Top Contract Challenges for In-House Legal Teams and How to Solve Them

In-house legal teams sit at the intersection of compliance, governance, and business growth. Their role has expanded far beyond risk mitigation—today, they’re expected to act as strategic partners who enable deals and accelerate outcomes. Yet the reality is that contracts remain a constant source of friction. Manual review, inconsistent processes, and growing workloads slow legal teams down at the very moment when speed matters most.

Traditional approaches, relying on line-by-line review or institutional memory, aren’t enough to keep pace with the demands of modern business. That’s where contract intelligence comes in.

By turning contracts into structured, decision-ready data, legal teams can eliminate bottlenecks, reduce risk, and become the enablers of business growth rather than the perceived blockers.

Key Contract Challenges for In-House Legal Teams

1. Overwhelming Contract Volume

One of the most cited legal team contract issues is the sheer volume of contracts. From NDAs and SaaS agreements to procurement contracts and customer terms, the workload is relentless. As companies scale, this volume grows exponentially, straining already lean legal teams. Manual review processes make it nearly impossible to keep up without causing delays or missing risks.

Solution: With TermScout, contracts become structured data rather than static documents. Instead of parsing every clause manually, legal teams can instantly surface deviations, flag high-risk agreements, and prioritize review where it matters most. This creates capacity without adding headcount.

2. Lack of Market Benchmarking

Without objective benchmarks, in-house lawyers are left to guess whether their company’s terms are competitive or risky outliers. This uncertainty often prolongs negotiations, fuels internal disagreements, and leaves businesses exposed.

Solution: TermScout’s Predict™ platform benchmarks contract terms against thousands of real-world agreements. With independent data, legal teams gain clarity and confidence to set defensible standards. This reduces back-and-forth, speeds approvals, and ensures alignment with the market.

3. Slow Contract Turnaround Times

Few things frustrate business stakeholders more than waiting weeks for a contract to be “reviewed.” Sales blames Legal for slowing deals, Procurement feels blocked on vendor onboarding, and Finance struggles with forecasting delays. The bottleneck perception creates real tension across departments.

Solution: TermScout accelerates contract turnaround with AI-powered insights. By highlighting deviations, scoring favorability, and providing independent certification, legal teams can move approvals forward in days instead of weeks. Certify™ adds a trusted, third-party badge that eliminates the need for repetitive reviews—buyers, sellers, and internal teams alike can trust the terms are market-ready.

4. Resource Constraints

Most in-house legal departments operate with limited headcount and rising demands. Every hour spent buried in repetitive review is time not spent on strategy, governance, or high-value projects. The result is burnout and missed opportunities for impact.

Solution: By automating routine contract analysis, TermScout frees up legal teams to focus where their judgment is irreplaceable. The platform identifies risks, extracts key data, and benchmarks terms, leaving lawyers to apply strategy and nuance instead of spending hours in the weeds.

5. Managing Risk Without Slowing Deals

The biggest balancing act in-house counsel faces is protecting the company while enabling revenue. Being too cautious can stall deals; being too lenient can open the door to unacceptable risks. This tension is one of the most persistent in-house legal contract challenges, and it is why effective contract risk management is central to every decision.

Solution: Independent certification changes the equation. With Certify™, contracts carry a fairness badge backed by market data. This allows legal teams to approve deals with confidence while giving business stakeholders the speed they need.

6. Inconsistent Approaches Across the Team

Different lawyers often interpret or prioritize risks differently. This inconsistency frustrates business units, creates confusion for counterparties, and erodes trust in Legal’s role as a reliable business partner.

Solution: TermScout standardizes analysis with consistent scoring and deviation reporting. Every contract is measured against the same benchmarks, ensuring consistent guidance across the team and building confidence both internally and externally.

How TermScout Helps In-House Legal Teams Manage Contract Risk Management

Solving contract challenges legal teams face isn’t about working harder; it’s about working smarter. TermScout empowers in-house counsel with:

• AI-powered analytics that extract insights instantly
• Market benchmarking across thousands of contracts
• Risk and favorability scoring to support smarter contract risk management and focus analysis on what matters
• Independent certification that accelerates deals and builds trust

By shifting from manual review to data-driven intelligence, legal teams can reduce review time, increase predictability, and elevate their role as strategic advisors to the business.

The Future of In-House Legal

Contracts will only grow in volume and complexity, widening the gap between manual processes and business demands. The in-house teams that thrive will be those that embrace contract intelligence to:

• Scale efficiently without expanding headcount
• Base decisions on data, not anecdote
• Strengthen trust with Sales, Procurement, and Finance by enabling speed
• Reduce exposure through independent verification, certification, and proactive contract risk management

With platforms like TermScout, legal teams aren’t just managing contracts; they’re transforming them into assets that accelerate business growth.

Final Thoughts

The top key challenges for in-house legal teams, from overwhelming volume to resource constraints—don’t disappear with harder work. They require smarter tools. By adopting contract intelligence through Certify™, Predict™, and TermScout’s Legal Team Solutions, in-house lawyers can reduce friction, manage risk, and support the business with greater impact.

Get your contracts analyzed with TermScout and see how your team can solve challenges faster and with confidence.

Spencer Lasley

VP of Client Experience

Spencer helps enterprise teams accelerate revenue and customer success through strategic, data-driven solutions—backed by 10+ years of experience.