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New Report Identifies Economic & Societal Challenges Facing Legal Departments
[September 09, 2020]

New Report Identifies Economic & Societal Challenges Facing Legal Departments


Portland, Ore., Sept. 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Exterro Inc., the preferred provider of Legal GRC software specifically designed for in-house legal, privacy, and IT teams at Global 2000 and AmLaw 200 organizations, and the Association of Corporate Counsel exclusive Alliance Partner for Discovery, released today in association with In The House and Today’s General Counsel their 2020 In-House Legal Benchmarking Report.

“Given the year it’s been, many companies—and therefore many legal departments—are in a state of flux,” said Chief Marketing Officer Bill Piwonka. “This report offers a look behind the curtain at how in-house legal teams are adjusting to the challenges that have risen over the last several months.”

Key findings from the report include:

  • Legal departments, reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic distress, are also feeling pressures to change internal policies to strive for a more diverse staff and help erase potential systemic discrimination in their ranks
  • E-Discovery and pre-litigation are areas of highlighted savings opportunities—and legal teams are tracking key metrics to showcase the efficiencies of their resources
  • Legal departments aren’t seeing huge risks from data prvacy laws yet, and some aren’t sure whether they even apply to their businesses, meaning that tracking consumer requests is a potential compliance gap
  • Small and mid-size departments face accelerated challenges, as many departments already feature five employees or fewer, but tend to have a better overall awareness of whether data privacy laws apply to them



“With economic and budgetary concerns, it’s not hard to understand why legal departments are looking at reducing litigation and e-discovery costs,” said Steve Lincoln, COO of Today’s General Counsel. “Teams can help mitigate the impact of lost resources by focusing on refining their legal processes and adopting technology to help them do more with less.”

Chris Colvin, founder of In The House echoed a similar sentiment: “We now face the next great challenge for the legal profession. This is a prolonged, multi-pronged crisis—one spanning medical, economic, workplace, and societal arenas—that creates a C-suite level mandate for strategic transformation within legal department in order to overcome this vast set of challenges facing legal professionals everywhere.”


Download the full 2020 In-House Legal Benchmarking Report from Exterro.

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About Exterro

Exterro was founded with the simple vision that applying the concepts of process optimization and data science to how companies manage digital information and respond to litigation would drive more successful outcomes at a lower cost. We remain committed to this vision today as we deliver a fully integrated Legal GRC platform that enables our clients to address their privacy, regulatory, compliance and litigation risks more effectively and at lower costs. With software solutions that span privacy, legal operations, compliance, cybersecurity and information governance, Exterro helps some of the world’s largest organizations work smarter and more efficiently. For more information, visit exterro.com.

Ron J. Rambo Jr.
Marketing Content & Communications Manager
Exterro, Inc.
[email protected]
(503) 501-5104

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