The findings have revealed trends, opportunities and challenges facing the New Zealand in-house community.

The report identified the key concerns and focus areas for General Counsel, including:

• changing regulatory environments;

• managing workload and driving efficiency;

• managing knowledge and retaining talent;

• governance and effective risk management; and

• cybersecurity, data and privacy.

The findings highlight an increasing awareness of the need to digitise and automate the provision of legal services, including the potential for contract and workflow management systems to improve service delivery and efficiency.

With the level of business and regulatory change increasing, managing workloads and the wellbeing of in-house teams was also important to General Counsel.

Te Ao Māori, Tikanga Māori and Te Tiriti o Waitangi among General Counsel were noticeably more prominent when compared to the 2019 report. More in-house lawyers and teams are recognising the need to create supportive and inclusive workplaces, with a particular interest in increasing Māori representation, and finding ways to learn about and apply Te Tiriti, Tikanga and Te Ao Māori concepts in a respectful way.

Uncover further analysis of the survey findings by viewing the webinar here.