Legal operators are now in place at 44 per cent of companies, according to this year's GC Excellence Report. A further four per cent of companies are looking at hiring an operator as corporate legal departments increasingly drive innovation in the legal sector. Lawyers, operations experts and IT specialists will increasingly form part of legal departments, according to Justine Campbell, deputy general counsel at Centrica. Her company is just one of a growing number appointing a head of operations to deal with non-legal matters as organisations such as the Corporate Legal Operators Consortium thrive and innovate in the legal marketplace.

Driving the strategic agenda

The newly shaped legal department will form part of the discussion at this year's GC Futures Summit on 26 September 2017 with Sophie Schwass, Chief of Staff at Barclays, giving her views on how the law department will operate in the next decade. Her job involves setting driving the strategic agenda for a team of more than 300 in 17 countries and ensuring the general counsel makes fully informed decisions on non-legal matters. She is also in charge of creating and communicating a compelling vision for change and identifing commercial drivers and strategic efficiency projects. She will discuss her vision of the law department 2030 and how to execute improvement and innovation. There are a limited number of free places for legal departments. If you are interested in attending, please contact [email protected]