Legal drives your business' priorities. But do your execs see it that way?

Your inhouse legal team and external law firm are essential for driving your organisation’s priorities.

But too often, legal is viewed as solving legal problems—not business ones.

When that happens, legal is seen as a cost to contain, not a capability to invest in—especially when budgets are tight.

To change how legal is perceived, start by changing how you communicate its impact.

Speak to business priorities, not legal ones

Legal teams don’t do work for its own sake—it’s always in service of a business goal.

But that business need might not be crystal clear to your internal stakeholders.   

It’s not enough to say what you did or how much it cost. You need to show what your legal services made possible for the wider business.

To reframe legal service in terms of business impact, start by asking:

·         What did we enable? e.g. agreements that unlocked revenue

·         What did we accelerate? e.g. deals closed faster

·         What risks did we avoid? e.g. reputational harm.

Make your legal spend visible and predictable

The costs of running an effective inhouse legal team or external law firm shouldn’t be a black box. They should be as transparent and predictable as any high-performing business unit.

This is especially important when engaging with your CFO or finance team. To meet their expectations, you need to show:

·         Where your legal investment is going: broken down by project, matter, or task

·         Why it matters: linked to business goals and priorities

·         What’s ahead: forecasted using past trends and benchmarks.

This kind of clarity builds trust and shifts legal from cost centre to strategic partner.

Hold your external law firms to the same standard

Accountability shouldn’t end with your inhouse team. Your external law firms should also be aligned to your organisation’s goals and able to demonstrate their impact.

However, many law firms still base their fees on billable hours alone, without a clear link to business outcomes.

This not only contributes to scope creep and invoice disputes but reinforces legal’s image as an opaque cost.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Clients using AllyOne have found that when legal budgets are tied to outcomes — not just time — they see fewer disputes, stronger external relationships, and a noticeable shift in how legal is valued across the organisation.

Using tech to communicate your value      

Saying legal drives business outcomes isn’t enough—you need the data to prove it.

Platforms like AllyOne are designed to surface the kind of data legal teams need to credibly communicate their value to their leadership team.

When you can track your inputs, outputs, and outcomes — and connect them to business priorities — you can start to shift perceptions within your organisation.

Want to see how AllyOne helps legal teams shift the conversation? Contact us to learn more or book a demo.