The $350 Billion Legal Lesson

In January 2000, America Online (AOL) and Time Warner announced a $350 billion merger-the largest in U.S. history at the time. The aim was to combine the fast-growing digital reach of AOL with Time Warner’s vast media empire. However, within just a few years, the merger unravelled, becoming a textbook example of corporate misalignment.

This failure highlights what happens when legal, strategic, and operational decisions are misaligned. In-house legal departments are now more than risk managers – they’re strategic partners in growth, M&A, compliance, and innovation.

At Draft n Craft, we support legal departments in achieving this alignment by providing: – Dedicated Remote Paralegals (DRPs) to take on day-to-day tasks – AptCaptive solutions that allow for secure, scalable legal process outsourcing – Legal workflow optimization, document review, IP, and compliance support – AI-powered efficiencies through LegAI

The Challenge

One of Draft n Craft’s clients, a mid-sized litigation firm (under NDA) based in NYC…, faced a similar challenge. Their legal team was bogged down with repetitive administrative work, taking time away from more strategic matters like client consultations and case preparation.

The result?

The firm significantly improved its overall efficiency — and reduced costs by 60% on routine legal tasks.

Here’s how it worked

In-house legal team was spending time and budget on 10 hours of routine tasks per week.

By switching to a Dedicated Remote Paralegal (DRP), the firm cut that cost by 60%.

The shift not only saved money but also freed up the in-house team to focus on more strategic legal work and focus on high-impact legal work like contract negotiations and complex legal analysis, while the DRPs handled the rest.

Smart Move: Let your in-house team focus on strategy. Offload the rest

The bottom line?

Avoid becoming the next corporate cautionary tale – partner with a team that knows how to support legal operations at scale.