What is The Other Side of Legal?
The Legal function inside organizations is under pressure, and the solutions most reach for (more tools & AI, more capacity, more process), rarely fix what's actually broken.
The real issues run deeper.
Research consistently confirms it: most AI and technology implementations inside organizations fail to deliver measurable results. Not because the technology is wrong, but because the foundation isn't ready:
Processes that aren't clear;
Collaboration that breaks down;
People who aren't bought in;
Change that doesn't stick.
These problems show up in every sector, in every type of organization. And they keep showing up because most approaches treat the symptom, not the cause.
The Other Side of Legal works differently.
It starts with understanding what's actually going on. Then it builds from there, combining elements of Legal Operations, Change Management, Lean, Legal Design and Emotional Intelligence into one practical approach that addresses the real issues.
The result is lasting progress.
This method wasn't built in a classroom. It was built over nearly two decades of working inside organizations such as:
Transavia.com / KPMG Meijburg / Bol.com / Bynder / Erasmus MC / UMCG
Who developed the method?
I'm Maaike Chanowski, a legal professional by training.
I started my career in 2008, and quickly realized there was a gap between the expertise I had to offer and the practical solutions the organization needed. That harsh realization made me pivot from the start.
Over nearly two decades, I looked for ways to bridge that gap. I knew what it felt like to be cast as a deal blocker, but I also came to see that we genuinely lacked the skills to address what the organization actually needed.
So I started looking for ways to change that.
From visualizing complex legal matters to building processes from scratch, from setting up legal departments to strategy, policy and what I now know is called change management.
Legal design didn't exist yet and Lean wasn't on my radar. I was simply doing what the situation required.
I found ways to make legal approachable and in doing so, my own work became easier too, and so did the work of the legal professionals around me.
That pattern is what The Other Side of Legal is built on. Not a methodology I studied, but seeing what breaks, understanding why, and figuring out what truly fixes it.
