In the past decade, we’ve seen a shift in the way legal departments buy legal services: The number of professionals who are not lawyers who are influencing the buying and selling of legal services has grown. It now includes new players on both sides of the equation — legal marketers and legal operations/procurement. For the sake of this article, I’m going to refer to procurement and operations in the same grouping, but they are separate functions that can have overlapping roles. (Click here for Buying Legal Council’s two-page primer on the differences between the roles.)

Buyers and Sellers

While the ultimate decision-making responsibility for purchasing legal services typically resides with the chief legal officer, general counsel or a C-suite executive, these new players are taking leading roles in influencing those decisions. Here are two areas where buyers and sellers — legal operations/procurement professionals and legal marketing professionals — can collaborate for the benefit of both parties.

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