The Skills & Experience Register is a dynamic, centralised inventory of the legal team’s capabilities, qualifications, and professional experience. It enables legal leaders to make informed decisions about resource allocation, ensuring that the right lawyer is deployed to the right task - every time.

Legal departments are increasingly expected to operate with precision and agility. Yet, without a clear view of who knows what, and who has done what, resource deployment becomes guesswork. This leads to inefficiencies, misaligned assignments, and missed opportunities to leverage internal expertise.

The register goes beyond basic CV data. It captures granular detail about subject matter expertise, jurisdictional experience, industry familiarity, language skills, certifications, and even soft skills like negotiation style or stakeholder management. It becomes a strategic tool for workforce planning, succession management, and capability development.

In short, the Skills & Experience Register transforms legal talent from a static headcount into a dynamic, deployable asset. It empowers legal leaders to optimise team performance, reduce reliance on external counsel, and build a more resilient legal function.

The scope of the Skills & Experience Register typically includes:

◼️Detailed Profiles of each team member’s legal qualifications, practice areas, and jurisdictions.

◼️Experience Mapping of past matters, deals, and litigation handled.

◼️Skills Inventory including technical, commercial, and interpersonal competencies.

◼️Language & Cultural Capabilities for cross-border legal support.

◼️Certifications & Training Records to track ongoing professional development.

◼️Availability & Workload Indicators to support resource planning.

◼️Search & Filter Functionality to quickly identify suitable team members.

◼️Integration with Matter Management Systems to link skills to outcomes.

In GLS legal ops speak – the Skills & Experience Register is considered a “Foundational” resource within the process ecosystem of an in-house legal team.

The Foundational Resource is a CRE that is responsible for determining the overall performance capabilities of a “critical” legal function. If it is not optimised, the function can never be optimised. 

The best practice features of the Skills & Experience Register are as follows:

◼️A standardised taxonomy for skills and experience categories.

◼️Self-updating capability with prompts for lawyers to refresh their profiles.

◼️Managerial oversight to validate and approve entries.

◼️Searchable interface with filters for jurisdiction, skill, experience level, and availability.

◼️Integration with HR and legal tech systems for seamless data flow.

◼️Analytics dashboard to identify capability gaps and training needs.

◼️Role-based access controls to protect sensitive personal data.

◼️Succession planning tools to identify future leaders and critical roles.

The Skills & Experience Register delivers the following value to the Business:

◼️Faster deal execution by deploying the most qualified lawyer to the task.

◼️Reduced legal spend by leveraging internal expertise instead of outsourcing.

◼️Improved risk management through better alignment of skills to legal challenges.

◼️Enhanced responsiveness to business needs across jurisdictions and functions.

◼️Strategic workforce planning that aligns legal capabilities with business priorities.

◼️Increased agility in responding to regulatory changes or emerging risks.

◼️Better stakeholder confidence in the legal team’s ability to support the business.

◼️Optimised team utilisation ensuring no talent is underused or overburdened.

For the legal team, the register is a game-changer. It enables lawyers to be recognised for their full range of capabilities, not just their job title. It supports career development, encourages knowledge sharing, and facilitates collaboration across borders and practice areas.

Legal leaders gain visibility into the team’s strengths and gaps, enabling targeted training and succession planning. It also helps avoid burnout by distributing work more evenly and fairly. Ultimately, it fosters a culture of transparency, meritocracy, and continuous improvement.

The Skills & Experience Register is essential for:

◼️Legal departments of all sizes

◼️Legal operations teams

◼️General Counsel and Heads of Legal

◼️Legal HR and talent development leads

◼️Compliance and risk management teams

A legal team operating without a Skills & Experience Register will face a wide range of inefficiencies including:

◼️Misallocation of legal resources to tasks outside their expertise

◼️Increased reliance on external counsel for matters that could be handled in-house

◼️Slower response times to business requests

◼️Reduced morale due to lack of recognition and career development

◼️Inconsistent quality of legal advice

◼️Difficulty in scaling legal support across jurisdictions

◼️Poor succession planning and talent retention

The Skills & Experience Register is a technology-leveraged station. While it can begin as a spreadsheet, its true value is unlocked through integration with legal tech platforms, HR systems, and matter management tools. AI can assist in auto-tagging experience, suggesting matches for tasks, and identifying gaps in team capabilities.

Cloud-based solutions ensure accessibility across geographies, while role-based permissions protect sensitive data. The register should be designed for ease of use, with mobile access and intuitive interfaces to encourage adoption.