Earlier this year, legal departments worldwide were queried by the ALM Pacesetter Research team regarding prominent skill gaps and the strategies implemented to bridge them. Interestingly, the efforts were primarily centered around three key areas: staffing, training, and technology. The discoveries, albeit not surprising, have certainly kindled some debate in the legal community. Results of the study were recently reported by Law.com.
Constituting a modest sample size, the study involved participation from 30 legal departments. Impressively, a significant 75 percent of those surveyed were associated with companies boasting over $1 billion USD in revenue. Interestingly, the firm noted an unintentional skew towards EMEA-based firms, with them accounting for 72 percent of the total participants, while the remainder were primarily US-based.
It’s worth noting that representation of sectors was far more evenly distributed. The three largest groups hailed from professional services, Telecoms, Media & Technology (TMT), as well as Wholesale, Retail, and Leisure.
The ALM Pacesetter research offers an intriguing glimpse into the challenges faced by legal departments and the varied strategies employed to overcome them. The findings evoke the enduring pressure upon legal departments to yield more from less – highlighting, perhaps, yet unrealized opportunities that could be capitalized upon in the future.