Why We Should Involve the Legal Team on New Capability Projects

Developing new capabilities is crucial for maintaining competitiveness whether it's for more effective targeting and copy or scale and automation, it all relies on data. One area often overlooked during this process is the involvement of the legal team during design phase. It’s more common practice to include legal experts only at the tail end of a project when decisions are already in place... at which point it really feels like we are just asking for them to rubber stamp our work. Legal teams should be engaged early in the project lifecycle for more effective and compliant outcomes.

To many of you, this might sound unexpected or even crazy. Why do we need to involve Legal at all? There is little we do that doesn't involve data. IT has a decent grasp of data and privacy. But when it comes to understanding the privacy laws in each geo, country, and region/state/province... The legal team should be your "go to". There is a nuance between what the laws require and what you as an organization are comfortable with.

The Cost of Bringing Legal In at the End

When the legal team is only brought in at the final stages of a project, the implications can be significant. Any necessary changes can become not only difficult to enact but also expensive (rework, replacement or new tech needed, time lost, knock on effect on other projects, etc) or worse deemed imposible to change to meet company stance or regulatory compliance. Retro fits are compromises and are never as good as an experience that was designed with that capability in mind in the first place.

We saw this in the early days of social media... In the early years of Facebook (mid-2000s to early 2010s), privacy controls were largely retrofitted onto a system built for rapid sharing. A user would create and publish a post first, then—if they thought about it—navigate through layered “Privacy Settings” pages to adjust who could see profile fields, photos, or updates. Controls were fragmented across multiple screens, required understanding abstract concepts like networks and custom lists, and were often reset or changed as the platform evolved. The default posture frequently favored broader visibility, meaning users had to actively discover and configure settings to limit exposure.

In the modern Facebook workflow, audience selection is embedded directly into the post creation experience. When composing a post, users choose the visibility (e.g., Public, Friends, Specific Friends, Only Me) before publishing, and that choice is displayed inline with the post. The system remembers the previous audience setting, and adjustments can be made in context without navigating away. Privacy is no longer a separate administrative task—it is part of the sharing decision itself.

The modern approach is much better because it reduces the effort and thinking, aligns privacy decisions with user intent at the moment of the action, and makes the consequences of sharing visible and immediate. It also illustrates why legal and privacy teams must be involved early in designing new capabilities. When features are built first and privacy is layered on later, organizations risk regulatory scrutiny—such as the oversight imposed by the Federal Trade Commission following Facebook’s earlier privacy missteps. Embedding legal review and privacy expertise during capability design ensures defaults, user disclosures, and data flows align with regulatory expectations and user trust from the outset, rather than requiring costly remediation after launch. And the user workflows are much better (vs as an afterthought that is Jerry-rigged in).

A team discussing project plans in a meeting.

Importance of Legal Expertise in Data Privacy Compliance

Legal teams offer unique expertise in matters of data privacy compliance and regulatory requirements. The nuances of laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) can be intricate, and failing to consider them can have serious repercussions. I recall being stunned by how ignorant our European marketers were of GDPR and what it meant for collecting data. They kept insisting they understood the law as they were local and we were the ones misunderstanding. Well, after we brought in the legal team, they confirmed we correctly interpreted the laws. Engaging legal professionals early in a project allows teams to navigate these complexities from the start.

The world is a large place which cultural values that vary as much as the landscape. Often the nuances are what will trip us operational people up and the legal team can come up with company perspective that bridges the legal minimum requirement and the corporate values.

The Value of Early Collaboration

When legal teams are involved early on, they can provide valuable insights that shape the project’s direction and design. Their input helps pivot the scope of ideas towards solutions that can be legally executed, ultimately enhancing project feasibility and often improving user experience.

The legal team like any other team at your company has limited bandwidth and pulling them into your project early is probably a pleasant surprise but they maybe not have enough bandwidth to accommodate your needs if you don't engage early enough (i.e. during you planning phase). In those cases where you priorities don't completely align, they may have ideas on how to break up and prioritize work for the most benefit.

