With the new administration in place, today’s in-house legal teams are facing a perfect storm. In-house legal teams are contending with an increasingly complex web of regulatory uncertainty and risk. According to a 2023 report by FTI Consulting, 23% of respondents identified regulatory or compliance issues as a top concern—underscoring the serious financial and reputational damage that can result from even a minor misstep.

Adding to the pressure, many legal departments are under-resourced. A Harbor Law Department Survey released in December 2024 found that while 64% of departments expanded between 2022 and 2023, more than half anticipated no further headcount increases.

Meanwhile, legal teams are responsible for managing litigation and disputes as litigation volumes continue to rise. Forty-four percent of chief legal officers (CLOs) report increased litigation volume while legal costs continue to escalate.

The stakes are incredibly high for multinational corporations. The globalization of business means legal teams must coordinate activities across jurisdictions, navigate diverse legal frameworks, and manage multilingual workflows. Combining all this means operational efficiency must now be a top priority for legal teams and CLOs, especially when it comes to IP and translation workflows.

Legal operations teams require services powered by advanced technology and specialized expertise to address IP and translation-related challenges in a multinational context. This is where Welocalize and Legal Studio can make a big difference, helping organizations streamline multilingual workflows and reduce regulatory and compliance risks.

Centralized Management of Translation Workflows

Fragmented translation workflows hinder many large, global organizations. Typically, various departments and working groups within an organization will use a variety of tools to complete the broad range of tasks essential to the organization’s overall protection of IP rights. Legal organizations that depend on a patchwork of tools and workflows are much more likely to make mistakes, miss deadlines, struggle to complete patent filings on time, and, ultimately, fail to assert IP rights effectively. These problems can also distract legal teams from what should be their primary focus: legal strategy.

CLOs and their legal operations teams can provide strategic value—and become key drivers of overall business success—by deploying advanced solutions like Welocalize’s Legal Studio, which streamlines translation workflows and simplifies filings across multiple jurisdictions, managing all requests through a single interface. A centralized dashboard provides a clear overview of key performance metrics—such as turnaround time, cost savings, and efficiency gains in multilingual projects—at both the individual project level and across multiple projects.

Legal Studio is technology-agnostic, meaning clients can integrate it with existing tools while benefiting from Welocalize’s advanced, AI-powered translation solutions. This enables teams to work faster and smarter without sacrificing quality. 

Here’s proof that it works: The legal department of a global oilfield services company recently integrated Legal Studio into its patent filing and legal translation workflows, saving an estimated $150K annually through automation and streamlined operations. Previously hindered by fragmented workflows, inconsistent quality, and unpredictable spend, the client partnered with Welocalize to implement standardized translator selection, automated quality controls, and integrated communications. They were able to develop a seamless, scalable translation solution in less than 90 days, eliminating duplicate invoicing, enhancing transparency, and enabling over 2,500 translations annually—without missing a single deadline.

Ensuring Regulatory Compliance

Regulatory oversight is tightening, particularly concerning AI governance and evolving labor law mandates. Using appropriate technology to proactively mitigate risk and coordinate cross-border legal workflows is essential to navigate this evolving landscape successfully.

Welocalize empowers organizations to manage and track global patent filings through a single, centralized platform, simplifying the tangled multi-jurisdictional workflows that often envelope global filing processes. Its fully managed patent filing workflow—from translation to final submission—ensures accuracy and efficiency. Clients can initiate applications via a secure portal, system integration, or direct engagement, after which expert patent linguists are assigned. Welocalize ensures accuracy and consistency in documents by blending expert human review with advanced translation tools, reducing risks like numerical errors and regulatory inconsistencies.

Welocalize also offers comprehensive translation and compliance services, ensuring compliance with legal regulations across multilingual markets without relying on separate localization partners. With expertise in global legal content, Welocalize handles all translation and compliance needs, from patent filings to document preparation, offering a trusted solution for businesses navigating complex legal requirements.

