Law Department Operations Survey

The Blickstein Group’s 2022 Survey Report, “Law Departments Under Stress – Are Legal Ops Professionals in a Position to Relieve the Pressure?”

With a potential economic downturn, headcount freezes, more regulatory work, and increasing globalization, law departments once again are hearing that they will need to do more with less, and their legal operations professionals are focusing in on budgets and cost containment measures.

Major, Lindsey & Africa proudly sponsored The Blickstein Group’s 2022 Survey Report “Law Departments Under Stress – Are Legal Ops Professionals in a Position to Relieve the Pressure?” where these concerns are front and center. Two out of three respondents said they are actively trying to cut costs by bringing more work in-house. 

The report overall sheds light on the current state of law department management and where time and money are allocated. Some other highlights include:

• Outside Counsel Management— Most respondents have experienced rate increases over the last year, and most are expecting even higher rates in the next year.
• Outside Counsel Selection—Fewer than half of respondents (47.4%) have no formal process and allow individual attorney discretion for most hiring of outside counsel.
• Use of Technology— When asked how effective different technologies are on a scale from 1 to 10, the effectiveness of document/contract assembly tumbled nearly a full point this year, earning a 5.5 in 2022 compared to 6.4 in 2021.
• Technology Roadmap— 48% of respondents have a plan to develop a law department technology or multiyear road map which addresses how they integrate, evolve and replace their systems to support the law department’s processes and needs.