Six ways to build a stronger case for investment in Legal
This article was published by the Association of Corporate Counsel Australia’s ‘Inside In-house Newsletter’.
In-house legal teams know the pressure well: requests are growing, the work is more complex, risk is increasing, and the budget rarely grows to match.
The teams that secure investment tend to make their case early, well before the pressure turns into a crisis. Whether the ask is a new hire, a contractor or new technology, a successful case speaks the language the business cares about, draws on value and relationships built over time, and sets out a clear rationale for why the investment is needed now.
This article outlines six ways in-house legal teams can build that case proactively.
1. Tie the case to what leadership cares about
Put yourself in the decision-makers’ shoes and frame Legal’s needs in terms of the organisation’s priorities:
Growth – Faster deals, earlier market entry and revenue recognised sooner.
Cost – Reducing or avoiding external legal spend.
Risk – Managing regulatory, compliance and contractual exposure.
Your organisational context will determine the relative weighting of each of these priorities. For example, a private equity-backed business may favour growth, while a listed or heavily regulated organisation may weigh risk more heavily.
2. Make the numbers mean something
Data is necessary, but it is most persuasive when it connects to something leaders care about. Reporting that the team handled 50 matters last year and 100 this year leaves leaders asking “so what?” Figures persuade when they connect to an outcome:
Growth – Report the value of contracts Legal supports and how quickly they close.
Cost – Compare work done in-house with what external counsel would have charged.
Risk – Avoided regulatory fines and litigation costs make risk tangible.
3. Win the room before you enter it
A case lands more easily when Legal already has credibility and allies. Build goodwill in advance rather than waiting until you really need it.
Build a broad base of sponsors – Get the business to advocate for you all year round by building allies and champions across the business.
Educate the business – Run sessions that help the business work better with Legal.
4. Get ahead of the demand
A request that only protects current service levels is easy to postpone. When legal leaders join the planning for new business lines and products, they can shape what Legal will need before launch rather than scrambling afterwards. One question to bring to every planning conversation: What would Legal need to support this new business line before it launches?
5. Put the trade-offs on the table
A single yes-or-no request is easy to refuse. Give decision-makers options, each with its cost, timing and risk:
Today – What can the team deliver with current resources?
With investment – What becomes possible with more people, better processes or new technology?
Reduced or no investment – What slows down, gets deprioritised or stops?
6. Look beyond headcount
Other forms of investment can be easier to approve than a permanent role:
Start with contractors – Use their impact as evidence for a permanent hire.
Choose technology the business already owns – Platforms already in place are often easier to get through procurement, IT and security review.
Change how the business works with Legal – Self-service models, training the business on routine matters and AI tools expand capacity without a matching rise in headcount.
Much of this depends on reliable data, which is hard to produce when legal work is spread across inboxes, spreadsheets and shared drives. Legal operations platforms can help. Cubed by Law Squared, for example, brings structure to matter intake, workflows and contracts, enabling in-house legal teams to visibility over their work and the data to back up their case. When it is time to ask for investment, that evidence is already in hand.
Learn more at www.cubedlegal.com