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The legal landscape for multinational corporations is undergoing a profound transformation. As businesses expand across borders, legal departments face complex challenges ranging from regulatory fragmentation to operational inefficiencies. In this environment, legal operations has emerged not merely as a support function but as a strategic driver powering global growth initiatives while safeguarding organizational interests. This is how it drives seamless global business expansion.
Strategic Legal Operations: Redefining Global Business Expansion
Legal operations—once primarily focused on budget management and administrative efficiency—has expanded its scope dramatically. Today’s legal operations professionals are strategic partners who collaborate with business leaders to create scalable, agile frameworks that enable market entry while providing critical risk intelligence.
“Legal departments that invest in operations capabilities are seeing 20 to 50 percent reductions in outside counsel spend while simultaneously accelerating business velocity,” according to recent industry analysis featured in Above the Law.
Core Functions Facilitating Global Business Expansion
Process Optimization
Successful global legal teams are standardizing workflows across jurisdictions through thoughtful process engineering. By developing consistent approaches to recurring legal matters, they create scalable systems that adapt to local requirements while maintaining global standards.
Technology Enablement
Advanced contract life cycle management (CLM) systems and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tools are revolutionizing how legal teams manage multinational operations. A recent study found that 39 percent of legal teams are already using AI, with another 61 percent planning adoption. These tools help streamline document review, ensure compliance, and conduct investigations more efficiently.
Compliance and Risk Management
Legal operations professionals are developing sophisticated frameworks that balance regional compliance requirements with global business objectives. Through technology-enabled monitoring and cross-functional collaboration, they provide critical intelligence that informs expansion decisions.
Building Cross-Border Teams
Forward-thinking legal operations leaders are structuring global teams that blend centralized expertise with local knowledge. These networks of legal talent can rapidly respond to regional challenges while maintaining enterprise-wide standards.
Case Study Highlight: Legal Operations in Action
DWF Group plc exemplifies the strategic value of modern legal operations through its recent technology integration. By embedding AI-based solutions into its volume legal operations, the firm enhanced its ability to manage contracts and automate time-intensive tasks across jurisdictions.
Julia Perez, global head of legal operations at DWF Group plc, says, “By integrating [AI] into our legal operations, we are not only driving efficiency but also reinforcing our commitment to innovation and client service at scale.”
Best Practices and Actionable Takeaways
- Early strategic integration: Involve legal operations in expansion planning from inception rather than after critical decisions are made
- Technology-enabled consistency: Implement unified platforms that provide visibility and standardization across global operations while accommodating local requirements
- Outcome-based metrics: Develop scorecards that directly tie legal operations to business outcomes, making it easy for executives to see how legal accelerates revenue and reduces exposure
- Continuous regulatory intelligence: Establish systematic monitoring of regulatory developments across target markets to identify emerging requirements before they impact operations
The Human Factor in Legal Operations
While technology and process optimization are essential to global business expansion, the most successful legal operations functions balance these elements with human judgment and cross-cultural relationship building. As regulatory environments grow increasingly complex, this blend of technological capability and human insight will remain the foundation of legal operations teams that do not just support global growth—they drive it.
This article was produced in partnership with GetGloby. Review our AI Standards here.
Source List
- Thomson Reuters Institute. (2023). Japan’s Legal Market: A Glimpse Into the Future of Global Law. Retrieved from: https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en-us/posts/legal/japan-legal-market-report-2025/
- Above the Law. (2023). Future-Proofing Legal: What It Takes in 2025. Retrieved from: https://abovethelaw.com/2025/06/future-proofing-legal-what-it-takes-in-2025/
- Government Executive. (2023). Generative AI in the Public Sector: 5 Ways Agencies Can Do More With Less. Retrieved from: https://www.govexec.com/assets/generative-ai-public-sector-5-ways-agencies-can-do/portal/
- Artificial Lawyer. (2023). DWF Picks Legora To Increase Volume Legal Work. Retrieved from: https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2025/06/17/dwf-picks-legora-to-increase-volume-legal-work/
- CSO Online. (2023). Security, Risk and Compliance in the World of AI Agents. Retrieved from: https://www.csoonline.com/article/4008268/security-risk-and-compliance-in-the-world-of-ai-agents.html
