For too long, in-house legal teams have been viewed as cost centersâessential, but with a value thatâs hard to quantify. Legal work is often complicated, involving many steps and multiple stakeholders. Without clear metrics to show strategic impact, legal departments face increasing pressure to justify their budgets, defend their headcount, and earn a seat at the executive table.
The stakes are high. But thereâs also a huge opportunity.
While most legal teams track standard key performance indicators (KPIs)âsuch as the volume of requests, turnaround times, and outside counsel spendâthese numbers tell only part of the story. They measure activity, not impact. And in today's environment, executives aren't interested in how busy legal was. They want to know: What business goals did legal enable?
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The highest-value work your legal team does likely isnât in your dashboard, but it should be. It's the strategic interventions that quietlyâbut powerfullyâmove the business forward. Think:
We call these legal value multipliersâdiscrete actions that have an outsized business impact. Theyâre often unique and not easily repeatable, but theyâre the efforts that executives remember. Or at least, they wouldâif someone was tracking them.
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Shifting the focus from activity metrics to strategic outcomes reframes the legal function from a service provider to a business driver. Itâs no longer, âWe reviewed 300 contracts.â Instead, it becomes: âWe helped close $10M in revenue by reducing contract friction.â
This single metricâa consistent, deliberate tracking of legal value multipliersâcan:
Because hereâs the problem: If legal doesnât document these wins, itâs as if they never happened. Thereâs no data to support the teamâs strategic value, no proof to advocate for additional resources, and no internal guidance on what work is actually moving the needle.
That leaves legal vulnerable to being seen as a bottleneck, not a business enabler.
The solution? Start capturing value multipliersânow.
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Tracking value multipliers isnât about overhauling your entire legal analytics system. You donât need a massive transformation to make legalâs impact visible. Instead, take a lightweight, high-leverage approach:
Start by pinpointing where value multipliers are most likely to occur. These are typically matters that intersect directly with revenue, risk, or speed. Think about the areas where legalâs work tangibly accelerates outcomes or prevents costly setbacks. Common examples include:
You donât need to capture everythingâjust the moments where legal clearly made the business better, faster, or safer.
Not every matter is a multiplierâand thatâs okay. But some clearly are. Help your team recognize the difference by equipping them with simple criteria and examples so they know what to look for. The goal is to develop the habit of identifying value in real time, not after the fact.
A few guiding questions can help:
Itâs not about perfect consistency, just consistent awareness. Reinforce that this isnât busywork; itâs about protecting the teamâs strategic reputation.
You donât need to be finance experts, but ballpark estimates matter. When a value multiplier is logged, prompt a quick approximation of what it was worth to the business. Encourage thoughtful judgment, not paralysis over precision. Often business teams will have already identified the dollar value of a particular initiative, in which case you can easily leverage the work that has already been done for you.  Â
This kind of framing turns legal wins into compelling business stories. You can use benchmarks from prior matters, outside counsel rates, or known business impact to ground your estimates.
Capture these multipliers in a dashboard that evolves with your teamâs contributions. Focus on metrics that resonate at the executive level:
Donât let these stories sit in silos. Share them during quarterly business reviews, board prep, or strategic planning discussions. This is how legal earns credit for the impact itâs already having and positions itself as a key business partner.
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Legalâs most valuable contributions often fly under the radar. If you donât capture them, you canât prove them. Start now by tracking value alongside volume and impact alongside activity, and watch your conversations with leadership transform.
Matter management software like Streamline AI helps in-house legal teams track strategic contributions as they happen, turning invisible impact into measurable value.Â
Learn more in our guide to legal data analytics and KPIs, or schedule a demo today.
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