The moment Slack went down, businesses worldwide found themselves at a standstill. Customer service teams lost their lifeline. Sales teams stalled. Legal teams—well, let’s just say some contracts and compliance reports had an unexpected delay.
But this outage wasn’t really about Slack. It was about how fragile business operations have become when a single tool suddenly disappears.
I’ve seen this before. A company I worked with relied on one SaaS vendor for all internal and external communication. It worked seamlessly—until the day it didn’t. A few hours of downtime triggered:
- Unanswered customer inquiries and mounting frustration
- Stalled sales deals because key data was suddenly inaccessible
- A compliance reporting delay that risked regulatory consequences
The aftermath? Chaos. Clients demanding answers. And a sobering realization: why didn’t we have a backup plan?
When Legal Teams Overlook Resilience, Business Risks Multiply
For legal teams, SaaS outages aren’t just an inconvenience. They introduce real risks to business continuity, compliance, and even contractual obligations. Every in-house legal team should be asking:
- What happens when our essential tools fail?
- Do we have contractual protections in place?
- Are our teams trained to navigate these disruptions?
Three Lessons Every Legal Team Should Take from This Outage
- Redundancy is a business imperative. Legal teams should evaluate and advocate for backup communication channels—whether it’s email, an alternative platform, or even phone calls. When systems fail, there should be a seamless transition to another method of communication and collaboration.
- Product counsel must be at the table from day one. In-house legal teams are not just contract reviewers; they are strategic risk mitigators. When selecting SaaS vendors, legal should lead discussions on reliability, service-level agreements, contractual protections, and contingency planning.
- Training and preparedness matter. A business continuity plan is only as strong as its execution. If an outage leaves teams asking, now what?, that’s a serious problem. Legal should ensure disaster preparedness is embedded in company culture—not just an afterthought.
Future-Proofing Legal and Business Operations
SaaS tools are essential to modern business and legal operations, but they are not infallible. Forward-thinking legal teams must integrate resilience into their technology strategy, ensuring that they are prepared for disruptions before they happen.
When the next outage occurs—and it will—businesses that have planned ahead won’t be caught off guard. For more, check out my video on LinkedIn.
