Morae brought together leading General Counsels (GCs) and in-house legal experts for a series of Legal Leadership roundtables. These sessions were a goldmine of insights and strategies, here are the most compelling takeaways from these discussions.

AI for Contract Review and Analysis

• One of the top priorities for legal leaders is leveraging AI for contract review, redlining, and initial risk analysis. While AI has proven to be effective, human quality control remains essential. Custom models have shown to be more effective than out-of-the-box solutions, highlighting the importance of tailored approaches.

External Panel and Spend Management

• Reducing costs and reliance on external resources is a major focus. Legal departments are looking to extract more value from external law firms, with potential savings ranging from 6% to 20%. Utilizing data analytics to support better decision-making is also a key strategy.

Contract Management Solutions (CMS)

• Improving visibility across contract portfolios and ensuring key data is easily accessible are critical goals. Digital obligation tracking and enhanced contract management solutions are being adopted to achieve these objectives.

Enabling the Business through AI

• AI-powered bots, help desk tools, and contract risk review tools are being implemented to reduce the workload on legal teams. This allows legal professionals to focus on higher-value tasks and improve overall efficiency.

Data Analysis Enhanced by AI

• Leveraging AI to unlock sophisticated use cases, such as targeting legal advice, matters, claims, or legal spend, is becoming more common. The aim is to optimize high-volume, time-intensive, or costly areas of the business.

Matter Management and Legal Intake/Workflow

• Gaining visibility and improving the efficiency of legal work intake is a key theme. Enhanced workflow management helps demonstrate the value of legal departments and ensures that resources are allocated effectively.

Capacity and Resourcing Challenges

• Legal teams are facing capacity challenges, leading to a risk-based approach where lower-risk work is deprioritized. Finding the right skill sets remains a challenge for those with approval to hire.

Internal Department and Workstream Analysis

• Analyzing internal departments and workstreams to prioritize tasks, optimize resource allocation, and identify automation opportunities is a common focus. Cost pressures are driving much of this transformation, and successful implementation requires strong change management.

Key Initiatives and Priorities

In 2025, legal leaders are focusing on AI for contract review, cost reduction through external panel management, and better contract visibility. AI tools reduce workloads, allowing focus on high-value tasks. Enhanced matter management and workflow improve efficiency, while capacity challenges are addressed with a risk-based approach. Internal analysis optimizes resources and identifies automation opportunities, ensuring agility and responsiveness.

Several initiatives from 2024 continue to be relevant, including legal department analysis, right sourcing and team remodeling, matter management, leveraging the O365 suite, contracting optimization, AI experimentation, external spend management, and proving the value of the legal department.

Conclusion

The insights and priorities shared by legal leaders underscore the critical need for continuous innovation and strategic transformation within legal departments. Embracing these changes, leveraging new technologies, and implementing effective solutions will drive efficiency and value. As we move forward, it is essential for legal professionals to apply these insights within their organizations and shape the future of legal leadership.

If you’re looking for a partner to help guide you through implementing these initiatives, Morae can work alongside you and your teams. Together, we can achieve remarkable progress and set new standards for excellence in the legal industry. For a deeper dive into these transformative priorities, download the full whitepaper now and stay ahead in the evolving legal landscape.