Spotlight
2025 General Counsel Survey Report
As corporate legal functions expand each year to support organizational demands, general counsel face the challenge of managing risk at an unparallel pace. From handling disputes and investigations volumes and regulatory issues, to addressing data protection and AI opportunities, chief legal officers are strategically positioning themselves as protector of the business. It is a defensive mindset both inherited and adopted by legal department leaders globally to further assert their role into data guardians in-chief.
In a joint effort by FTI Technology and Relativity, The General Counsel Report is an annual global study of in-house legal department trends, challenges and best practices for 2025. Chief legal officers from a range of industries were interviewed and surveyed about their roles.
Who Was Interviewed for this Survey?
In July and August 2024, Ari Kaplan personally interviewed 34 leaders serving as the general counsel or chief legal officer of their organizations. Sixty-five percent have a role with global responsibilities and 63% work in organizations with more than $500 million in annual revenue.
Separately, in September 2024, Censuswide conducted a quantitative survey of 207 general counsel and chief legal officers at organizations with more than $100 million in annual revenue and more than 1,000 employees in South America, North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.
Respondent Region
47%
21%
18%
15%
Respondent Industry Type
Interactive Self Survey
Question 1/10
What are your primary legal risks?
- Data privacy
- Information/data governance
- Environmental, social and governance (ESG)
- Regulatory compliance
- Increased number of disputes/investigations
- Increased data volumes impacting e-discovery and other workflows
- Implications/risks/ethics/compliance of advanced technology (such as AI, metaverse, blockchain, etc.)
- Rising legal spend
- Data protection
- Generative AI
Question 2/10
Has your organization experienced new compliance challenges related to emerging data sources?
- Yes
- No
In the report, 47% said they are experiencing new challenges related to emerging data sources.
“It is all happening so fast, and new data types are emerging regularly. It is a problem from a preparedness standpoint, but it is now a paramount risk in our business.”
Question 3/10
Have you seen an increased cost in disputes and investigations at a matter level?
- Yes
- No
In the report, there was an even split of chief legal officers who saw increased cost in disputes and investigations at a matter level (and overall).
“There is more data, which makes the process more expensive.”
Question 4/10
Has your organization experienced any litigation/penalties/public fallout/DSARs/notice requirements relating to a data breach or data protection failure/violation?
- Yes
- No
In the report, 85% said they have not experienced any litigation/penalties/public fallout relating to a data breach or data protection failure/violation.
“Our systems are now better, and our detection abilities have improved. The challenge is twofold. One, the threat actors get smarter every day, so keeping up is a challenge. Two, if you have a lot of tech debt and your systems are old and need to be updated, you have natural vulnerabilities that make it difficult to improve rapidly. You can change over time, but it takes significant resources to shift quickly.”
Question 5/10
Is reputation protection a top three priority for you when dealing with litigation or investigations?
- Yes
- No
In the report, 26% of general counsel interviewed mentioned that reputation protection is a major concern driving decisions during litigation and investigations.
“Risk management and reputation management. When we engage in litigation, our priority is reputation and implications for the company.”
Question 6/10
What is your main concern about the potential impact using generative AI within your organization and/or legal department?
- Explainability limitations/black box
- Undetected hallucinations/inaccurate or inconsistent results
- Creation of harmful content
- IP/copyright issues
- Bias
- AI death spiral/model collapse
- Ethical issues
- Security issues
- Data privacy
- Cost of tools
- Upskilling/cross-training teams to utilize the technology
Question 7/10
How comfortable are you with your team and/or outside counsel using AI for Investigations?
- Not comfortable
- Somewhat comfortable
- Comfortable
- Very comfortable
- Extremely comfortable
comfortable,
26%
comfortable,
21%
12%
comfortable,
26%
comfortable,
15%
In the report, 26% of general counsel interviewed said they were very comfortable with using AI for investigations. European respondents were more likely to be comfortable with AI in investigations than any other region, with 86% indicating openness to this use case.
“I am comfortable with my team and outside counsel using AI for any of these tasks as long as there are appropriate controls and sufficient oversight. Someone needs to review all of the output.”
Question 8/10
How comfortable are you with your team and/or outside counsel using AI for e-discovery?
- Not comfortable
- Somewhat comfortable
- Comfortable
- Very comfortable
- Extremely comfortable
comfortable, 9%
comfortable,
12%
21%
comfortable,
35%
comfortable,
24%
In the report, 35% of general counsel interviewed said they were very comfortable with using AI for e-discovery.
“We cannot neglect AI and must adapt to this era of using it. There are more upsides than downsides to using it. My concern is more about using it on things that require human judgment. We cannot rely on raw data and must exercise some form of human judgment.”
Question 9/10
Do you have a technology roadmap in place for the legal department?
- Yes
- No
- Unknown
65%
3%
In the report, 65% of general counsel interviewed said they do not have a technology roadmap in place for the legal department.
“It is a personal pain point because there is so much we can do, but when we spend most of the day on substantive legal work, the technology roadmap suffers from a lack of attention.”
Question 10/10
On a scale from 1-5 with 1 being “not prepared at all” and 5 being "extremely prepared,” how prepared are you to handle blockchain/cryptocurrency in your industry?
- Not at all prepared
- Somewhat prepared
- Prepared
- Very prepared
- Extremely prepared
prepared, 56%
prepared,
29%
6%
In the report, 56% of general counsel interviewed said they not prepared at all to handle blockchain/cryptocurrency in their industry.
“It depends on your industry. Blockchain has not entered our business, so we are not prepared for it, and we don't see our peers preparing for it. ”
