Thomson Reuters and Acritas has released their first annual State of Corporate Legal Departments Report. Many of the themes echo discussions at last week’s Legal Tech conference in New York. Clients are king and law firms  are trying to catch up to shifting client expectations. The report analysed data from Thomson Reuters Legal Tracker, Acritas and the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium. One of the most interesting aspects of the report for me was the focus on collecting metrics.  The suggested list includes 21 data elements which are categorized as preventive, efficient, effective or review. These metrics signal the issues which should also be of importance to law firms.

The five goals mentioned most consistently are:

In House Counsel Goals 2018

Key take aways:

  • Satisfaction with outside counsel has increased by 9% over the past 5 years.
  • Budgets for in house legal work increased 10%
  • Budgets for outside legal work decreased 6%
  • Although 53% reduced their legal roster, 43% have grown their outside counsel roster..
Acritas Spectrum of Technology and Innovation

Here is the list of key recommended metrics:

Recommended in-house counsel metrics