Many legal teams have metrics. Fewer have KPIs (key performance indicators) that matter.
If you ask a GC what they’re tracking, you’ll usually hear:
number of contracts reviewed
turnaround time
hours spent
All useful. All necessary.
But here’s the problem.
None of these answer the one question leadership actually cares about:
Is legal moving the business forward?
That’s the gap between metrics and KPIs. And it’s bigger than it looks.
👉 If this is something you’re trying to fix in your team, Sarah Ouis will be unpacking this tomorrow, 26 March, in an upcoming online salon by GC Rendez-Vous, in partnership with SpotDraft:
If you want a bit more context befor the webinar, read on....
Metrics tell you what happened.
KPIs tell you if it mattered.
Metrics are operational. They describe activity:
how many matters came in
how long things took
how busy the team is
They’re easy to collect. Easy to report. Easy to overproduce.
But on their own, they don’t tell a story.
KPIs are different. They connect legal work to business outcomes:
are we focusing on the right matters?
are we unblocking revenue?
are stakeholders actually satisfied?
Metrics answer: What happened?
KPIs answer: Are we moving the needle?
The trap
Most teams don’t ignore KPIs. They struggle with them.
They:
define too many
keep them too vague
or avoid them because they’re harder to measure
So they default back to what’s easy.
Metrics.
A simple way to think about it
You don’t need dozens of KPIs.
You need a small set that answers:
“Are we working on the right things, and is it making a difference?”
You’re invited 👇
Sarah Ouis will be unpacking this in an upcoming online salon by GC Rendez-Vous, in partnership with SpotDraft:
Designing and Measuring a Value-Driven Legal Department
With incredible General Counsels sharing their first hand experience:
Michael Wood, General Counsel and Company Secretary: he spent years managing teams of various sizes in both the UK and USA as well as holding General Counsel positions at subsidiaries and most recently a scale up business. He’ll bring his experience leading legal teams of both large and small organisations.
Joe Johnson, experienced General Counsel, Head of Compliance and Regulatory Affairs who managed teams and functions of significant headcount (100+) as well as working in smaller structures and in some quasi legal-business roles
Patrick Verraes is Group General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer and Secretary to the Board and brings his perspective from operating in the Swiss market.
Jayne Perry : Group Chief Legal Officer @ Alliance Medical UK Jayne has spent many years working in large and scaling businesses across highly regulated markets managing international teams.
We’ll cover:
✔ How to distinguish KPIs from metrics (practically)
✔ How to choose KPIs leadership actually cares about
✔ How to avoid “too many metrics, no insight”
✔ Real examples from in-house teams
Metrics help you run the function.
KPIs help you explain why it matters.
You need both.
by Sarah Irwin
Copyright ©️ 2026 ITGC | Copyright ©️ 2026 Sarah Irwin | All Rights Reserved
