Fixing the Legal-Procurement Disconnect to Speed Up Contract Review

Abstract

It’s a familiar scenario: a critical vendor deal lands in procurement’s lap. Commercial terms need to be negotiated, and it heads off to legal. Six weeks pass. The business is frustrated, procurement is blamed, and legal is overwhelmed. Nobody is winning – and critically, nobody intended for this outcome. The handoff between procurement and legal remains one of the most significant bottlenecks in commercial contracting, yet it's rarely discussed openly. Friction points in the legal-procurement relationship – from misaligned risk appetites to duplicative approval workflows – are commonplace, but that doesn’t mean they’re unsolvable. With just a few key steps, organizations can create integrated processes that respect both functions' priorities and ensure that the process of getting vendor contracts finalized isn’t any slower than it needs to be. Because that slowness has a price – not just in time, but in vendor relationships, competitive positioning, and ultimately, the overall effectiveness of the organization.