How to Set Legal Goals that Actually Drive the Business

A big 2026 starts now. True builders use this stretch of time to get ahead, not slow down. Launch your website with AI, publish a stunning newsletter, and start earning more money quickly through the beehiiv Ad Network. Use code BIG30 for 30 percent off your first three months. Start building for 30% off today.

Deep Dive

Setting the scene . . .

I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it: legal goals should be designed to drive company goals. Doing this makes legal a valuable part of the team, rather than just a service provider or mitigator of risk (and you don’t want to be just either of those things, individually or as a team).

With the right goals and progress towards those goals, you’ll be invited into conversations earlier, have more influence, and be more valued.

But what does it actually look like to have legal department goals that are tailored to business ones, and how do you create those goals?

That’s what you’ll learn in this newsletter issue. I’m sharing the exact framework I use to make sure the massive efforts my team and I put in throughout the year are actually driving us in the right direction.

And whether you’re the GC, lead legal ops, or are a brand new in-house lawyer, understanding this process will help you and the whole legal team be more effective.

1. Get clear on company goals and priorities

If you are working to make sure that the legal department drives progress towards company goals, you first need to know what those goals are.

In some companies, these goals are clearly established and regularly shared by the CEO or another executive with the whole company. In others, the company talks about its goals publicly, whether in investor communications, public filings, or in marketing materials. And in still others, only executives hear from the very top (CEO, President, sometimes in combination with the board) what the key priorities are.

When company goals are shared broadly, externally or internally, it’s relatively easy to learn the company’s goals just by listening or reading what’s already out there, regardless of your role. Do this proactively, even if no one tells you that you’re required to know the company’s goals.

In the third scenario, you may have to do a bit more work to learn the company’s goals. If you are the GC/CLO, presumably the goals are shared with you. Ideally, you then share them with your team.

But if you are not the GC and were not otherwise in the room when they were first shared, and if the GC did not volunteer them, ask your manager. Do this even if you are in a very junior role or think it’s not required of you. Understanding them will help you find more purpose in your work and start to learn how to prioritize your work with less guidance from those above you (though of course you’ll still check in).

2. Brainstorm ways legal can support each of those priorities

Once you know the company-wide key priorities, you can start to think creatively about how the legal team can help move them forward.

Set aside time along or with your team to generate as many ideas as you can. Don’t worry if some of them seem impractical or out of scope. The goal at this stage is quantity. You’ll refine later.

For example, if one company goal is to grow revenue by 15% this year, you might come up with the following ideas for legal contribution:

• Spotting creative new revenue streams, like IP licensing or strategic partnerships

• Reducing friction in the sales process by simplifying standard terms

• Drafting fair, protective click-through terms for self-service purchases, making it easier to land smaller customers who might otherwise walk away

Some ideas will be obvious. Others might be wild. That’s good. You’ll sort through the ideas later.

3. Eliminate the uses of legal time that don’t make sense

When you brainstormed how to support company goals, if you followed the framework I gave you (and I know you did!), you came up with a long list. And since you didn’t censor yourself, some of your ideas didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

For example, back on the revenue increase idea, maybe you came up with the idea that legal could invest time in getting to know potential customers’ lawyers, so deals would go more smoothly once they’re agreed to in principle. That’s creative! But if your company sells to hundreds or thousands of customers a year, that’s not exactly scalable. Unless you’re selling high-dollar enterprise deals with long sales cycles, it’s probably not the best use of time.

Now it’s time to start making cuts. Pull out your list and look at it with a critical eye. For each idea, ask:

• Is this likely to meaningfully move the needle on a company priority?

• Is legal the right owner—or is there another team better suited to lead?

• Is the time investment justified by the likely impact?

You might find that some ideas are exciting but impractical. Others are solid but not tied to any real business objective. And a few just won’t hold up when you compare them to the opportunity cost.

That’s okay. The point of brainstorming is to generate more ideas than you’ll use. Now it’s time to narrow your focus.

4. From the remaining options, select the highest impact ones.

Now that you’ve eliminated the options that clearly don’t make sense, focus in on the goals that are likely to have the highest impact.

Look at what’s left on your list and ask:

• Which of these would meaningfully accelerate progress toward one or more company goals?

• Which ones draw on the unique strengths or positioning of the legal team?

• Which are achievable given our current team size, budget, and other commitments?

You’re aiming for the sweet spot: work that’s aligned with company strategy, that your team is well-positioned to own, and that is realistically doable in the next 6–12 months.

You don’t need to do it all. In fact, picking too many priorities almost guarantees disappointing results.

Here are a few examples of what high-impact might look like, depending on your company’s goals:

• If a top priority is speeding up product delivery, a high-impact legal initiative might be redesigning the product counseling intake process to reduce turnaround time and unblock engineers faster.

• If your company is preparing for fundraising or an IPO, a high-impact focus might be tightening up corporate hygiene and building a better data room experience.

• If customer retention is a core metric, legal might invest in streamlining contract renewals or improving terms to reduce friction at renewal time.

Notice that none of these are “check the box” legal tasks. They’re strategic efforts that support the business in achieving something important.

