Paragon Legal Releases New Research Report: Proving Legal’s Value – A Practical Guide to Metrics That Matter

Survey of 150 senior in-house legal leaders, conducted in partnership with AdvanceLaw, reveals how GCs can reframe the value conversation with the C-suite

San Francisco, CA – October 2, 2025 – Paragon Legal, a pioneer in providing flexible legal talent to leading in-house teams, today announced the release of its new report, Proving Legal’s Value: A Practical Guide to Metrics That Matter. The report, based on a survey of 150 senior legal leaders across the U.S. and conducted in partnership with AdvanceLaw, uncovers how in-house legal departments can move beyond activity tracking to outcome-based metrics that demonstrate true strategic impact.

The findings come at a critical time:

• 86% of legal departments maintained or increased budgets this year, but most still can’t show what they achieved. Only 33% track spend in real time, and just 31% measure business outcomes.
  
• Legal teams focus on operational metrics like contract review time, budget variance, and matter duration — while neglecting whether their work drives growth or reduces risk.
  
• Perception gap: 54% of respondents believe their CEOs see Legal as business leaders or mentors — but only 29% think middle managers view them as trusted advisors, and 33% believe they’re seen merely as service providers.
  
• The #1 metric legal teams wish they could track is productivity (42%). Even fewer measure high-impact business metrics like “legal’s contribution to growth” (17%).
  

“Legal teams are facing more scrutiny than ever,” said Trista Engel, CEO of Paragon Legal. “Budgets may be up, but expectations are rising faster. This report is designed to help GCs and their teams flip the script — showing not just what Legal does, but what Legal achieves.”

The ebook also features a foreword by Jessica Nguyen, Deputy General Counsel of AI Innovation at DocuSign, former CLO at Lexion, and Strategic Advisor to Paragon Legal, who shares:

“It’s not about how many contracts you touch. It’s about how your work moves the business forward. For too long, legal metrics have focused on activity and cost savings. It’s time to shift the story to outcomes, alignment, and impact, because that’s what resonates with the C-suite.”

“These insights come at a pivotal time for the profession,” said Aaron Kotok, Executive Director of Legal Industry Solutions at Mitratech and AdvanceLaw. “We were proud to partner with Paragon on this survey and ebook, because too often legal leaders are asked to do more with less — but without the right metrics, it’s impossible to demonstrate true impact. This research provides a roadmap for moving beyond activity tracking to outcome-driven storytelling, helping GCs elevate how Legal is perceived inside the enterprise.”

The report outlines a clear framework for legal leaders to:

• Shift the story from activities to outcomes, demonstrating value in terms that executives understand.
  
• Tailor metrics for each audience — from ROI for CFOs, to growth enablement for CEOs, to agility for business units.
  
• Match metrics to team maturity, whether a small, mid-sized, or large legal department.
  

Proving Legal’s Value is the first of a two-part research series. A second report, focused on the top priorities and challenges facing in-house legal teams, will be released later in 2025.

The full report is available for free download here: https://paragonlegal.com/insights/proving-legals-value-a-practical-guide-to-metrics-that-matter/

About Paragon Legal

Paragon Legal provides legal departments at leading corporations with high quality, flexible legal talent to help them meet their changing workload demands. At the same time, we offer talented attorneys and other legal professionals a way to practice law outside the traditional career path, empowering them to achieve both their professional and personal goals.