25 According to a recent survey of General Counsel by Nishlis, the evolving legal landscape has impacted the role of in-house counsel in many ways. Regulatory change, compliance, data protection and global and/or geopolitical uncertainty were among issues worrying GCs. Factors like increasing business complexity, growing regulatory scrutiny, and the changing needs from external legal counsel have indeed led to an expansion of in-house legal departments, and is also altering what they need from external counsel and how they need it. As showcased in the Nishlis annual GC survey, GCs are focusing their work with fewer law firms than in the past, with today 41% hiring 3-5 law firms. More work is done in-house due to tighter budgets and a concentration of work. The volume of legal work sent to law firms has held up well, however, more work (25%) has remained in-house. GCs have recently preferred to handle regulatory and real estate work in-house, where possible, but are somewhat more likely to require external counsel on employment and IP issues, especially with the rising importance of data protection and privacy. Litigation is out in front as the type of legal work most likely to be outsourced to private practice firms, but M&A also remains very high on the list of work outsourced, as well as tax and intellectual property law, as companies look to protect their bottom lines and IP assets. Much of this is backed by The General Counsel Report 2023, which examines the risks keeping general counsel up at night – which include compliance, regulation and technology “modernization,” while concerns relating to employment issues and data privacy and security remained somewhat steady. 60% of respondents in this survey witnessed an increase in new regulations that require policy refreshes and additional headcount; 47% experienced more contract management demands; 33% noted a rise in M&A activity; 30% reported increases in privacy violations and notifications; and 27% mentioned increases in class action litigation. ESG matters were more common this year than in any of the prior years of The General Counsel Report. In fact, 60% of the participating general counsel Impacts of the evolving legal landscape on General Counsel By Idan Nishlis
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