Legal team outlook

“I also think the ability many lawyers have to manage multiple streams of work is also something that is typically very important, and critical when an incident has occurred. They can balance the need to move quickly with best protecting an organisation.”

However, despite their growing importance, in-house legal teams are also stretched. Heather Kelly observed a pervasive climate of economic and geopolitical uncertainty was impacting the role of legal teams, expanding their remit and forcing them to become more reactive to risks, including cyber. “The evolving role of the general counsel – from ring-fenced lawyer to risk advisor – means that legal teams are stretched very thin. They don’t have the capacity to invest in the myriad of risk management activities they would like to. So, it is very heartening to see that there has been an uptick in their preparedness in relation to cyber. Their budget and bandwidth are precious resources,” Kelly said.

Christine Wong said that she had noticed general counsels and in-house legal leaders were increasingly focussed on getting a handle on data, which represents a significant challenge for organisations, especially those with legacy systems and large data stores. “Organisations are grappling with the Hydra like nature of their data – so much data across so many systems has given rise to significant complexity in understanding what is there and whether the control and security settings are adequate. Given recent law reforms and the prevalence of data extortion attacks, I think data risk management will continue to be a real driver of concern for in-house teams,” Wong said.

Kelly noted the rise of AI had also made many organisations focus on data in a way the risk of a potential future cyber attack had not, with “legal teams harnessing the newfound momentum to spearhead projects aimed at cleaning up aged and inaccurate data”.