In-house legal teams don’t usually get accused of moving too fast. But the ground beneath them is shifting—regulatory volatility, AI adoption, cost pressure, and talent shortages are converging all at once. According to a new ebook from Paragon Legal, developed with Mitratech AdvanceLaw, today’s legal leaders aren’t solving these challenges in silos. They’re building something closer to an operating system.
Titled “The Legal Portfolio Solution: Where Efficiency, Tech, Risk, and Talent Connect,” the report synthesizes insights from 150 senior legal executives and serves as the second installment in Paragon’s ongoing research into the evolution of the in-house legal function. The big takeaway: the era of the traditional resourcing model is fading, and a “portfolio” approach—mixing full-time staff, flexible legal talent, ALSPs, specialized outside counsel, and targeted AI pilots—is emerging as the new norm.
Jessica Nguyen, Deputy General Counsel at Docusign, sets the tone in the foreword. She likens modern legal leadership to the shift from juggling tasks endlessly to building durable, scalable systems. The metaphor fits: today’s legal teams are trying to do more with less, and they’re running out of hands to juggle with.
The Resource Crunch: Understaffed, Overloaded, and Out of Options
The report’s statistics paint a clear picture of strain:
-
46% of legal teams are understaffed, even as
-
37% face regulatory uncertainty,
-
88% contend with AI-driven disruption, and
-
outside counsel rates continue to climb.
It’s a classic catch-22: high law-firm fees push more work in-house, but budget caps prevent teams from hiring permanent staff to handle the increased load. Traditional hiring isn’t the bottleneck—it’s the model itself.
Trista Engel, CEO of Paragon Legal, puts it plainly: “Legal leaders don’t have the luxury of solving today’s challenges one by one.” The teams that are staying afloat, she says, are using data, tech, and flexible talent to create capacity and mitigate risk, not simply throwing bodies at problems.
This aligns with broader trends across corporate operations: CFOs want predictability, CHROs want agility, and legal teams are increasingly expected to meet both mandates simultaneously.
ALSPs and Flexible Talent Move From “Nice-to-Have” to Core Strategy
One of the most striking themes in the data: mixed staffing models are delivering measurable wins.
-
33% of legal leaders credit ALSPs and flexible legal talent with recent operational improvements.
-
30% are actively shifting work away from big law toward more cost-effective alternatives.
-
Many are building resource portfolios tailored to project type, risk profile, and business demand.
This isn’t just arbitrage—it’s specialization. Routine work moves to lower-cost providers; niche matters go to targeted experts; durable workflow lives with in-house counsel. The result is a more adaptive ecosystem rather than a rigid hierarchy.
Aaron Kotok of Mitratech AdvanceLaw argues that this shift marks a strategic evolution: “Legal teams aren’t just adapting—they’re architecting.” Treating resourcing as a portfolio, Kotok says, enables leaders to route the right work to the right solution, improving performance and increasing the legal team’s influence inside the business.
In other words, legal is beginning to adopt the principles long used by finance and technology leaders: diversify the model, optimize cost, and preserve agility.
Four Priorities, One System: Efficiency, Tech, Risk, and Business Alignment
Perhaps the most revealing insight: legal leaders are no longer treating their priorities as separate initiatives. The report finds that the four areas shaping modern legal strategy—
-
Efficiency (56%)
-
Technology (45%)
-
Risk/Compliance (40%)
-
Business Alignment (39%)
—are deeply interdependent.
For example, efficiency gains often require technology adoption; technology requires risk governance; governance requires alignment with the business; and business alignment can only happen with sufficient capacity. It’s a loop, not a list.
This kind of systemic thinking mirrors what’s happening across corporate functions as AI enters the mainstream. Legal teams, historically linear in their processes, are starting to adopt frameworks that look more like interconnected networks—closer to IT architecture than traditional law department org charts.
Why This Matters for In-House Teams Going Forward
The implications of Paragon’s findings extend well beyond today’s understaffing crunch. They suggest a structural shift in how legal departments operate:
-
Talent portfolios will replace traditional department structures.
Full-time, part-time, flexible, external, and AI-based workstreams will be blended rather than segregated. -
AI pilots will move from experimentation to targeted deployment.
Legal leaders increasingly understand AI’s value not as a standalone tool but as a force multiplier within a broader system. -
Legal operations will take center stage.
Efficiency and tech are no longer side initiatives—they are prerequisites for controlling risk and proving value. -
Outside counsel use will become more surgical.
Big law still has a role, but for work that genuinely needs it—not by default. -
Legal’s influence inside the business will depend on its adaptability.
Teams that build capacity through flexible models will be better positioned to act as strategic partners.
