The COVID-19 pandemic has had a detrimental impact on legal departments, whose organizations have seen revenue decline as new legal challenges have continued to emerge, according to a new survey.
According to Altman Weil's Chief Legal Officer survey, in the fall of 2020, 66% of respondents said their organization's revenues had decreased, while 77% said their legal workload had increased. Employees were laid off in 11% of the legal departments surveyed.
The report also shows that more departments now have legal operations managers – 50% of respondents said they had a professional administrator in 2020 and 46% said they had one in 2019.
In one [n Interview with Law360Altman Weil's James Wilber said there were no reported layoffs in legal positions focused on cost savings:
To me, this shows wisdom on behalf of the Chief Legal Officers who have recognized that these people are paying more than just for themselves and they can help us find ways to get rid of waste, maybe get better value or that Lower costs through outside lawyers, better leverage of technology. ”
While legal operations may play an increasing role in the legal departments, the subject's signature benchmarking study will be released in the coming weeks.
The company survey of the legal department 2020 of the Blickstein Group will be presented on December 8th in a "virtual summit", which gives a small insight into the results.
With Brad Blickstein and “Godfather of Legal Operations” David Cambria, challenges related to pandemic, compensation and KPIs, artificial intelligence, the impact of the Big 4 and more will be discussed.
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Chief Legal Officer survey 2020 [Altman Weil]CLOs see less sales, more work if the virus persists [Law 360]
2020 Legal Department Survey Survey [Above the law]
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