Rethinking Capacity In Legal Teams

Lessons from the IT sector

In the years after COVID, many IT companies went through a phase that felt uncomfortably like a recession. Budgets tightened. Hiring slowed and then froze. Every function was asked to do more with less.

If you were inside a legal team during that period, this will sound familiar: the work did not slow down. Contracts still needed to be reviewed and negotiated. Renewals still landed with immovable deadlines. Compliance obligations did not ease just because markets were uncertain.

The struggle of the usual models

Even before COVID-era pressures, expectations from legal teams were shifting. Legal was no longer expected to serve as a final risk check, but to exercise judgement, enable deals and operate at the speed of business.