Deloitte’s 3rd Annual Corporate Counsel Survey 2010“Do corporate counsel hold all the Cards?” |
Australian corporate legal counsel have greater influence within the business as a result of holding increasingly complex roles and greater non-legal executive roles compared to five years ago, according to Deloitte’s third annual Corporate Counsel Survey.
Key findings of the report:
- Role: Sixty three percent of the 200 respondents to the Survey indicated they are now members of their organisations senior management or executive team, compared to forty percent five years ago
- Key priorities: The three key risk priorities of corporate counsel are maintaining regulatory compliance, preserving legal professional privilege, and handling, managing and retaining electronic records
- Non-legal roles: The number of non-legal roles held has increased from approximately 2.4 roles to 3.7 roles in the past five years. The most common non legal roles reported were company secretarial responsibilities, regulatory compliance responsibilities and risk management responsibilities
- Dispute resolution: Eighty two percent of respondents to the survey indicated that their organisation’s disputes are resolved by negotiated settlement. Respondents to the survey believed that five years ago, this figure was seventy four percent (74%)
- Electronic Documents: Well over half (59%) of respondents have been required to produce electronic documents for regulators in the past year, however, forty seven percent of respondents were not confident that they could produce all relevant electronic records in response to a legal or regulatory request
- Outsourcing: Fifty nine percent of respondents indicated that the percentage of legal work outsourced to an external law firm has decreased in the past five years. The top three reasons for outsourcing legal work are the need for greater specialist expertise, the need for additional legal resources or the complexity of the legal work
- Influence: Seventy one percent (71%) of respondents indicated that the general counsel of a large organisation is perceived to hold greater influence in a business environment as compared to a partner in a large law firm. This is the inverse to five years ago, when seventy six (76%) of respondents indicated that a partner in a large law firm was perceived to carry greater influence in a business environment when compared to a general counsel of a large organisation
- Influence on external firms: Ninety five percent of respondents believed that corporate counsel have influenced the way on which external law firms provide legal services in the past five years.
Click below to download a copy of our report, or read our media release.
Deloitte's 3rd Annual Corporate Counsel Survey 2010
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