Spare a thought for in-house lawyers; their job is not as ‘easy’ as some think
The workload for in-house lawyers is set to increase as businesses strive to reduce costs.
The job of a lawyer in the corporate world is highly complex; they often juggle multiple tasks.
A running joke with some in-house lawyers is that they are always at someone’s beck and call despite a large portion having opted for an in-house role over private practice for the ‘work-life balance’.
However, given that most General Counsels (GCs) report to boards composed of business-focused individuals rather than trained lawyers, it is not surprising why tasks deemed risky are often assigned to the legal department.
From handling inquiries over contracts to providing risk advice on business strategy, in-house legal teams are now increasingly trying to balance the legal spend on external law firms as litigation increases.
“We wear all sorts of hats,” Adele Falconer, General Counsel EMEA Christie’s, told an audience at the LIDW conference on Tuesday.
Depending on the company they work for, the legal team can differ in size – for example, Barclays has over 450 lawyers in the UK, while Google DeepMind’s legal team is comprised of 65 people. For smaller businesses, some lawyers may be on their own.
Push towards Tech
As businesses face financial burdens, it is forcing boards to reassess their legal strategies, and the pressure is being placed on GCs to cut external costs and take on more work.
Jas Sandhu Dade, General Manager for Corporate Europe at Thomson Reuters, told City AM that nearly one-third of UK-based legal departments plan for their legal spending to decline in 2025.
The workload will increase for legal departments, a point that is well known, as 44 per cent of in-house lawyers told Thomson Reuters that they expect their workload to rise this year.
Sandhu Dade also highlighted that 68 per cent of GCs told the researchers that their role is becoming more strategically important to the business.
This means GCs at organisations are now increasingly looking at whether their teams are fit for purpose.
However, some may not have the budget to hire more lawyers; “many are looking at other ways to build capacity, like using alternative legal services providers or adopting new technology to work more efficiently,” Sandhu Dade explained.
This means GCs have to add a new hat to their collection, figuring out which tech and AI products are the best for their company to invest in.
There is genuine interest, but also caution, around Gen AI. Sandhu Dade explained that 41 per cent of in-house lawyers say they’re excited about the time it could free up to focus on strategic tasks, but 46 per cent still say their adoption is at a very early stage.
Many of these lawyers chose an in-house role over private practice due to the thoughts of ‘work-life balance’, ‘no revenue targets’ and ‘no business development’.
However, these lawyers are facing their own issues, such as “how many plates can I spin at once?” as their role fluctuates between those of lawyer, risk manager, bookkeeper, and adviser.
Eyes on the Law is a weekly column by Maria Ward-Brennan focused on the legal sector.