In-House lawyers shift from risk mitigators to strategic advisors over lockdown

• DLA Piper survey finds that 66% of in-house lawyer now consider their role to be more strategic than before the pandemic when only 41% felt this was the case
• Collaborative technologies have been particularly valuable during the crisis and should play a bigger role in delivering legal services in the future
• Majority of in-house lawyers foresee a decrease in both internal and external legal budgets in the immediate future

DLA Piper has published its first WIN (What In-house lawyers Need) Insights Report which has surveyed over 200 in-house respondents on a range of issues but in particular on how the pandemic has impacted on their roles and the businesses that they work for.

As is widely accepted now, few respondents expect to return to business as usual once everyone returns to the office following the pandemic and there have been some interesting shifts in the work carried out by in-house teams since it struck. One of the most striking findings was that before the pandemic, 41% of respondents considered their in-house legal function to be a business advisor, while 57% felt their team was largely focused on risk mitigation and compliance. Now, however, 66% see their role as more strategic and advisory with only 31% continuing to view it as largely compliance-focused. It is also believed that the pandemic is likely to accelerate the trend towards legal leadership having a seat in the boardroom and a voice at the highest levels of leadership.

However, amongst the positive signs of a shift towards a more strategic role there are also accompanying concerns over what the future might look like. Increased pressure on budgets are expected with most respondents expecting a decrease in both internal and external legal budgets in the immediate future, with 43% expecting internal spend to fall and 52% expect external spend to fall. With reduced budgets imminent, the pandemic has increased the need for external legal advisors to offer better and more innovative pricing, better service delivery, more commercial understanding and more tech solutions.

As strategic priorities change, budgetary pressures increase and working arrangements evolve, in-house teams realise that now, more than ever, developing relationships is key to securing their future. This is clearly made more difficult when working remotely, with 56% of respondents rating managing key internal relationships as one of their biggest challenges in the current environment with the same number (56%) rating strong personal relationships as the factor that most helped their team thrive during the pandemic.

So it’s no surprise that respondents value collaboration tools most when it comes to the tech that’s helped whilst remote working, with 80% expecting the speed of technology adoption to increase to help them achieve something akin to in-person human interaction, rather than focusing purely on efficiency, as has traditionally been the case in legal innovation.

For a full copy of the report please download here.

Andrew Darwin, Global Co-Chairman of DLA Piper said: “Since the global pandemic began, many in-house legal teams’ priorities and working practices have changed. It is encouraging to see a shift towards a more strategic and advisory role, which is hoped will continue as we all return to normality. However, with fewer resources, teams are under pressure to deliver more for less. How to build and maintain internal and external relationships in the virtual world has become much more of a focus along with the prioritization of health and wellbeing of team members.”