is a hub for sharing experiences, learning together, and forming invaluable connections. Join for free to access the Community Hub App.