Managing risk while prioritising large volumes of work are the biggest challenges currently facing in-house legal teams, according to sector research published this week.

LOD, a freelance lawyer service, and legal technology specialist SYKE conducted a global survey of 169 legal, risk and compliance professionals. Over a fifth are based in the UK. 

Ensuring risk is appropriately managed was the top strategic challenge for more than two-thirds of the in-house leaders who responded, closely followed by prioritising large volumes of work. Providing career development and training opportunities, and structuring workloads so the right type of work goes to the right people were the biggest management challenges.

For in-house professionals in the UK and Europe, dealing with the volume of work and determining what is important was the biggest challenge, followed by ensuring risk is appropriately managed, dealing with unprecedented and novel issues, and trying not to buy into other people’s priorities.

Asked how much the wider organisation values the legal function, 45% of in-house leaders and 39% of in-house professionals said they were highly valued.

One UK-based group general counsel said the business valued the team’s strategic and commercial advice as much as its legal advice. However, in-house counsel at a mining and materials firm in Europe said a lack of understanding of the legal function held it back from being highly valued.

The report highlights the importance of using data to demonstrate the legal team’s value – in-house leaders who strongly agreed that they were using data to boost their value said their legal function was highly valued.

The report says: ‘Be able to demonstrate the effectiveness of the legal function. Whether it’s via a dashboard of metrics or a written report, you should be able to clearly communicate the vital work of your team. This needs to be understood not just by the board, but also by the senior managers across the business.’

The report also suggests implementing protocols for how the business interacts with the legal function. ‘Good processes will reduce waste, enhance speed, and better manage the expectations of your business colleagues. Clear protocols (sometimes referred to as SLAs or charters) will not only help the business stakeholders. Don’t be afraid to get in external partners to help establish department playbooks and streamline workflows.’

On what is causing work volumes to rise, Simon Harper, founder of LOD, told the Gazette that from LOD's conversations with in-house teams in the UK, 'it’s clear that there is tension between tightening legal budgets and increasing workloads, in many cases caused by the rapidly evolving regulatory environment'.

 

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