The Association of Corporate Counsel’s annual survey of chief legal officers provides insight into the world of corporate legal departments. This year’s survey, which includes feedback from almost 1,100 CLOs in 42 countries, touches on issues of cybersecurity and data privacy, trends in insourcing versus outsourcing and increased government regulation.
The 2017 report found that 28 percent of CLOs had been targeted by a regulator in the past two years on a potential legal violation, while 77 percent reported dealing with at least one internal or external compliance-related investigation.
“One of the companies I was talking to recently said it this way: Regulation is really important, but when you actually get regulated or hit or you get some sort of award, that will certainly sometimes mandate the changing of your structure,” Bryan Cave partner Randy Miller said. “So it takes a little time for the administration to go through and for these changes to roll through.”
Information privacy was ranked right behind regulatory changes and compliance on the report’s list of top CLO concerns. Victoria Donovan, ACC Colorado chapter president, said issues like government regulation and cyber and privacy directives are difficult to manage from an inside perspective, and many law departments will outsource in order to receive advice on best practices from law firms or industry experts.