Welcome to Legal Ops Briefs—inspired by the mot-r mindset, this blog series of 3-minute reads gives in-house Legal Ops quick, operational insights. Each post will explore the tech, trends, and tactics that boost operational effectiveness and ease legal team stress—without adding to the noise.
A Smarter Legal Tech Decision-Making Framework for Legal Ops
Legal tech spending is on the rise, yet most teams still face the same frustrations: burnout, inefficiency, and tools that don't deliver. The problem isn’t always the tech—it’s how we choose it. A modern, structured legal tech decision-making framework helps Legal Ops teams evaluate technology based on strategic outcomes and real operational needs.
Here’s how to do it—by building the right team, asking the right questions, and avoiding the most common traps.
Structure Your Legal Tech Buying Team Around Competencies, Not Roles
Traditional tech selection teams are built on job titles: Legal Ops, IT, GC, compliance. But roles don’t always equal the right expertise.
Instead, build your legal tech evaluation team around key competencies that directly influence the success of your implementation:
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Service quality and legal operations insight
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Legal process improvement
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Change management and org strategy
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AI/LLM use case awareness
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API/integration experience
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Application architecture and security
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Burnout mitigation and team morale
This competency-based approach to legal tech selection ensures you're designing for reality—not assumptions.
Use the Circle of Competence to Focus Your Legal Tech Strategy
One powerful tool for staying on track is the circle of competence framework. This model encourages team members to:
It helps prevent your tech strategy from getting hijacked by overly narrow (or loud) voices—keeping the conversation anchored in operational outcomes.
Avoid the “Too Many Cooks” Trap with Focused Legal Tech Governance
Legal tech decisions involve multiple stakeholders—but that doesn’t mean every voice carries equal weight on every topic. Strong governance means guarding the team’s attention and alignment.
Drive the team to prioritize:
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Outcome alignment (e.g. reduced contract turnaround time, increased visibility)
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Change readiness and training requirements
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Long-term scalability and flexibility
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Integration into the current legal tech stack
These are the variables that make or break real adoption—not vendor feature lists.
Fill Competency Gaps with External Expertise or GenAI
You may not have a unicorn team with every necessary capability. That’s okay. The key is to identify gaps early and fill them intentionally.
If you’re missing AI integration knowledge or architectural insight, don’t guess. Bring in expert input—or use AI tools to compare solutions, analyze technical documentation, or generate strategic options.
The goal is holistic coverage, not perfection.
Why Competency-Based Legal Tech Teams Drive Better Results
When your tech evaluation process is grounded in real-world expertise, you reduce implementation failure, improve team buy-in, and select tools that deliver measurable impact.
This approach also combats burnout. Poor tech decisions drain energy and erode trust. Competency-led decisions help legal teams avoid spending months on tools that add friction instead of clarity.
Burnout doesn’t just come from too much work—it comes from doing the wrong work with the wrong tools.
Choose Legal Tech That Actually Works—for People and Process
In today’s fast-moving legal environment, selecting the right technology can’t be an IT-driven afterthought. It’s a strategic Legal Ops function that requires cross-functional insight, outcome clarity, and an honest understanding of your team's capabilities.
Before your next legal tech investment, rethink your approach. Build around what your team knows, not just what they do. It’s not just a better process—it’s a smarter path to progress.
Chime In. Be Heard.
Share your insight. What’s one mistake you’ve seen in a legal tech rollout? What would you do differently next time? Or, if your team nailed an evaluation process, what made it work? Contribute your hard-gained wisdom below—let’s build a smarter legal ecosystem—one lesson at a time.
mot-r is the Work Management System for General Counsel. It is designed to reduce overwork and elevate legal service quality of small to medium sized teams. With workflows, dashboards and granular reporting, it improves operational effectiveness and client service quality. Created by a team of enterprise software experts—who have a passion for reducing the human cost of legal work—mot-r is a trusted supplier to general counsel teams in financial services, healthcare, real estate, sports management and more. When you're ready to modernize how your in-house team works, we're ready to help.
Mike Tobias: May 13, 2025 8:45:00 AM