Once you’ve narrowed in on a few top contenders, pressure test them with key partners in the business. Do they agree this would help? Is now the right time? Would they support you in making it happen?

These conversations refine your thinking and build alignment and buy-in from the start.

Once you’ve picked your top priorities, you’re ready to move on to the final step: turning them into clear, actionable goals.

5. Turn your best ideas into clear, measurable goals.

You’ve identified a few high-impact ways legal can support company priorities. Great.

Now it’s time to turn those ideas into clear, measurable, and actionable goals. Otherwise, they’ll just stay ideas.

A strong legal department goal should answer three basic questions:

1. What exactly are we trying to do?

2. How will we know if we’ve done it?

3. By when?

Let’s take an example.

Say your team wants to support faster deal cycles. That’s a good direction—but it’s not a goal yet.

Here’s what it might look like as a fully baked goal:

“Reduce average contract turnaround time for standard sales agreements by 30% by Q4, without increasing escalations or risk.”

That version gives the team something to aim for. It’s specific. It’s measurable. And it’s time-bound.

Here’s another:

“Launch a new self-service legal resource hub by June, with at least 10 core FAQs and templates available to internal teams, and 80%+ satisfaction in a follow-up survey.”

A good test is whether, if you shared the goal with a new team member, they understand what success looks like. If not, it’s not clear enough yet.

One common trap to avoid here is don’t just write goals that track activity. Track impact.

As we often talk about, it’s not about how many hours you spend in meetings or how many contracts you touch. It’s about whether the work actually helps the company move faster, reduce risk, or grow smarter.

Activity: “Review 100 NDAs per quarter.”

Impact: “Roll out a click-to-accept NDA process that reduces average turnaround time by 80% for low-risk deals.”

Big difference.

If you're managing a team, you can set a small number of department-level goals and then work with individual team members to shape their personal goals in alignment. This helps everyone see how their work connects to the bigger picture—and creates more ownership along the way.

And if you’re an individual contributor you can still use this framework to shape your own goals. You’ll stand out (in the best way) by showing that you’re thinking about your role in the broader context of company strategy. And depending on your team culture, you might even suggest doing this exercise together—if your manager or GC isn’t already leading the charge.

As a last step, write the goals down, share them with your team, and track progress over time.

Legal can (and should) be agile. You might tweak goals mid-year as company priorities evolve. But the act of setting them thoughtfully at the start will sharpen your focus—and make sure your efforts are aimed in the right direction.

What if my company uses OKRs/KPIs/SMART goals, or some other framework?

Great. The framework we’ve just walked through works beautifully alongside OKRs, KPIs, SMART goals, or whatever your company uses.

The brainstorming, filtering, and prioritizing steps we’ve already walked through are about figuring out what your legal team should focus on. The frameworks—OKRs, KPIs, SMART goals—are about how you document and measure that focus.

So once you’ve landed on a few high-impact legal goals, you can easily map them into whatever structure your company uses.

If your company uses OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), start with the high-level objective. Then create 2–3 key results that are measurable and time-bound. For example:

Objective: Accelerate sales velocity by reducing legal friction in the deal process
Key Results:

• Reduce average contract turnaround time for standard deals by 30% by Q4

• Launch updated self-serve terms for deals under $25K by end of Q2

• Achieve 90%+ satisfaction from sales team on new legal support model (survey in Q3)

If you’re using SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound), the work is mostly already done—you’ve probably already written goals in that format.

Just sanity-check them for clarity and ambition: Are they realistic but meaningful? Will they help legal show real progress on something the business cares about?

And if your company uses KPIs, your goals may already be tied to specific performance indicators. That’s helpful—but make sure legal’s contributions aren’t limited to reactive, lagging metrics (like number of contracts processed). Add in forward-looking, strategic KPIs when you can, like:

• % of commercial deals processed under new playbook

• Time to first legal response on product questions

• Number of escalations reduced after policy change

The takeaway is this: whatever goal-setting framework your company uses, legal can plug into it. The value isn’t in the acronym. It’s in the alignment.

What matters most is that your legal goals are:

• Tied directly to business priorities

• Written clearly enough to track

• Shared with your team and cross-functional partners

• Revisited regularly to drive accountability and agility

Get that right, and you’ll be well on your way to a legal function that’s not just busy—but highly effective and deeply valued.

Bringing it all together

To recap, here’s the full framework for setting high-impact legal team goals that actually drive business progress:

1. Get clear on company goals and priorities. You can’t align with something you don’t understand, so start by making sure you know where the business is headed.

2. Brainstorm how legal can support each one. Get creative. Don’t censor yourself. Cast a wide net.

3. Cut the things that don’t make sense. Look for ideas that are impractical, misaligned, or simply not worth the time investment.

4. Focus on the highest-impact options. Prioritize the work that aligns with business needs, plays to legal’s strengths, and is achievable with your current resources.

5. Turn your best ideas into clear, measurable goals. Define success, make it trackable, and write it down—then align your team and revisit as priorities evolve.

When done right, this process transforms legal from reactive to strategic—and from simply checking boxes to actively driving the business forward.