For instance, I was working on a project to centralize our patch work of local privacy rules for outbound communication. The company operated in all regions of the world and had prospects in almost every one of the nearly 200 countries in the world. We pulled in the legal team and reviewing privacy laws for a list of 200 countries was not going to be possible (with internal resources or with the budget we could find to fund help from outside counsel). Working with the legal team we create a list of all countries, status of legal review for the privacy laws, the number of customers and also the number of prospects in that country, along with some info about the value of the deals in that country. This gave us a way to prioritize which countries needed immediate privacy law review. We could also get a sense of which we could need to take the strictest stance on (no legal review conducted). This gave us a set of rules we could operationalize in our systems as well as a list that we could tier for legal review.

A collaborative workspace displaying a project plan.

Finding the Right Engagement Model

Although the importance of involving the legal team early in projects is evident, finding the right balance is equally essential. Over-involvement can lead to project delays and frustration among team members. The more teams and people you have the harder it is to align schedules and priorities. Legal teams should not overshadow the core project objectives. Instead, they should integrate seamlessly into the workflow and keep us honest and aligned to corporate values.

Here’s how to strike the right balance:

1. Define Milestones: Involve legal experts at key milestones—such as brainstorming, feasibility studies, and initial drafts. This way, their insights can inform direction without dragging processes down.

2. Set Clear Objectives: Clearly articulate the areas where legal input is required. This will help the legal team focus their efforts where they are most needed without becoming a bottleneck... or feeling overwhelmed with meeting where they have little to contribute.

3. Regular Check-ins: Schedule regular check-ins rather than having legal attend all project meetings. This allows for informed decision-making based on legal expertise without overwhelming the project discussions.

   
   

Practical Steps to Engage Legal Teams Effectively

Engaging legal teams in project-building entails strategic planning. Below are practical steps to ensure effective collaboration:

1. Early Introduction

Introduce the legal team at the initial project planning stages. Their input on compliance and regulatory aspects can steer the project in the right direction right from its inception.

2. Utilize Legal Stewards

Designate a legal representative as a point of contact for the project. This reduces overwhelm and ensures that only the most pertinent legal issues are filtered through to the broader team. This is likely new for them too, so set expectation on time commitment and what is optional (FYI) vs required attendance (assignments or decisions for them)

3. Continuous Education

Foster a culture of continuous learning between GTM operations, IT, and legal teams. Regular workshops can encourage understanding and align all departments’ goals.

4. Document Everything

Maintain a thorough record of decisions and recommendations made by the legal team. This will help clarify the rationale behind certain choices and reduce confusion later on. This can take the forms of meeting notes (with key decisions and actions) and design docs that define what will be built.

5. Evaluate Outcomes

After the project, evaluate the involvement of the legal team. This reflection will inform future collaborations and highlight areas for improvement.

Seizing the Opportunity for Enhanced Collaboration

Involving legal teams in the development of new capabilities is not merely a precaution—it's an opportunity to enhance the overall success of projects. When legal expertise is integrated into the planning stages, it can lead to more innovative and compliant outcomes. Do they need to be in every project? No... nor do they have the bandwidth for it. But when every you are collecting or processing data or have any feature related to privacy or consent... pull in the legal team.

From my perspective as a revenue operations professional, embracing this approach has led to reduced risk and reduced stress, ensuring our cool new capabilities account for best practices in privacy and consent. We don't always agree at the outset but we bring examples and and experience to the discuss. We results is better than what we would have had working in a silo.

By capitalizing on their insights early in the project lifecycle and identifying the right engagement model, we can end up with a better product for the end user and from a compliance perspective avoiding a painful retrofitting development process. The integration of legal teams early in the planning process is not just beneficial—it is essential for creating sustainable capabilities in a increasingly regulatory-driven marketplace.

A project manager consulting with the legal team.