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

legal ops evolution, legal operations profession, document management legal, knowledge management legal, AI in legal departments, legal ops and AI, legal ops career skills, legal ops adoption strategy, ACC benchmarking legal ops, legal ops value proposition, information security legal ops, legal engineer role, legal ops network building, employee engagement survey legal, legal department strategic plan, legal ops leadership advice, in-house legal AI strategy, version control document management, legal ops hiring trends, Fox legal operations

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

• [00:02:00 - 00:04:00] Reese traces legal ops back to 1999 and the ACC data that first quantified its value

• [00:05:40 - 00:06:30] Reese lays out the two paths ahead: foundational build-out and the AI-driven next wave

• [00:09:40 - 00:10:30] Stephanie tells Reese she's the only person she's seen roll out document management successfully

• [00:11:20 - 00:12:30] Reese explains the real secret to adoption: waiting for the trigger moment and striking fast

• [00:13:40 - 00:14:30] Stephanie walks through how a body of knowledge turns into a usable AI workflow

• [00:17:20 - 00:19:00] Reese explains why legal ops, not AI, is the only function that can connect spend to outcomes

• [00:20:00 - 00:21:10] Reese previews a structured proof of concept testing two tools across ten practice areas

• [00:24:00 - 00:26:30] Reese on the choice between building your own AI skills and hiring a legal engineer

• [00:29:36 - 00:30:30] Reese's top career advice: build a network before you need one

• [00:31:00 - 00:32:30] Why employee engagement surveys are one of the best diagnostic tools in legal ops