{"id":37978,"date":"2016-02-16T00:00:05","date_gmt":"2016-02-16T00:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.consilio.com\/2016\/02\/evolving-regulatory-requirements-pose-the-biggest-challenge-for-law-departments-in-2016-consilio-survey-finds\/"},"modified":"2021-06-20T10:18:20","modified_gmt":"2021-06-20T14:18:20","slug":"evolving-regulatory-requirements-pose-the-biggest-challenge-for-law-departments-in-2016-consilio-survey-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jp.consilio.com\/evolving-regulatory-requirements-pose-the-biggest-challenge-for-law-departments-in-2016-consilio-survey-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"Evolving Regulatory Requirements Pose the Biggest Challenge for Law Departments in 2016, Consilio Survey Finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Washington D.C. \u2013 February 16, 2016 \u2013 According to Consilio\u2019s Law Department Benchmarking Report, which was released today, over 50 percent of law departments find that increasing or changing regulatory requirements pose the biggest challenge in 2016. The sixth annual survey aims to help general counsel (GCs) better understand the effectiveness of their operating processes and was conducted in partnership with The General Counsel Forum.<\/p>\n

Managing Internal and External Information Risk <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Many of the regulatory issues companies currently face relate to data privacy and cybersecurity concerns. While 58 percent of law departments have an internal data-privacy program, just 21 percent take the same precautions with information shared externally when managing vendors, according to a survey by Consilio. The lack of risk-assessment programs makes sensitive data vulnerable to hacking and other cyber threats<\/p>\n

\u201cAs security concerns become more commonplace, law departments are working to ensure proper data security measures are implemented to protect sensitive company information both internally and externally,\u201d said Bret Baccus, managing director, Consilio. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing more companies use objective, metrics-based measurements to assess outside counsel and other providers\u2019 security capabilities. Those metrics are being used to select third-party vendors based on the risk level in sharing confidential information and data.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, companies in all industries cited increasing or changing regulation as one of their top three concerns for the year ahead, and over 60 percent of technology and healthcare respondents cited data privacy and information security challenges as a top concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not surprising that today\u2019s evolving regulatory environment was cited as the biggest challenge for law departments in the year ahead,\u201d said Laurie Fischer, managing director, Consilio. \u201cEspecially in light of ongoing changes to the European Union’s increasingly tough privacy regulations, this is an area that will continue to impact spending for corporate law departments whose companies have a presence outside the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n

Running the Law Department as a Business<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Another highlight of Consilio\u2019s survey supports the trend that more law departments are running internal operations as a business unit, with larger companies employing a dedicated law department operations manager who guides operational, financial, technical, and process support.<\/p>\n

According to Consilio\u2019s survey, 89 percent of companies with over $10 billion in revenue reported employing a dedicated law department operations manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe position of operations director continues to evolve to a true executive level position in law departments across all industries,\u201d said Baccus. \u201cOperations directors are guiding spending decisions, interacting with senior-level executives in other internal functions, and relieving operational oversight responsibilities from the general counsel, allowing them to focus on practicing law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spend Management Still Remains Top of Mind <\/strong><\/h2>\n

The survey also found that law departments are still focused on managing budget and operations:<\/p>\n