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Are in-house teams ‘fit for purpose’ moving forward?
New research from the UK casts doubt on the capacity of in-house legal departments to function and succeed five years from now and beyond.
Jerome Doraisamy
Source: facebook.com/pg/IrwinMitchellSolicitors/photos/?ref=page_internal
According to UK-based law firm Irwin Mitchell, which carried out research via The Thriving Company, the majority of in-house legal teams only feel “fit for purpose” for the next five years with regards to their team’s values (64 per cent) and the team’s level of empowerment and autonomy (51 per cent).
Out of 16 areas surveyed, the only areas where the majority of participants felt ready were their legal team’s values and their team’s level of empowerment and autonomy.
Teams felt least ready in relation to the use of technology in the legal team (4 per cent), processes within the legal team (6 per cent), team structure (13 per cent), KPIs (13 per cent), succession planning (15 per cent) and skill set (16 per cent).
When asked which areas their in-house legal team most needed to improve in order to meet the challenges of 2025, the firm noted, respondents again highlighted technology, process and succession planning as the areas of significant concern.
The economy will have a “major impact on their organisation in the next five years”, the firm continued, saying that respondents were “mainly concerned about how economic uncertainty might affect the type of work their teams are doing, and the mix of skill sets required within their team”.
“Technology such as automation, big data, and artificial intelligence will be hugely influential on their organisations between now and 2025. Again, legal teams were most interested in the impact this would have on the skill sets required within the in-house legal team,” the firm said in a statement.
Commenting on the report, Irwin Mitchell partner and head of commercial Stuart Padgham said: “We commissioned this research to help us get a better understanding of both the challenges facing in-house teams and the methods that they are using to tackle them.”
“This report highlights that the difference in the challenges faced by teams [is] considerable. However, the common theme is that there is an expectation that technology will solve many of the problems created by an ever more complex working environment, but of equal importance is the need to develop the business skills and operating model of in-house teams so that they can deliver the services that their businesses require.”
Jerome Doraisamy
Jerome Doraisamy is the editor of Lawyers Weekly. A former lawyer, he has worked at Momentum Media as a journalist on Lawyers Weekly since February 2018, and has served as editor since March 2022. He is also the host of all five shows under The Lawyers Weekly Podcast Network, and has overseen the brand's audio medium growth from 4,000 downloads per month to over 60,000 downloads per month, making The Lawyers Weekly Show the most popular industry-specific podcast in Australia. Jerome is also the author of The Wellness Doctrines book series, an admitted solicitor in NSW, and a board director of Minds Count.
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