As Engel notes, high-performing teams are the ones thinking “systemically”—treating resourcing, technology, and risk as interlocking components rather than separate checkboxes.
In-house legal teams don’t usually get accused of moving too fast. But the ground beneath them is shifting—regulatory volatility, AI adoption, cost pressure, and talent shortages are converging all at once. According to a new ebook from Paragon Legal, developed with Mitratech AdvanceLaw, today’s legal leaders aren’t solving these challenges in silos. They’re building something closer to an operating system.
Titled “The Legal Portfolio Solution: Where Efficiency, Tech, Risk, and Talent Connect,” the report synthesizes insights from 150 senior legal executives and serves as the second installment in Paragon’s ongoing research into the evolution of the in-house legal function. The big takeaway: the era of the traditional resourcing model is fading, and a “portfolio” approach—mixing full-time staff, flexible legal talent, ALSPs, specialized outside counsel, and targeted AI pilots—is emerging as the new norm.
Jessica Nguyen, Deputy General Counsel at Docusign, sets the tone in the foreword. She likens modern legal leadership to the shift from juggling tasks endlessly to building durable, scalable systems. The metaphor fits: today’s legal teams are trying to do more with less, and they’re running out of hands to juggle with.
The Resource Crunch: Understaffed, Overloaded, and Out of Options
The report’s statistics paint a clear picture of strain:
-
46% of legal teams are understaffed, even as
-
37% face regulatory uncertainty,
-
88% contend with AI-driven disruption, and
-
outside counsel rates continue to climb.
It’s a classic catch-22: high law-firm fees push more work in-house, but budget caps prevent teams from hiring permanent staff to handle the increased load. Traditional hiring isn’t the bottleneck—it’s the model itself.
Trista Engel, CEO of Paragon Legal, puts it plainly: “Legal leaders don’t have the luxury of solving today’s challenges one by one.” The teams that are staying afloat, she says, are using data, tech, and flexible talent to create capacity and mitigate risk, not simply throwing bodies at problems.
This aligns with broader trends across corporate operations: CFOs want predictability, CHROs want agility, and legal teams are increasingly expected to meet both mandates simultaneously.
ALSPs and Flexible Talent Move From “Nice-to-Have” to Core Strategy
One of the most striking themes in the data: mixed staffing models are delivering measurable wins.
-
33% of legal leaders credit ALSPs and flexible legal talent with recent operational improvements.
-
30% are actively shifting work away from big law toward more cost-effective alternatives.
-
Many are building resource portfolios tailored to project type, risk profile, and business demand.
This isn’t just arbitrage—it’s specialization. Routine work moves to lower-cost providers; niche matters go to targeted experts; durable workflow lives with in-house counsel. The result is a more adaptive ecosystem rather than a rigid hierarchy.
Aaron Kotok of Mitratech AdvanceLaw argues that this shift marks a strategic evolution: “Legal teams aren’t just adapting—they’re architecting.” Treating resourcing as a portfolio, Kotok says, enables leaders to route the right work to the right solution, improving performance and increasing the legal team’s influence inside the business.
In other words, legal is beginning to adopt the principles long used by finance and technology leaders: diversify the model, optimize cost, and preserve agility.
Four Priorities, One System: Efficiency, Tech, Risk, and Business Alignment
Perhaps the most revealing insight: legal leaders are no longer treating their priorities as separate initiatives. The report finds that the four areas shaping modern legal strategy—
-
Efficiency (56%)
-
Technology (45%)
-
Risk/Compliance (40%)
-
Business Alignment (39%)
—are deeply interdependent.
For example, efficiency gains often require technology adoption; technology requires risk governance; governance requires alignment with the business; and business alignment can only happen with sufficient capacity. It’s a loop, not a list.
This kind of systemic thinking mirrors what’s happening across corporate functions as AI enters the mainstream. Legal teams, historically linear in their processes, are starting to adopt frameworks that look more like interconnected networks—closer to IT architecture than traditional law department org charts.
Why This Matters for In-House Teams Going Forward
The implications of Paragon’s findings extend well beyond today’s understaffing crunch. They suggest a structural shift in how legal departments operate:
-
Talent portfolios will replace traditional department structures.
Full-time, part-time, flexible, external, and AI-based workstreams will be blended rather than segregated. -
AI pilots will move from experimentation to targeted deployment.
Legal leaders increasingly understand AI’s value not as a standalone tool but as a force multiplier within a broader system. -
Legal operations will take center stage.
Efficiency and tech are no longer side initiatives—they are prerequisites for controlling risk and proving value. -
Outside counsel use will become more surgical.
Big law still has a role, but for work that genuinely needs it—not by default. -
Legal’s influence inside the business will depend on its adaptability.
Teams that build capacity through flexible models will be better positioned to act as strategic partners.
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