In-House Counsel Worldwide(ICW) &Mondaqare delighted to launch the 2025 Global In-House Counsel Report, offeringvaluable insights into the currentlandscape and evolving trends within the globalin-house counsel profession.
With 400+ global in-house counsel respondents from over 70 countries and feedback spanning all levels of job roles, the report delivers a comprehensive perspective on key areas including investment priorities, in-house activities, outsourcing, as well as several important people-focused topics.
Some key findings from the 2025 Report:
- Global In-House Counsel Increasingly Embedded in the Business: In-house counsel are taking on more non-legal responsibilities, with supporting business growth as their top priority and understanding the business as their key required skill
- Tech Investment Surges: 68% of legal departments globally expect to invest more in legal technology in the coming year, with nearly a third of those is expecting to spend significantly more. The money is going into AI/gen AI innovation, contract management and document management
- Pressure on External Counsel Spend: 25% of organizations plan to reduce spending on external counsel, reflecting a drive to build more capabilities internally and manage costs more closely
- AI as a Priority but Skills Gap Exists: Over half of global legal departments name Artificial Intelligence and Generative AI as their top innovation focus—three times more than the next priority area of legal and regulatory risk—although 24% of respondents point to an AI skills gap
- Big Regional Differences in Working Arrangements: 77% of European-based counsel work on a hybrid basis compared with just 43% in Middle East & Africa, and 54% are fully back in the office in MEA compared to just 7% in North America
- Workload is the #1 Challenge for Global In-House Counsel: For the second year running, workload remains the standout challenge for global in-house counsel, contributing to 54% of respondents reporting increased work-related anxiety and stress.
Please follow the below links to view or download the report:
The 2025 Global In-House Counsel Report is kindly sponsored by Alexa Translations.
ABOUT THE ICW
In-House Counsel Worldwide (ICW) is a global network of member-associations that represent the legal professionals who work as corporate counsel and/or in-house lawyers within companies or organisations.
The primary mandate of the ICW is to unite this community globally to share best practices, standardize competencies, promote standards and ethics, and collaborate to advance this sector of the legal profession for both the lawyers and their organisations.
ABOUT MONDAQ
Mondaq is a leading global provider of AI-enabled content marketing, data and analytics solutions for professional services firms. Mondaq powers firms' marketing & business development success through client, prospect and market insights based on a global audience of senior-level decision makers.
Mondaq delivers answers to legal, tax and compliance questions to an audience of over 20 million readers worldwide.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
