General Counsel Report: Complexity, Regulation, Costs Rise

FTI Consulting, Inc. (NYSE: FCN) and global legal technology company Relativity have announced findings from the seventh-annual edition of The General Counsel Report. Legal leaders reported more than 20 areas driving increases in their departments' work volume. Over the past year, risk, demand, and operations have become more complicated for 60% of respondents and more unpredictable for 33%.

The General Counsel Report features results from qualitative and quantitative surveys. Together, the datasets examined how organisations have responded over the past year to technological, policy, geopolitical, and economic disruptions.

“General counsel are meeting the current moment with composure, resourcefulness, and a keen sense of the impact they have within their organisations,” said Sophie Ross, Global Chief Executive Officer of FTI Technology. According to this year’s study, legal department leaders have been steadfast in balancing the increasing demands of risk mitigation against pressure to enable innovation, even as they experience a higher volume of work across more than 20 unique categories. Importantly, as general counsel become more sophisticated in using technology to enable efficiencies, they remain focused on the value of trusted relationships and outside expertise to help them navigate unpredictability and new challenges.”

Key findings covered in part one of The General Counsel Report include:

• 87% said the continually increasing rate of risk and demand is accelerating within their organisation.
• Leaders’ confidence in their readiness for handling top risks improved over the previous year, and 77% said they are being proactive about information governance across technology and the business.
• 39% of respondents cited use of artificial intelligence and generative AI as part of their strategy for handling increased risk and demand, a 10% increase from last year’s survey.
• 97% of general counsel interviewed reported increases in work volume in one or more of the categories. The addition of new regulations and laws was the most frequently cited driver of work increases, with tariffs and contract management tied for second.
• Regulatory activity and data privacy persist as top risks, consistent with the previous year, and 30% of respondents have experienced more regulatory activity this year.
• 37% attribute their disputes and investigations work to regulatory investigations and other criminal matters; 34% noted data breaches were among the primary drivers.
• The cost of disputes and investigations has increased for 57% of respondents.
• New areas of legal work have emerged for 33%.
• CIO respondents agree that risk, demand, and operations have increased in cost, complexity, and unpredictability.

“Robots and regulations have eclipsed data privacy and data protection in the minds of general counsel — at least for the moment,” said David Horrigan, Discovery Counsel and Legal Education Director at Relativity. Compared to the immediate post-GDPR days, regulation and AI have taken centre stage. In fact, 87% of chief legal officers reported that their departments used generative AI for legal functions over the past year, and generative AI was not even one of the top legal risk concerns.”

Ari Kaplan, Principal of Ari Kaplan Advisors, added, “An interesting aspect of this year’s study was the nuance in how general counsel view AI in the context of risk. While generative AI wasn’t ranked among the top five risks by most respondents, 70% discussed concerns anecdotally during interviews. This finding provides insight into how pervasive AI has become across every aspect of the legal department and the way legal leaders approach it: they’re scrutinising it but also view it as an opportunity for improving their work.”

The General Counsel Report is based on one-on-one interviews conducted by Ari Kaplan Advisors with chief legal officers at large corporations worldwide, as well as a separate quantitative survey of more than 200 general counsel across 12 countries. For the first time, this year’s findings include insights from C-level technical leaders, including chief information officers and heads of transformation within large organisations, providing commentary on the dynamics between legal department leaders and their cross-department counterparts.

Part one of The General Counsel Report is available for download. Part two will be released in March.

Demographics and Methodology

In September 2025, Ari Kaplan conducted personal interviews with 30 leaders serving as general counsel or chief legal officers of their organisations. Sixty-three per cent have a role with global responsibilities, and 59% work in organisations with annual revenue exceeding $500 million. He also interviewed technology and digital transformation leaders at global organisations for anecdotal insights into how their responsibilities and perspectives overlap with those of general counsel. Separately, in the summer of 2025, Censuswide conducted a quantitative survey of 224 general counsel and chief legal officers at organisations with more than $100 million in annual revenue and more than 1,000 employees in South America, North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific.

About FTI Consulting

FTI Consulting, Inc. is a leading global expert firm for organisations facing crises and transformation.

About Relativity

Relativity is a leading legal data intelligence company that builds technology to help users organise data, discover the truth, and act on it.