2024 General Counsel Survey Report Findings: A Sneak Peek

In an industry typically regarded as slow to embrace change, today’s savvy GCs know it’s imperative to innovate and adapt quickly to help ensure their legal teams can succeed in 2024. Insights into the state of the in-house landscape are crucial to help GCs understand the national business and operational climate, innovations, and other options now at their disposal to help them make the right decisions for their teams and the organizations they serve.

To help, Axiom commissioned Wakefi­eld Research to conduct a national survey of 300 GCs to learn more about the state of their in-house teams; the challenges they face from budgetary, talent, technological, and operational perspectives; and how they’re coping and innovating to arrive at an optimal solution that meets their departments’ needs while also achieving their organizations’ goals.

The biggest and most concerning takeaway: GCs overwhelmingly report their teams lack resources across the board—the necessary budget, staffing, technology, expertise, and team structure—to accomplish their required tasks. Once again, they’re struggling to do more with less and face a succession of roadblocks—including budget cuts, staff burnout and turnover, long hiring cycles, a flood of new technologies and related regulations, and skyrocketing law firm rates—that hamper their ability to get things done.

The full signature research study will be published in April, but until then, download the infographic to preview what the researchers have found and make sure to sign up for our newsletter to be one of the first to read the study when it’s released.

Four Key Findings

Leading up to the full release of our 2024 General Counsel Survey Report this April, Axiom’s teaser brought to light several interesting trends and insights:

1. Economic Volatility is Still Restraining GC Strategies

Last year, our 2023 General Counsel Report highlighted the increasing role of GCs as the conscience of the company during times of economic volatility. The role of “conscience keeper” found GCs continuously at odds with mandated budget cuts amidst unhelpfully historic law firm rate increases.

Unfortunately, that economic volatility continues to be a significant challenge for GCs as we come to the end of 2024’s first quarter. As our teaser infographic illustrates, the top concerns of GCs now continue to include managing legal risks in an unstable economy and adapting to rapidly changing regulatory environments. Nearly all GCs (87%) today report concerns that their departments won’t be able to invest in the necessary talent and resources due to economic volatility this year, while last year, only 74% shared that they were experiencing increased tension between balancing the department’s budget and upholding the department's values.

2. In-House Teams are Still Stretched to the Limit

Last year, GCs reported that the fear of headcount freezes and the inability to invest in effective talent and resources compounded the increase in attrition nearly all (95%) had seen in their legal departments. What’s more, 68% asserted experiencing a negative impact on their team’s ability to do its job effectively.

This year, GCs shared that their fears had been realized with 81% reporting that they don’t have the necessary staffing resources in-house to do their jobs effectively and 100% noted it’s difficult for their legal departments to hire the right attorneys to address their needs.

For most GCs and their teams, the pressure is rising with no relief in sight, especially not as law firm rates continue to increase.

3. Law Firms Gain While GCs Lose

Despite media channels like Law.com and Thomson Reuters Institute reporting an increase in law firm rates over the past five years (some even skyrocketing as high as 8%), researchers found that 97% of GCs engaged a law firm to support their companies’ legal matters last year. What’s even more, GCs reported sending on average more than a quarter of their work to them due to a lack of in-house capacity or specialist expertise.

After some reflection, 100% of GCs agreed that some of that same work could have been done in-house if time and staffing bandwidth allowed. GCs believed the average amount of work outsourced to law firms was 39%, but time and staffing restrictions forced tough decisions to maximize what GCs had to work with. But what if there were clearer alternatives?

4. GCs Want More and Innovative Resourcing Options

Knowing they must do more with less, GCs are not satisfied with their resourcing options. The majority of GCs (89%) don’t view law firms as a completely effective solution for addressing their departments’ resourcing challenges. This feeling resonates with the sentiment legal leaders (42%) reported last year that law firms provide conceptual advice rather than the practical advice their departments need.

While outsourcing to external counsel is not ideal (strategically or financially), four-fifths of GCs stated hiring additional full-time lawyers is not an appropriate solution either. They noted that two factors keep them away: 1) it’s too difficult to find the right hire or 2) there’s still potential for turnover/hiring freezes in this volatile economy.

So, what’s a savvy GC to do?

In the full report, you’ll discover what your peers are considering, what they're doing, and how they’re innovating to remain nimble and effective. Learn how they’re achieving the agility they need and mitigating risk while working with incredibly tight budgets. Plus, see how they’re capitalizing on new approaches to evolve from having to do more with less to doing more for less.