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There's little doubt that legal operations is becoming a bigger deal for global companies—as more and more in-house attorneys flock to events like the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium's annual institute, and legal departments place their hopes in ops directors to cut spend and dramatically revamp the way work gets done.

The question remains, though, how similar jobs are for legal ops professionals in Europe compared to the jobs of these individuals stateside. The answer, according to operations experts, is that there are a lot of similarities but a few notable distinctions, too.

As far as numbers go, there is not enough information to indicate there are more legal ops functions in the U.S. than in Europe, said Susan Hackett, CEO of Legal Executive Leadership in Washington, D.C.

“The idea that there are more here is deceptive,” Hackett said. “Those functions are just as robust and just as engaged.”

But there may be differences in the job of in-house ops chief and the way the function has matured.

In the U.S., for instance, a director of legal operations may be a dedicated executive job, while in Europe, the duties that make up legal operations tend to be part of other legal department positions, experts noted.  

Connie Brenton, director of legal operations at Boulder, Colo.-based NetApp and chief executive of Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC), said the role of director of legal operations has not taken hold in Europe like it has in the U.S., however the functions that go with the job are still being done by in-house professionals.

“We're seeing the same progression in Europe as there was in the U.S.,” Brenton said. “Someone who liked technology or liked process would raise their hand and then it became more and more a part of their role.”

She said that the centralization of the ops function is picking up steam in Europe, but one problem has been defining the role of a legal ops director.

“Success begets success,” she said. “The role pays for itself. It only takes a couple of successful legal operations executives to be in place.”

Gary Tully, the head of legal operations at Gilead Sciences of Foster City, California, who recently returned from a business trip to London, said the tasks for legal ops are the same in Europe, even if the nomenclature varies.

“Legal operations are being done by different people with different titles,” Tully said.

Tully said that it is a question of the maturity of the ops function. “It's not unlike the U.S. five to 10 years ago,” Tully said. “The starting of legal operations is the centralization of legal operations. I don't think that is actually different [between the U.S. and Europe].”

Another potential difference between U.S. ops functions and their European counterparts is in where these functions choose to expend their energy.

In Europe, Tully said, there is somewhat less concern with a legal department's spend. In his opinion, this is because the environment is more litigious in the U.S.

“We do have spend in other countries, but it's billed back to the U.S. [for Gilead],” Tully said.

Because of this difference in focus, legal operations tech adoption may vary between continents.  Brenton said that in Europe the ops function tends to center around contract management and ops may have a more open mind toward artificial intelligence.

“In the U.S. the first tool is e-billing,” Brenton said.  “The first tool in Europe is contract management or artificial technology.”