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GLS Legal Department Annual Budget Builder™
A tool to help you produce your annual legal department budget
The Problem
Being asked to produce an annual budget can be an inexact science leading to a ‘finger in the wind’ approach to annual budgeting – few GC’s have a crystal ball to predict the future
Related challenges include:
- lack of clarity over precise future business support requirements
- the expectation that you should know the future
- reduced budget and human resources – yet requirement to maintain service levels
- how to define, capture and plan for extraordinary events
- blurred lines of cost and budget allocation
- lack of availability of funds for critical spend categories – e.g. CPD / training etc
- lack of availability of precise data for you to measure past budgetary levels & performance
- inherited positions / moving goalposts
- pressure to reduce in all spend categories … and to produce “more with less”
Wouldn’t it be great if you could access a turn-key and cost-effective solution that could help you define an accurate and defendable legal department budget?
The GLS Solution
GLS Legal Department Annual Budget Builder™ has been developed by former GCs to be a functional tool to provide the basis for an accurate and reliable annual budget to emerge.
This solution helps you define (by providing working examples of) the common / suggested areas of legal department budgetary requirement, together with an explanation of each spend category.
This solution provides you with recommendations around provisioning and approximate costing (expressed as %) for you to align with your allocated budget.
This solution provides you with playbook style guidance on how to defend budget line items / budget reductions, or (if you are amongst the lucky ones) request an increase / additional budget.
This solution provides you with recommendations for appropriate exclusions / carve outs for specific spend categories relating to either unbudgeted or uncontrollable line items.
This solution provides you with tips on how to ensure a hard line is drawn around what is within and what is outside of your dept. budget.
In-house teams must be capable of demonstrating accountability for the management and control of their departmental costs and expenditure, and the GLS Legal Department Budget Builder™ provides you with a tool to do just that.
Problem Solved.
Solution Deliverables
| Comprehensive: | This solution will guide you through all the aspects needed to drive efficient production of your annual budget. |
| Structured: | This solution is well defined, with a clear navigational structure that dovetails with your wider organisation’s budgeting needs. |
| User Friendly: | The solution is extremely user friendly, peppered with guidance notes and is drafted in plain English for use by anyone designated to do so. |
Pricing Comparison
| Big Law Review | US Rate | GLS Cost | Minutes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Partner | $850 | $599 | 75min |
GLS RPLV Legal Operations Score
This solution’s GLS RPLV impact score:
| Resource Status: | Specialist | Repeater | Formative |
| Ease of Implementation: | Complex | Average | Easy |
| Value Demonstration/Visibility: | Low | Medium | High |
| Productivity Leverage Profile: | Low | Medium | High |
| IHL Line Optimisation: | Single | Multiple | All Lines |
IHL Critical Function Optimisation Targets
This solution enhances performance across the following critical in-house functions:
In-House Legal: Critical Functions / Processes
General Counsel
Legal Operations
GLS has identified 15 critical in-house processes/functions that are present in every world-class legal department. To learn what these functions are, their composition and how they interrelate to deliver efficient legal team performance outcomes - visit here.
