Field Guide
The practitioner's handbook for building, scaling, and transforming legal operations — from foundational strategy through AI governance.
A comprehensive guide for legal operations professionals navigating the transition from traditional legal practice to modern, technology-enabled legal operations. Spanning sixteen chapters and five practical appendices, the Field Guide covers everything from foundational strategy through AI governance.
Foundations
1. Evolution of Corporate Counsel
Understanding the legal function's philosophical foundations and its modern mandate of revenue enablement.
2. Metamorphosis to Legal Ops 3.0
The three eras of legal operations and what the next generation looks like.
3. Architecting Maturity
Maturity models and frameworks for assessing and advancing legal operations capability.
Operations & Execution
4. Financial Management
Budgeting, forecasting, and financial governance for legal departments.
5. Outside Counsel & Vendor Management
Panel management, rate negotiations, and vendor performance frameworks.
6. Process Mapping & Knowledge Management
Systematising institutional knowledge and mapping legal workflows.
7. PPT Framework & Behavioural Change
People, Process, Technology — and the change management required to make it work.
8. First 90 Days
A playbook for your first quarter in a legal operations role.
9. Metrics, KPIs & Data Storytelling
Measuring what matters and communicating impact to stakeholders.
10. Vendor Triage & Middleware Revolution
Evaluating, selecting, and integrating legal technology solutions.
Technology & Integration
11. Evolution of CLM
Contract lifecycle management — past, present, and future.
12. Data Liquidity
Unlocking the value of legal data across the enterprise.
AI & Governance
13. Practical AI in Legal
Real-world applications of artificial intelligence in legal operations.
14. AI Governance & Orchestrator Role
Governing AI adoption and the emerging role of AI orchestrator.
Compliance & Context
15. ESG & Supply Chain Mandate
Environmental, social, and governance obligations in legal operations.
16. The Australasian Paradigm
Legal operations in the Australian and New Zealand context.
Practical Tools
A. LPM Project Charter
A ready-to-use project charter template for legal operations initiatives.
B. Vendor RFP Matrix
Structured evaluation framework for legal technology procurement.
C. C-Suite KPI Dashboard
Executive dashboard template for legal operations metrics.
D. OCBG Template
Outside Counsel Billing Guidelines template.
E. Prompt Engineering Playbook
Practical prompt engineering techniques for legal AI tools.