From Legal Operations to Global Policy Management: Evolving the Function for Changing Regulations

As organizations scale and regulatory pressure intensifies, legal operations is moving from support function to strategic command center. At the HIKE2 Lodge during Dreamforce 2025, Nadia Louis-Hermez, Head of Legal Operations at Next Insurance, joined Amy Gradnik, Principal & Director of Advisory Solutions at HIKE2, to explore how legal ops leaders are guiding global compliance, operationalizing governance, and enabling business velocity.

The conversation underscored a clear truth: the future of legal operations is not just execution. It is leadership, enterprise design, and risk-aware innovation.

Legal Ops is Becoming a Leadership Function

The role now requires the ability to shape policy, influence executives, and drive governance without creating friction for the business. Modern legal ops leaders are:

• Translating regulations into scalable programs
• Guiding technology and AI adoption
• Partnering cross-functionally on risk, finance, procurement, and security
• Acting as strategic advisors to the General Counsel and C-suite

As Nadia put it, legal ops teams are not overhead. They are “profit protectors” who safeguard trust and prevent costly regulatory mistakes.

Building From Operational Expertise to Strategic Enablement

Many legal ops leaders begin in areas like contract lifecycle management (CLM), vendor management, or document workflows. The next stage requires:

• Executive communication and influence
• Policy creation and rollout
• Change management
• Governance design and automation
• Comfort with data, technology, and AI policy frameworks

Nadia’s career path followed this trajectory — from CLM implementation, to vendor governance, to leadership of a fully integrated legal operations function.

Enabling Compliance Without Slowing the Business

Regulated industries must avoid risk, yet innovation depends on responsiveness. The approach:

• Stratify review thresholds (e.g., fast-track low-risk contracts)
• Automate approvals within the CLM system
• Embed corporate signatory rules directly into workflow logic
• Maintain a balance between proactive governance and operational agility

This mindset ensures compliance without creating a bottleneck that damages business momentum.

Scaling to Global Enterprise Standards

Following Next Insurance’s acquisition by Munich Re, legal operations became central to scaling governance across a global footprint. The shift from startup pace to enterprise discipline required:

Rather than slowing down innovation, structure became an enabler. Legal ops now sits at the table for decisions on policy rollout, system configuration, stakeholder training, and board-level reporting.

Technology and User Experience in Policy Adoption

Clear policy language is not enough. To support adoption, Nadia’s team is integrating technology and human-centered policy design:

• CLM automation triggers Data Privacy Agreements based on contract details
• Third-party risk checks are embedded into procurement workflows
• AI is used to help employees search and interpret policy content without reading lengthy manuals

By pairing policy rigor with usability, employees can comply without friction — a critical factor in global governance success.

Looking Ahead: Legal Ops as Strategic Enterprise Function

As more legal work moves in-house and automation takes on operational tasks, legal ops roles will increasingly resemble chief of staff functions for the General Counsel. Leaders will be expected to:

• Guide technology and AI policy adoption
• Partner with risk and compliance to oversee data governance
• Support cross-functional collaboration on high-impact initiatives
• Lead strategic planning and organizational enablement

Legal operations is no longer a niche discipline. It is becoming a foundational pillar in modern corporate structure.

A Mindset for the Future of Legal Operations

Nadia left the audience with a principle rooted in service, empathy, and leadership:

People may not remember what you did or said, but they will always remember how you made them feel.

Legal ops is often the first touchpoint employees have with legal services. Being approachable, solutions-oriented, and collaborative builds trust across the business, and trust is the foundation of effective governance.