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.
Communications Break Down—And How Legal Ops Can Fix It
Chronic Communication breakdown is detrimental to in-house legal's performance, and long-term success and can lead to frustration, burnout and turnover.
In fact, a recent Axiom Global survey shows that 39% of legal teams struggle with communication. That’s nearly 4 in 10 teams where critical information is misunderstood, misdirected, or missed altogether. And when legal teams aren’t communicating well—internally or externally—mistakes multiply, risks rise, and stress skyrockets.
The Real Cost of Poor Communication
This isn’t just about awkward emails or missed meetings. The communication gap in-house legal teams is structural, cultural, and operational. Here’s how it shows up:
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Work gets duplicated. Without clear communication and visibility, multiple lawyers may unknowingly work on the same problem—or worse, give conflicting guidance.
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Deadlines slip. Information gets lost in the shuffle, approvals stall, and deals get delayed.
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Legal’s value is misunderstood. When legal can’t clearly articulate its priorities or align with the business, other teams see them as slow, risk-averse, or disconnected.
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Tensions rise. Miscommunication fuels frustration and erodes trust—both inside the legal team and with stakeholders across the business.
And when things break down, the human toll is real. Confusion leads to chaos. Chaos leads to conflict. Conflict leads to burnout. Sound familiar?
Why Legal Teams Struggle to Communicate
Legal teams aren’t bad at communication because they’re bad communicators. They struggle because their work—and their world—is fundamentally different from the rest of the business.
In-house Legal operates in shades of gray, under pressure, with a mandate to manage risk.
But they’re expected to move fast, stay perfectly aligned with shifting business goals, and translate complex legal nuance into plain English—all at once.
Add siloed systems, manual workflows, and a lack of shared language, and it’s no wonder communication falls apart.
Legal Ops to the Rescue
Legal Operations isn’t just about technology, templates, or tracking metrics. It’s about building the connective tissue that helps legal teams work better, together—and with the business.
Here’s how Legal Ops can help solve the communication problem:
1. Make Work Visible
One of the biggest reasons communication fails is simple: People don’t know what others are working on. Legal Ops can introduce workflow management platforms and dashboards that make legal work transparent, so teams aren’t duplicating effort or working at cross purposes.
2. Build a Common Language
Legal jargon can be a barrier. So can business buzzwords. Legal Ops can help bridge that gap—creating clear templates, playbooks, and communication protocols that make legal advice understandable and actionable for non-legal stakeholders.
3. Standardize How Information Flows
A lot of miscommunication comes from ad hoc processes: scattered emails, Slack threads, one-off phone calls. Legal Ops can design and enforce standard intake forms, escalation protocols, and approval workflows—so everyone knows where to go, what to expect, and how information will be shared.
4. Leverage Tech (But Thoughtfully)
More tools don’t always mean better communication. Legal Ops can help legal teams adopt the right tools—whether it’s a centralized knowledge hub, contract management system, or collaboration platform—that simplify and streamline how the team communicates internally and externally.
5. Drive a Culture of Collaboration
Technology and process only go so far. Legal Ops leaders can model and encourage open communication, feedback loops, and cross-functional collaboration—creating space for honest conversations about what’s working, what’s not, and how to improve.
Why It Matters
Poor communication isn’t just an inconvenience—it’s a performance risk.
When legal teams don’t communicate well:
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Work slows down.
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Mistakes get made.
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Relationships fray.
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Burnout accelerates.
But when communication improves? Legal teams become faster, clearer, more strategic—and less stressed. Legal Ops has the power to make that shift happen.
The Time to Act Is Now
If nearly 40% of legal teams are struggling with communication, this isn’t a niche problem—it’s a leadership opportunity. Legal Ops professionals can fix this, not with sweeping reorgs, but with clear processes, the right tools, and a human-first approach.
Because when legal teams communicate well, everything else gets easier—performance improves, risk decreases, and the people behind the work can actually breathe.
Chime In and Be Heard
Join the conversation. Let's build legal departments that work—and talk—better.
What's one communication breakdown you’ve seen inside your legal team—and what can Legal Ops do to solve it? If you could wave a magic wand and fix one systemic issue affecting in-house legal teams today, what would it be?
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: Apr 22, 2025 8:45:00 AM
