Most firms do not have cybersecurity and data privacy crisis management playbooks, general counsels reveal in a just-released study.
In the recently released 2017 General Counsel Report from the Consero Group, only 18% of the GCs surveyed said their firms had the said playbooks, and only 17% are in the process of making one.
This is despite the American and British general counsels being most worried about data privacy and cybersecurity risk, with 50% of respondents identifying it as the top area of risk for the current year.
This is followed by operational risk with 36%, bribery and corruption risk with 29%, supplier risk with 27%, labour and employment liability with 23% and whistleblower concerns with 13%.
Nonetheless, 60% said that their companies are prepared to defend against such attacks. The survey found that 25% of GCs report their companies experiencing a cybersecurity breach in the past 12 months. Among the GCs, 55% were very involved or involved in cybersecurity and data privacy matters and 38% reported being just somewhat involved.
Meanwhile, GCs identified compliance and ethics management as their top area of focus this year, with 54% of respondents indicating the area as their top focus, followed by labour and employment with 29%, outside counsel management with 27%, litigation management with 18%, intellectual property management at 7%.
If legal departments are constrained this year, GCs see access to budgetary resources as the top reason, with 41% picking it as a concern. Next are lack of buy-in from senior management and talent gap within the legal department, which tie at second with 19%, followed by regulatory compliance matters with 14%.
Spending will increase in 2017, 44% of GCs surveyed said. The same percentage expected spending to be flat, while 12% said it will likely decrease.
Most legal departments handled by GCs surveyed handled half to three quarters of legal work in-house.
The survey found that 47% of respondents said that 51% to 75% of legal work is conducted in house, followed by 30% who said in-house teams handle 76% to all legal work.
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