Legal Ops Was Never About Control
What if legal ops wasn’t just about efficiency, but about changing how legal teams think and lead? In this conversation, Yesenia Santiago Egner shares why the future of legal ops is about mindset, not just mechanics.
Inside our conversation with Yesenia Santiago Egner on Mind At Work.
For years, legal operations was treated like an afterthought—an invisible function designed to "fix" what was broken in legal teams.
That story is finally changing. But not fast enough.
In this episode of Mind At Work — Flank’s podcast about the future of work in legal — I (Lorna Khemraz, Lead Counsel at Flank) sit down with Yesenia (Jessie) Santiago Egner, a seasoned legal operations leader with more than 15 years' experience across financial services, media, and life sciences.
Jessie shares why the next generation of legal ops leadership won't just be about running better systems.
It’ll be about reshaping how the entire legal function thinks, acts, and shows up for the business.
If you think legal ops is about task management, it’s time to think again.
1. Legal ops didn’t appear out of nowhere. It was always there.
Before CLOC, before core competencies, before anyone gave it a name—legal ops was happening. People were designing workflows, managing budgets, sourcing vendors, and creating knowledge management systems. The difference now is that legal ops has language, recognition, and (in some organisations) a seat at the leadership table.
Jessie reminds us: this is not a new movement. It’s the overdue validation of work that’s long been critical but too often invisible.
And while frameworks help, real legal ops leadership requires more than checking boxes.
2. Legal ops can't afford to stay in the delivery lane.
Execution without influence is a dead end.
There’s still a persistent (and dangerous) mindset inside some legal teams that operations exist to “make the trains run on time,” while strategy happens elsewhere. Jessie challenges that head-on.
She emphasises that legal ops must be embedded in strategic planning from the start—not just called in after decisions are made.
Because when operations are sidelined, execution falters. When they're at the table early, they drive clarity, alignment, and better outcomes across the business.
In a world where legal teams are expected to do more with less, that influence is not optional. It’s essential.
3. If you can’t move between worlds, you’re not ready for what’s next.
Legal ops is the ultimate cross-functional role.
Jessie describes how success in legal ops often comes from the ability to build relationships across HR, IT, finance, risk, and product teams—not just within legal itself.
Whether you’re leading a transformation after a merger, implementing a new system, or moving between industries like media and healthcare, the foundation is the same: collaboration and adaptability.
The best legal ops professionals aren’t defined by the tools they use. They’re defined by how they bridge gaps across organisations.
4. Innovation without governance is just noise.
AI is changing how information flows inside companies—creating an explosion of accessible data at a scale legal teams have never faced before.
Jessie puts it plainly:
"With the advent of AI, there is and will continue to be an explosion of information that is accessible at our fingertips."
While many legal teams are focused on the risks of AI adoption, Jessie highlights a deeper challenge: governance.
Without strong internal models for how information is captured, organised, and secured, innovation can quickly outpace control—and increase legal and regulatory exposure.
Technology alone won’t save us. Governance will.
Jessie’s story is a reminder: Legal ops was never about control.
It was about clarity, collaboration, and courage—the courage to rethink not just how law is practiced, but how it’s operationalised inside modern businesses.
🎧 Listen to Episode 11: Legal Ops with a Soul: Yesenia Egner on Mindset, Faith & Frameworks — now live.
If this got you thinking differently about legal ops, I'd be keen to hear more. Drop me a note.
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