Legal operations has never been more talked about or more misunderstood. As budgets tighten and AI hype crescendos, many in-house legal teams are left wondering: where should we actually start?

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In our recent Radiant Law webinar, Tanisha Minev, Legal Counsel at Docplanner and former legal ops lead at Yoco, joined Ian Teague to unpack how legal operations can drive real value without needing a fancy toolset or a big team. Tanisha’s experience building simple but powerful systems using existing tools offered a masterclass in practical, people-first legal ops.

Here are four key takeaways from the session:

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1. Legal Ops Is About Supporting the Business, Not Just Legal

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It’s easy to think of legal operations as something that helps the legal team run more smoothly. But as Tanisha points out, the true north is how legal supports the business.

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“The business doesn’t care how many contracts we review. They care how fast deals get done.”

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This mindset shift is crucial. Legal ops shouldn’t become a checkbox function or a blocker, its job is to enable commercial momentum while ensuring compliance and mitigating risk. That means measuring impact by business outcomes, not legal metrics.

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2. Process First, Then Technology

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Too often, teams rush to buy shiny new tools without understanding their actual problems. Tanisha stressed the importance of starting with a clear problem statement:

• What’s the business pain point?
  
• What does success look like?
  
• Where are we now?

“You can buy the most amazing technology, but if you haven’t optimised the process first, it probably won’t work.”

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She encouraged teams to whiteboard processes, talk to stakeholders, and identify pain points before even considering a tech solution. Only after you’ve mapped the journey from A to B should you think about automation.

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3. Look Inside Before You Buy

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Tanisha shared a standout example from her time at Yoco, where instead of buying a costly CRM or intake tool, she built a seamless Slack-to-Notion workflow with Zapier. The result?

• No extra cost
  
• High user adoption
  
• Immediate capacity visibility
  
• Full task tracking and audit trail
  
  

“We already had the tools. We just needed to connect them. It was a quick win and our users loved it.”

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This is a reminder that some of the most effective legal ops solutions aren’t flashy, they’re clever, homegrown, and deeply embedded in the way your team already works.

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4. Proving Value Means Speaking the Language of the Business

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Tanisha’s most powerful advice? Frame legal ops wins in terms of business impact, not internal efficiencies. It’s not just about time saved or process improvements. It’s about enabling faster revenue, avoiding unnecessary costs, and unlocking better business decisions.

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“We caught an expensive auto-renewal with one user thanks to our new CLM system. That’s real money saved and that gets attention.”

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The way to win buy-in isn’t by using buzzwords. It’s by showing how your work moves the needle.

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Tanisha’s call to action was simple: start small, solve one problem, and build from there. Whether you're in a formal legal ops role or wearing multiple hats, you can drive transformation by focusing on what matters most, your users, your processes, and your impact.

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Legal operations isn’t about tools. It’s about thoughtful design, meaningful change, and measurable value.

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Watch the full webinar recording