What Are Some KPIs for a Legal Department?

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are essential for measuring the effectiveness, efficiency, and strategic contribution of an in-house legal department. These metrics provide clarity on workload, performance, and how the legal function supports broader business goals.

Below, we will highlight some legal KPI metrics, legal department KPI examples, and how leveraging tools like a legal KPI dashboards can streamline reporting and optimize performance.

Tracking the number and types of matters handled by the legal team provides visibility into workload and the complexity of the work.  

This data helps with the general counsel responsibilities and assists those in in-house legal leadership identify trends, allocate resources, and prioritize high-value tasks. For example, analyzing the proportion of high-risk versus routine matters may inform decisions about internal task delegation or the role of AI chatbots in legal work.

Centralized legal KPI dashboards can provide a real-time view of all open and closed matters, making it easier to monitor performance and identify opportunities for efficiency.

Examples of KPIs for Matter Volume and Types:

• Volume of Incoming Matters: How many new matters are submitted over a specific time period?

• Matter Completion Rate: How many matters are resolved within a given timeframe?

• Matter Categorization: What percentage of matters fall into categories like contracts, disputes, regulatory compliance, or advisory work?

Cycle time measures the duration from when a legal request is submitted to when it is resolved.  

This KPI highlights the efficiency of the legal department’s processes and is particularly useful for identifying bottlenecks in workflows, whether at the intake stage, during task execution, or at the review and approval stages.

Using AI-powered intake and triage tools or standardized intake forms can reduce delays and ensure legal requests are addressed in a timely manner, improving internal stakeholder satisfaction.

Examples of KPIs for Cycle Times:

• Time-to-Response: The time it takes for the legal team to acknowledge and start processing a request.

• Time-to-Completion: The total time taken to resolve a matter from start to finish.

• Stage-Specific Durations: How long tasks take at specific stages, such as intake, review, or approval.

Understanding how work is distributed across the team is key to managing capacity and preventing burnout. Resource utilization metrics can also inform decisions about staffing, task delegation, and the use of external counsel.

Reporting tools that analyze workload by team member, department, or task type can provide actionable insights to help legal teams balance workloads and make informed resourcing decisions.

Examples of Legal Resource-Related KPIs:

• Utilization Rate: The percentage of time each team member spends on high-priority work versus administrative tasks.

• Workload Distribution: The proportion of work assigned to each team member to ensure fairness and prevent burnout.

• Time Allocation by Matter Type: How much time is spent on routine versus strategic or high-value tasks?

Contracts are a significant part of legal operations, and delays in the contracting process can have wide-reaching impacts on the business.  

Tracking metrics such as time spent in negotiation, approval, and execution stages can reveal inefficiencies and inform process improvements such as automating repetitive tasks or improving communication between legal and business teams.

Technology solutions that provide visibility into contract statuses, automate reminders, and streamline approvals are especially valuable for optimizing this KPI.

Examples of KPIs for Contract Lifecycles:

• Contract Cycle Time: The average time to draft, review, and finalize a contract.

• Approval Delays: The time taken for stakeholders to review and approve contracts.

• Error Rates: The number of contracts requiring rework due to errors or omissions.

Monitoring spending against the budget is a fundamental financial KPI for legal departments. Breaking down spend by internal versus external costs or by matter type offers a more detailed view of where resources are being allocated and whether adjustments are needed.

Tools that help with visualizing legal analytics insights and preparing detailed reports can enhance budget tracking, enabling legal leaders to provide transparency and improve effectiveness of legal storytelling to executives.

Examples of Financial KPIs:

• Actual Spend vs. Budgeted Spend: How does the department’s spending align with its allocated budget?

• External Counsel Costs: How much is spent on outside legal services, and how does this compare to in-house costs?

• Cost per Matter: The average cost of resolving a single matter or case.

Compliance metrics assess how well the legal department is ensuring adherence to laws, regulations, and internal policies. Examples include policy review completion rates, audit readiness, and the frequency of incidents or breaches.

Centralized systems that assist with policy management and compliance tracking can streamline reporting on these metrics and reduce the administrative burden of audits or regulatory updates.

Examples of Compliance KPIs:

• Policy Review Rates: The percentage of internal policies reviewed and updated on schedule.

• Incident Rates: The number of regulatory breaches, policy violations, or compliance issues reported.

• Audit Readiness: The number of audits passed without issues or the average time required to prepare for audits.

Internal clients, such as business units and executives, are the key stakeholders for in-house legal departments. Measuring their satisfaction can provide valuable insights into the team’s effectiveness.

For example, using stakeholder surveys or feedback mechanisms, legal teams can gain qualitative insights into how the team’s work is perceived and where improvements may be needed.

Embedding regular feedback collection into workflows can also help track this KPI more consistently and foster better communication between legal teams and the business.

Examples of Client Satisfaction KPIs:

• Net Promoter Score (NPS): A measure of how likely internal stakeholders are to recommend the legal team’s services.

• Survey Scores: Feedback from regular surveys assessing satisfaction with response times, communication, and expertise.

• Number of Complaints or Escalations: The frequency of issues raised by stakeholders about legal support.

Building a Data-Driven Legal Function

KPIs provide legal departments with a framework to evaluate performance and identify opportunities for improvement. And by leveraging tools such as a legal analytics platform and automated workflows, tracking and reporting on these metrics becomes more efficient, ultimately enabling legal leaders to focus on delivering strategic value to the organization.

If you would like to learn more about implementing these KPIs or which tools are the best for promoting legal department efficiency through data, schedule a call with one of our technology consultants.