What's Next for Legal Ops? Staying Ahead Through the Next Wave of Change

To mark UpLevel Ops' tenth anniversary, Stephanie Corey sits down with longtime friend Reese Arrowsmith, Executive Vice President of Legal Operations and Administration at Fox, to look back at how far legal ops has come and ahead at what's next. The conversation moves from the earliest days of the profession to document management as the unglamorous foundation for AI, and closes with concrete advice on the skills legal ops leaders need to stay indispensable.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Legal ops has already proven its ROI. The job now isn't proving value, it's telling that story loudly enough to change the mind of every GC still on the fence about hiring for the function.

AI is only as useful as the body of knowledge behind it. Document management, version control, and basic data hygiene are the unsexy prerequisites that have to happen before any AI layer adds real value.

Adoption is harder than rollout. The key to getting a legal team to actually use a new system is finding the trigger moment, a departure, a lost document, a leadership scare, and striking while it's fresh.

AI won't replace legal ops, it will expand it. Legal ops is the only function that sits across people, process, tech, and spend, which puts it in position to lead enterprise AI strategy instead of just adopting whatever comes down from the business.

Career growth in legal ops now runs through network, quick wins, and information security. Build relationships early, bank small wins for your GC, and get comfortable partnering closely with your CISO.

LINKS AND RESOURCES

UpLevel Ops: uplevelops.com

"AI Doesn't Need Your Data, It Needs Your Workflow" by Brandi Pack, Above the Law: abovethelaw.com/2026/08/ai-doesnt-need-your-data-it-needs-your-workflow

KEYWORDS

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