Develop metrics
About
Make smart choices about measurement — selecting the right metrics is far more critical than simply creating more. In today’s complex business environment, legal departments must move beyond traditional cost and time metrics to demonstrate their true strategic value. This section of the Value Alignment Toolkit provides the frameworks and practical guidance you need to develop meaningful, business-aligned metrics that reflect the full scope of your department’s impact.
By focusing on balanced performance measurement, business alignment, and continuous improvement, you’ll learn how to create metrics that drive decisions, foster team engagement, and elevate your department’s visibility within the organization. The resources here will help you avoid common pitfalls, build stakeholder buy-in, and communicate your value story with clarity and confidence.
What's included
Download allBest Practice Metrics Framework
A maturity model that identifies common pitfalls and best practices across metrics coverage, data collection, engagement, reporting, and review to help legal departments establish meaningful success measures aligned with business value.
Best Practice Metrics Framework (Table Handout)
A condensed reference table version of the best practices framework organized by category, aim, subcategory, common pitfalls, and recommended practices.
Developing Metrics Exercise
A step-by-step workshop guide that helps legal leadership teams translate their strategic goals into specific, measurable metrics aligned to their objectives and challenges across all Four Spinning Plates.
AI Success Metrics: Best Practice Guide
A practical guide with real-world examples showing how to measure AI adoption's full strategic value across all four spinning plates, with quick-start metrics and reinvestment strategies to prevent efficiency gains from being lost to budget cuts.
AI Success Metrics: Worksheet
A worksheet that guides teams through designing a comprehensive AI metrics framework by mapping AI benefits to the Four Spinning Plates, selecting core metrics, planning reinvestment strategies, and crafting a success narrative.
How to Measure Your Legal Department Metrics
A guide helping legal departments choose appropriate measurement formats for their selected metrics, with practical frameworks for balancing accuracy, feasibility, and usefulness.
Introduction to Metrics Library
An overview explaining the purpose and structure of the Metrics Library as a curated reference of approximately 100 legal department metrics organized across the Four Spinning Plates framework.
Metrics Library
A spreadsheet containing a comprehensive collection of proven legal department metrics organized by the Four Spinning Plates with details on what each metric measures and how to calculate it.
Metrics Masterclass Explainer
An overview of two webinar sessions that teach legal departments how to build balanced metrics beyond cost and time, align metrics with business strategy, and distill their complete value story into a powerful one-slide summary.
Ready for the next step?
Return to the toolkit to advance to the next step of your journey.