These services help companies meet internal validation rules and comply with global regulations, making Welocalize a reliable partner for legal and patent-related documentation. Welocalize also acts as a trusted translation partner focused on the nuanced requirements of legal content, ranging from patent filings and contracts to HR policies and regulatory documents. This is especially important as companies expand into multilingual markets to ensure accuracy, cultural relevance, and adherence to local regulations.

What further sets Welocalize apart is its ISO-certified methodology and a hybrid approach that integrates AI-driven tools with human oversight. This combination enables scalable, high-precision translations while mitigating the risks associated with machine-only solutions. For example, translating an HR handbook for multiple regions involves language accuracy and compliance with local labor laws and internal corporate guidelines—something Welocalize is uniquely equipped to manage.

Safeguarding IP and Prioritizing Security

Increasingly, global organizations are at risk from cyber-attacks and threats to data privacy from across the globe. Information security is critical when dealing with IP filings and rights. IP filings contain sensitive information, including trade secrets, patent details, and proprietary innovations. Unauthorized access can lead to theft or misuse of valuable assets. Many jurisdictions have strict regulations regarding the handling of sensitive business information. Non-compliance can lead to legal repercussions, fines, or loss of IP rights.

With this in mind, Welocalize holds seven ISO certifications and, for over a dozen years, has held a certification for data security and confidentiality. Clients can use Legal Studio as a platform to streamline multilingual workflows while reducing legal risk, knowing that their data is kept secure and confidential.

In the high-stakes legal translation world, Welocalize is a trusted partner. From safeguarding data privacy to managing complex IP issues, Welocalize facilitates streamlined workflows while rigorously maintaining regulatory adherence. Businesses operating in demanding legal environments rely on Welocalize to deliver precise and compliant translations, meeting global and local obligations with unwavering reliability.

Enhancing Legal Ops: Driving Value and Safely Leveraging AI

Importantly, CLOs and legal operations teams can play a pivotal role in balancing innovation and risk when implementing new technology, particularly in optimizing the complex workflows of international IP protection and filing.

However, CLOs and legal operations teams must prioritize AI-powered automation solutions like Welocalize to maximize impact and maintain operational integrity. By centralizing intake, automating daily tasks, reducing risk, tracking performance, and improving efficiency at every step, Welocalize enables legal ops teams to demonstrate tangible value across the organization.

Effective adoption of AI tools also requires vigilance. For example, while some might understandably confuse machine translation and AI, they are distinct tools. Traditional machine translation relies on static rules, statistics, and outdated large language models. Welocalize, however, strategically deploys AI to enhance translation while leveraging local human resources and expertise to ensure efficient and accurate translations.

In an era of escalating regulatory complexity and multilingual demands, optimizing legal operations is no longer optional—it’s essential. By leveraging streamlined translation workflows, overcoming regulatory and compliance constraints, protecting IP, and prioritizing security, all while leveraging AI-driven tools, Welocalize enhances efficiency, reduces risk, and drives measurable value every step of the way. For CLOs and legal operations leaders, leveraging AI-powered automation is no longer a luxury—it’s a strategic imperative to safeguard compliance, optimize legal spend, and enhance cross-border legal workflows.

Welocalize | Park IP

Welocalize | Park IP is a recognized industry leader in centralized foreign filing, providing foreign language and technology solutions for patent filing, prosecution, cross-border litigation support, and e-discovery. Am Law 200 firms and Fortune 500 corporate legal teams trust our multilingual services to protect intellectual property in key international jurisdictions.

We deliver translation filing and language solutions that meet stringent quality standards through a network of technical subject matter experts, certified native linguists, and specialized legal interpreters underpinned by seven ISO certifications. Our operations ensure efficiency and leveraged savings at a global scale, speed, and value. Our proven track record showcases tangible business outcomes, including intellectual property protection, regulatory compliance, increased client satisfaction and retention, and improved data with enhanced models.