Client Insight

Client Insight Reports

This new research-based editorial/thought leadership series sets the standard for researching the views of senior in-house lawyers and private practice decision makers on a jurisdictional and global basis.

The Insight Series focuses on specific areas of legal services, raising both the awareness of particular issues and the profile of a law firm or service provider. Recent topics include Banking Litigation, Legal Process Outsourcing and Intellectual Property. The research is promoted across The Legal 500 website (with over 4 million users annually), Legal Business, GC Magazine and The In-House Lawyer, and at roundtables and workshops.

Tailored Research

Our research department has conceived, constructed and delivered tailored research projects for a wide range of clients including a host of major law firms, but also service providers (from consultancies and technology providers, through to recruitment specialists and translation services) targeting decision makers in-house and/or private practice.

If you have any questions or would like to be involved in the Insight Series, please contact Baris Agun at baris.agun@legal500.com

Previous Insight Reports

• The GC’s Guide to Profitable IP Strategies
  

  The Legal 500 asks top IP professionals in Germany about their approaches to protecting and monetising intellectual property

  
• The innovation illusion
  

  There is much talk of legal services innovation both in-house and in private practice, but how can GCs separate myth from reality? We pierce the veil

  
• The discerning customer – smarter procurement
  

  In-house teams are using new techniques and recruiting specialists to take a more sophisticated approach to procuring legal services

  
• Journey into the unknown – upgrading operations and tech
  

  Legal ops may be flavour of the month, but for GCs the challenge is using these new skills effectively while losing some control of their empires

  
• Hired help – bringing new skills to legal teams
  

  Time and cash-poor GCs are turning to non-lawyer professionals to help manage costs and staffing. We teamed up with Reed Smith to survey 300 senior counsel on the evolution of legal operations

  
• All restless souls – City firms braced as partnership goes Millennial
  

  As Millennials start colonising the top ranks of City firms, we assess the changing face of partnership. Can law firms change fast enough to keep the model relevant for a new generation?

  
• Bigger, longer, more complicated
  

  As arbitration enters the mainstream, lawyers are asking how its growing popularity will change their practice. We team up with Navigant to examine the trends shaping arbitration

  
• The edge of the cliff – Brexit response for worried GCs
  

  Nearly a year after the UK triggered article 50, bluechips are still asking what Brexit means for their businesses. We team up with HSF to gauge what actions GCs must take now

  
• Dollars and sense – charting the GC response as sustainability hits the boardroom
  

  A tougher risk environment is taking sustainability from PC fad to board-level concern… and onto the agendas of GCs. We teamed up with Linklaters to chart the client response in a world of ‘not quite legal’ risks.

  
• Taught leaders – executive training for the ambitious GC
  

  Leadership training has until recently neglected the growing ranks of GCs. To begin our Insight special with Reed Smith, we assess the educational options for in-house counsel striving to meet growing skills demands

  
• The art of leadership in Asia – an evolving role for legal heads
  

  What does leadership mean in a region where the role of the in-house lawyer is rapidly evolving?

  
• The next step – meet the GCs determined to seize leadership roles
  

  An ambitious generation of in-house counsel is determined to take on leadership roles, despite corporate pressure to stay in the box. We ask GCs what it takes to break out as a leader.

  
• Soft law, hard sanctions – how are new human rights standards changing the way in-house counsel operate?
  

  With human rights issues entering the mainstream of business practice, we teamed up with Herbert Smith Freehills to assess how new standards are changing the way in-house counsel operate

  
• Up in the air – As Brexit looms, GCs face leap into the unknown
  

  Business is struggling to find a response as the Brexit vote looms. We team up with Herbert Smith Freehills to explore the impact… and GCs’ options.

  
• The end of the tunnel – litigation and regulatory challenges in financial services
  

  Legal Business teamed up with Simmons & Simmons to discover how financial institutions are coping with the twin threats of regulation and litigation, and assess whether the end is in sight.

  
• Deep Blue sky thinking: The cutting edge of legal AI
  

  Artificial intelligence is big news once again in law and beyond. We speak to leaders in the field of advanced automation to assess what it means for the profession

  
• Applied science and snake oil: AI in practice
  

  The cutting-edge science in artificial intelligence in law is startling, but does the tech currently offered by commercial legal providers match the hype?

  
• The i-Team: The client perspective on AI
  

  Pioneering GCs are taking control of legal spend, armed with the latest tech. