Aleksandra Polak, Assistant General Counsel at Billtrust in USA, explores how modern in-house teams can outperform law firms not by working harder, but by working differently. She shares a practical playbook for legal departments that want to move faster, operate smarter, and deliver real business impact – without compromising quality or control.
If you work in-house, your job isn’t just to give legal advice.
It’s to accelerate business:
• Close deals faster.
• Reduce outside legal spend.
• Simplify how the company operates.
These are familiar goals and KPIs for in-house teams. We’re measured on speed, cost, and impact.
So how do you get there?
First, completely drop any law firm mindset that might still linger.
Law firms measure time.
In-house legal measures results.
Before starting any task, ask:
Does this accelerate revenue?
Does it reduce real risk (the business isn’t willing to take)?
Does it remove friction?
If not, even if it’s a “legal task”, it’s not your core job. Skip it, delegate it or automate it.
AI can proof, format, summarise, and flag.
Lawyers should decide, not decorate.
Focus your team on judgment – the things that actually move deals.
Cutting outside spend isn’t just about cost. It’s about control and speed.
Pull in repeatable, high-volume work, like corporate or employment.
And never outsource what drives your company’s revenue. Customer contracts belong in-house.
Use fixed or capped fees for what stays external.
Track outside counsel performance: cycle time, clarity, and accuracy.
AI can help review time sheets for duplication and inefficiency.
Each workstream you internalise builds institutional knowledge.
Every pain point at a firm is an opportunity for an in-house team.
| Law Firm Bottleneck | In-House Advantage |
| Three reviewers on one doc | One accountable reviewer + automated checks |
| Manual edits & formatting | Smart templates + AI assistants |
| Long memos | Clear, actionable “Here’s what we do” answers |
| Surprise billing | Predictable internal cost |
| Admin & archiving | Automated workflow |
The less time you spend “managing law firms,” the more time you spend delivering outcomes.
Complexity kills speed.
Every extra clause, reviewer, or approval chain slows business down.
Simplify your rules:
• Align governing law across markets.
• Standardize commercial positions and redlines.
• Use shared dashboards instead of endless email loops.
Simplicity isn’t lack of control, it’s control done right.
“Law firms bill by the hour. We build once, and use it a hundred times.”
In-house legal isn’t just a service desk any longer. It’s infrastructure.
That means:
• Unified templates and frameworks that scale.
• Integrated systems linking Sales, Legal, and Finance.
• AI agents for NDA review, clause summaries, and risk triage, or whatever else in your company can be automated.
Law firms bill by the hour.
We build once, and use it a hundred times.
That’s efficiency at scale.
When routine work runs on rails, your lawyers can focus on exceptions, where their judgment adds real value. Let them decide instead of drafting.
Firms advise after the fact.
In-house lawyers guide before it happens.
Be in product meetings.
Understand pricing models, customer churn, and margin pressure.
When you’re there early, you design the guardrails that make speed safe.
If you want to prove that Legal accelerates business, track it.
KPIs that matter:
• Contract cycle time (request to signature).
• Outside spend reduction.
• Work brought in-house.
• Process automation ratio.
Show data. Prove efficiency.
Build credibility with metrics, not narratives.
The next generation of in-house teams won’t grow by headcount.
They’ll grow by design.
Design workflows.
Design automation.
Design clear paths for the business to get what it needs.
The goal isn’t to do more legal work.
It’s to make the company move faster, close smarter, and spend less doing it.
Be part of a growing global community committed to advancing in-house legal leadership.
Markus Warmholz, Head of Corporate & International Legal Affairs and Legal Operations at Hartmann Group in Germany, outlines how corporate lawyers can align legal acumen...
Maria Cristina Michelini, Legal Counsel at The Palace Company Europe S.r.l in Italy explores how AI regulation is reshaping corporate compliance – from a reactive...
