Stop The Chaos: Why Your Legal Team Needs Structured Legal Instructions

3 mins • 12 May 25

Who Should Take Responsibility for Clear Legal Instructions?

When it comes to legal instructions, should the means by which we obtain clear, concise and accurate instructions be impacted by internal political white noise? Or should the requirement be accepted by everyone as an “absolute given”?

Overwhelmingly, we meet so many in-house leaders who are reluctant to impose a mandatory process on the Business through which clear and proper instructions can be given to the legal team. All too often we hear ‘we don’t want to ask the business to fill out yet another form”!

Honestly – who is meant to be the adults in the room? This logic just does not compute!

Our job as in-house counsel is to achieve the impossible: we are frequently drowning in BAU workflows, supporting special project with enormous risk profiles, addressing a wide range of compliance initiatives - all with limited resources and growing expectations.

As such - getting accurate and clear legal instructions shouldn’t be a political battle. If the business doesn’t want to provide clear instructions - make them. Yes, make them.

When you think about the sheer intensity of the environment in which internal legal advisory teams operate, it’s inconceivable that any attempt to improve operational efficiency or upgrade the quality of legal support would be met with resistance.

Everyone, in every discipline, understands that garbage in equals garbage out. Yet, legal teams are expected to work miracles without clear direction. And yet, somehow, vague, half-baked legal instructions are the norm for far too many in-house legal teams.

If They Want the Impossible, They Need to Do Their Part

If an internal client wants you to meet an impossible deadline, execute a complex project with minimal resource allocation, or achieve the unachievable, then they need to do their bit.

That starts with evaluating the information they provide you and ensuring that it’s in a structured format that actually allows you to do your job properly.

This doesn’t just help legal teams - it unlocks a world of data-driven insights that can transform how you resource your legal department and improve process efficiency.

Why You Need a Legal Services Request Form for Clear Legal Instructions

The efficiencies that come from implementing a formal, standardised Legal Services Request Form are too many to count. But here’s a dozen that come to mind immediately:

Streamlined intake process, reducing back-and-forth emails.
Clearer understanding of legal instructions, so legal resources are deployed efficiently.
Better alignment with business objectives from the start.
Improved tracking of legal function performance and workload.
Reduced errors and miscommunication that lead to costly mistakes.
Faster response times and prioritisation of urgent matters.
Enhanced ability to measure and report on legal department efficiency.
Improved ability to allocate work based on complexity and expertise.
Stronger documentation and risk mitigation for legal matters.
More accurate forecasting of legal department resource needs.
Better collaboration across cross-functional teams.
A cultural shift towards valuing legal as a strategic enabler.

Just remember, the legal team's role is often to be the voice of reason - the adults in the room when it comes to decision-making and risk mitigation. This means you need internal clients on your side.

You can either fight with them at every turn, or you can integrate them into the process in a way that works for both sides.

You Either Dictate the Legal Instructions Process Or Get Dictated To

Drip-feeding legal instructions into your legal team is a recipe for disaster. If you allow it to continue, you are the author of your own fate - and that fate is likely a steeper decline which is in fact very much avoidable.

We’re giving you a standard Legal Services Request Form - a simple one, nothing complex. Use code: LSRF108 to redeem it for free on the GLS Legal Operations Centre.

We’ve done our part. We’ve outlined the implications, shared the benefits of structured legal instruction intake and even given you the resources you need.

This is your opportunity to implement a simple legal operations intervention within your legal team. It costs you nothing, it is imminently sensible, and it is absolutely required.

Now, it is over to you.

Ready To Transform Your Legal Team?

Please check out the GLS solutions and know-how resources listed on the right side of this page – they might assist your legal team with the issues explored in this Blog.