The modern in-house legal team: How to leverage technology for success

The march towards digital transformation for modern legal teams is underway, and it’s gathering pace. The use of technology, including AI, to enhance systems of work is not a replacement for legal teams – but the advantages it offers are now too numerous to ignore. Used in the right way, tech solutions can set you up for future success, making your legal function more efficient and building the data capabilities to help you showcase the value of your team to the wider business.

At the recent InView Connect conference in London, Dan Young, VP of Product Development at LawVu, sat down with Alison Zoellner, Global GC at Dentsu, to discuss what it means to be a modern in-house legal team – the growing importance of technology and how best to leverage its innovations, and the impact its successful implementation has had on her own department.

DAN: You said recently that legal tech is imperative in a modern in-house legal team. Why do you think that? 

ALISON: Dentsu is one of the world’s largest advertising holdcos. We’re operational in 145 countries, employ 71,000 people, and serve some of the biggest advertisers in the world. We provide our customers with integrated solutions, and a lot of that involves digital transformation. With so much actionable data at our fingertips, how could we not be evangelists for digital transformation?

DAN: How have your own technology investments translated into improved efficiency and ROI for Dentsu? 

ALISON: Fortunately for us, it’s very straightforward. We make money from client contracts – full stop. If we don’t have those contracts moving through the system at pace and with the right stewardship, we are slowing down the lead to cash process, hurting our financial results. The case for tech adoption is a pretty straightforward conversation for us, as we need things to move through the pipeline with ease.

DAN: The term “legal tech” is perhaps outdated – we’re talking about technology which is deeply intertwined with the entire business. However, this type of technology is, allegedly, often the last to get funding. Do you agree with that? And if so, why do you think this is, and how can leaders overcome the problem? 

ALISON: It all depends on how you frame it. It’s definitely helpful to consider disposing of the term “legal tech” and to instead simply talk about technology which enables the business. When it’s considered narrowly as something that lawyers buy for lawyers, the term “legal tech” can certainly be unpopular.

The way we got funding for this technology at Dentsu (and I had great coaching from my team on this) was to frame it as being a vital part of our overall tech stack, and by identifying where it would fit into the wider business journey from lead to cash. Looking at it in this way fundamentally changes the funding discussion, because you suddenly have an immediate ROI – you’re going to get revenue in the door from customers faster with this technology. That’s a much cleaner conversation to have than to get dragged into a more nuanced discussion about why legal needs this technology for its own ends.

DAN: Is there any other advice you would give legal teams to help them overcome this hurdle? 

ALISON: It’s important to emphasize that any truly contemporary practice of law is already enabled by a host of different technologies – this is a given, and it’s something that’s been going on now for decades. But what I find so compelling about tools like LawVu, which it’s important to highlight, is that they bring all those existing technology functions together in a way that is actionable. No one has time to pivot between twenty different applications to gather everything they need together. It’s the synthesized nature of dedicated legal tech tools that makes them so powerful.

DAN: Throughout your career, what have been the main barriers to your own adoption of technology, and how have you overcome them? 

ALISON: Championing adoption starts with the legal team itself – we’re at the coalface when it comes to rollout.  However, not everyone is an evangelist, and there can be resistance within the legal team to the unknown. Lawyers like the way they’re already doing things, they’ve trained their clients in the same systems, they’re stressed out and have a lot of work to do – the last thing they might want is to have to adopt something new. It’s important to turn that narrative around, and show them that this is something which will actually make their life better.

“While it can sometimes be tough to find the headspace to learn new things, continual development – learning and upskilling – is absolutely crucial to the legal profession.” – Alison

DAN: Do you find it’s harder to get the rest of the business on board with legal tech? 

ALISON: We’ve spent a lot of time building a front door for a small part of our business, and it’s been really impactful on our wider technology adoption strategy with our procurement partners. What we’ve seen is that if you build it, they will come. We spent a lot of time thinking about how the business would use this technology, and explaining the benefits of using it to the business, and we’re now seeing that pay off in spades. It’s really about taking your business needs into account and of being an evangelist for the technology that you need.

DAN: There’s a lot of talk about AI these days. Do you have any advice for teams who are adopting AI? What are the imperatives for leaders going into the future with it? 

ALISON: What we’re trying to do at Dentsu, particularly within the legal and compliance team, is spend time on the governance side of things to make sure we are acting as thought partners. Everyone wants to move incredibly fast and to be highly competitive and innovative – which is exciting, and we see loads of opportunity there – but we think we can also enable that whilst ensuring the right level of governance.

We want to adopt a light touch – we’re not going to strangle any great ideas. We see this panoply of different things that are impacted by AI. We’re trying to decarbonize our supply chain – what does AI mean for our ESG goals? What about the impacts of AI on diversity?  I believe that, as a legal community, we have a central role to play in setting up successful governance around AI? It’s a fantastic opportunity to exercise the kind of thinking we’ve all been trained to do, and we’re excited to be at the center of it. Our clients are demanding it too. But, for me, a far more interesting question is, “how will AI transform our business?”

DAN: How do you ensure that tech advancements don’t compromise the human touch in client relationships?

ALISON: When we were selecting this technology, user experience was one of our primary criteria. How would using this tool feel? Would it be able to replicate the connection and consistency that colleagues currently experience when interacting with our legal team? It was critical to us that, as a client, you receive the same experience when interacting with Dentsu legal, no matter where you are in the world. You need to be receiving similar answers, delivered with similar levels of quality, responsiveness and commitment. For us, it’s important to say that all legal decisions are always made via a human conversation – but that conversation is enabled by LawVu. We don’t have to engage in lengthy email chains anymore. You’re both able to look at and understand the same screen, and then talk about it.

DAN: What would be your biggest piece of advice for others who aspire to lead an effective, modern, in-house legal team? 

ALISON: You need to have conviction. There will always be winds buffeting you with reasons not to push forward – be it time, money, or perceived complexity. There are always a host of reasons not to do it if you look for them. But we grow as professionals when we are able to take tough decisions and lean into them.  We all aspire for great accomplishments in our jobs as in-house counsel – my biggest achievement at Dentsu was launching a hugely successful technology platform which added that enormously to the company’s net worth. I think that’s something we should all aspire to.

This article is an edited extract of the Q&A between Dan Young and Alison Zoellner at InView Connect London, 2024.