{"id":169541,"date":"2021-11-15T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-15T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/icrowdnewswire.com\/?p=2952013"},"modified":"2021-11-15T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-11-15T14:00:00","slug":"study-71-of-financial-services-firms-value-legal-departments-more-as-a-result-of-the-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2021\/11\/15\/study-71-of-financial-services-firms-value-legal-departments-more-as-a-result-of-the-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Study: 71% of Financial Services Firms Value Legal Departments More as a Result of the Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

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For the First Time in Many Years Controlling Legal Costs Rather than Simply Reducing them is the Top Legal Spend Priority <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

London, UK \u2013 November 15, 2021 \u2013 <\/strong>Legal departments in financial services are emerging from the pandemic with greater recognition of the value they deliver to the business, according to a new report titled The Legal Spend Landscape for 2022<\/a>. More specifically, the survey found seven in 10 respondents (71%) say the legal team is \u201cmore valued\u201d (38%) or \u201cmuch more valued\u201d (33%) in the wake of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just the lawyers saying as much either. Finance leaders, such as chief financial officers (CFOs), were even more generous \u2013 40% said the law department was \u201cmuch more valued\u201d \u2013 compared with just 29% of respondents holding titles such as general counsel (GC) and chief legal officer (CLO).<\/p>\n

\u201cThat the in-house team is more valued, not just by their own standards, but also by their peers in finance, speaks volumes to the legal department\u2019s role in helping financial services firms navigate risk in an uncertain landscape,\u201d said Apperio Founder and CEO Nicholas d\u2019Adhemar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The survey, commissioned by Apperio and conducted by an independent research firm, polled 300 senior legal and finance leaders in financial services who are responsible for legal spend. This is because legal and finance teams tend to have a unique relationship in the financial services sector.<\/p>\n

Overall, 59% of respondents said they were the<\/em> decision-maker around legal spend, while 41% were part of a team of decision-makers. The survey polled financial services firms in the US (67%) and UK (33%). The average respondent worked at an organization with 22 in-house lawyers and $14.28 million in annual outside legal counsel spending.<\/p>\n

Workload, headcount and legal costs grow too<\/strong><\/p>\n

Appreciation for the in-house legal team wasn\u2019t the only area that increased. Respondents reported the legal workload (70%), legal department headcount (66%) and overall legal costs (67%) have all grown over the last three years. One in four respondents say each area has \u201cincreased significantly\u201d which was quantified as growth of greater than 20%.<\/p>\n

When asked about legal spend priorities for the next year, controlling costs (60%) and better leveraging data to make decisions (55%) were at the top of the list. Interestingly, reducing internal legal costs (17%) and reducing outside legal costs\u00a0\u00a0 (14%) ranked at the bottom.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the first time in many years, reducing spend is not the top priority for legal departments, but rather there is a strong desire to have better visibility and control of spend,\u201d noted d\u2019Adhemar. \u201cGCs and CFOs alike are willing to pay for good counsel, but they want to be in full command of that spend \u2013 that means they can\u2019t wait for an invoice to inform them how much work has been carried out or how costs have accrued.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other key findings in the study included the following:<\/p>\n