Legal function transformation – Organisational complexity meets operational simplicity

The global growth, diversification and digitalisation of banks in recent years has led to an incredibly complex and regulated advisory landscape for in-house legal teams. In parallel to simplification efforts at an organisational level, legal teams are increasingly expected to optimise their operations, do more with less, and act as strategic adviser and business partner to the bank. 

For the legal team, striking the appropriate balance between achieving proactivity in their role of advising on legal issues and managing risk and ensuring operational agility in this environment is a constant challenge. 

For example, there is renewed focus on the digital banking customer experience (CX) using generative AI, machine learning, security software and automation. 93% of consumers say they want their bank to 'know them and their banking needs,' highlighting the demand for a personalised banking experience. Such change inherits a multitude of legal issues and requires a robust risk mitigation strategy; the bank is looking to the legal team as a strategic adviser to help it to adapt with innovative offerings. 

The adaptation of the legal team to align itself with new organisational structures and strategic priorities of the bank is of prime importance for efficient service delivery, alongside periodic function rationalisation efforts. 

Advising on and adapting through change can at times cause internal legal team optimisation efforts to fall to the wayside, negatively impacting individual capacity, the team's operational resilience and their ability to continuously adapt to the shifting volume, type and complexity of their workload. 

However, investing in operational simplicity and agile working practices can maintain and boost productivity levels and deliver long-term transformational change. Removing complexity from day-to-day activities, particularly those which are repetitive, encourages streamlined service delivery and creates opportunities for the legal team to excel as advisers on strategic change projects in the bank.

We see that the thoughtful organisation of lawyers to maximise business value via alignment to business teams (including for example by implementing ‘domain’ delivery models within organisational structures), has yielded value for our clients. 

The growth of in-house legal operations and transformation teams in the banking industry also demonstrates a continued investment in optimising operations and reflects these teams’ critical commercial role in the bank's future.  

These teams are often tasked with ensuring lawyers can effectively adapt to a changing environment, including by:

At all stages of the bank's change journey, the legal team is heavily relied upon as a risk manager, business partner and strategic adviser. Adapting the legal operating model to align with that of the bank will improve the achievement of shared purpose across the organisation, orientate the legal team around customer outcomes and lead to more seamless legal service delivery.