Practice Operations Support refers to the structured administrative and process support provided to legal practice groups to ensure that lawyers can focus on legal thinking - not operational tasks. It is the legal department’s internal “engine room,” where repeatable work is standardised, templates are maintained, and processes are executed with consistency and precision.

This station is often powered by a combination of paralegals, legal operations professionals, and process specialists who work alongside lawyers to manage the operational aspects of legal service delivery. Their work includes everything from document formatting and template management to process mapping, matter intake, and compliance tracking.

The goal is simple: free up lawyers to do what only lawyers can do. Every minute a lawyer spends formatting a document, chasing signatures, or manually updating a tracker is a minute of lost value. Practice Operations Support ensures that legal work is delivered efficiently, consistently, and at scale - without burning out your legal talent.

Critically, this station also lays the groundwork for legal automation. You cannot automate chaos. By standardising how legal work is done, Practice Operations Support creates the repeatable processes that legal tech can later digitise and scale.

The scope of Practice Operations Support typically includes:

◼️Template Management – Maintaining and updating legal templates, playbooks, and clause libraries.

◼️Process Execution – Managing repeatable workflows such as contract intake, approvals, and filing.

◼️Administrative Support – Handling document formatting, version control, and signature coordination.

◼️Matter Opening & Closing – Ensuring consistent matter lifecycle management across practice groups.

◼️Compliance & Audit Readiness – Maintaining records and documentation to support audits and reviews.

◼️Practice Group Coordination – Supporting team meetings, knowledge sharing, and task tracking.

◼️Process Mapping & SOPs – Documenting how legal work is done to enable consistency and training.

◼️Interface with Legal Tech – Operating and maintaining tools like matter management and e-signature platforms.

In GLS legal ops speak – the Practice Operations Support 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 GLP are as follows:

◼️Dedicated Ops Support Roles – Paralegals, legal ops staff, or admin professionals embedded in practice groups.

◼️Standardised Templates & Tools – A centralised library of up-to-date, approved legal documents.

◼️Documented Workflows – Clear SOPs for common legal tasks, accessible to all team members.

◼️Centralised Task Management – Shared platforms for tracking legal tasks and deadlines.

◼️Process Ownership – Named individuals responsible for maintaining and improving key workflows.

◼️Training & Onboarding Support – Ops staff help onboard new lawyers and maintain team continuity.

◼️Metrics & Reporting – Tracking turnaround times, task volumes, and process compliance.

◼️Legal Tech Integration – Ops staff manage and optimise the use of legal tools (e.g., e-signature, matter management).

The Practice Operations Support station delivers the following value to the Business:

◼️Faster Legal Turnaround – Admin and process tasks are handled efficiently, accelerating legal delivery.

◼️Improved Consistency – Standardised templates and workflows reduce risk and improve quality.

◼️Lower Legal Spend – Lawyers focus on high-value work, reducing reliance on external counsel.

◼️Scalable Legal Support – Ops support enables legal teams to handle more work without adding lawyers.

◼️Better Business Experience – Legal becomes easier to engage, more responsive, and more predictable.

Legal teams benefit from reduced administrative burden, improved morale, and more time for strategic work. Practice Operations Support also improves team cohesion, knowledge retention, and onboarding. It enables legal leaders to manage performance, scale services, and prepare for automation.

The Practice Operations Support station is essential for:

◼️Legal departments of all sizes

◼️Legal operations teams

◼️General Counsel and Heads of Legal

◼️Legal tech and innovation leads

◼️Compliance and risk management teams

A legal team operating without a Practice Operations Support function will face a wide range of inefficiencies including:

◼️Lawyers Performing Admin Tasks – High-cost resources doing low-value work.

◼️Inconsistent Legal Outputs – Templates and processes vary across teams.

◼️Slow Turnaround Times – Bottlenecks in document preparation and approvals.

◼️Poor Knowledge Retention – No centralised documentation of how work is done.

◼️Limited Scalability – Legal cannot grow without adding more lawyers.
 
◼️Burnout & Attrition – Lawyers overwhelmed by operational tasks.

This station is tech-leveraged. While not inherently tech-based, Practice Operations Support often operates legal tools such as:

◼️Document Automation Platforms – To generate standardised contracts.

◼️E-Signature Tools – To streamline execution workflows.

◼️Matter Management Systems – To track and report on legal work.
 
◼️Knowledge Repositories – To store templates, SOPs, and playbooks.

◼️Task Management Tools – To coordinate team workflows and deadlines.

Ops staff are often the primary users and maintainers of these systems, ensuring they are used effectively and consistently.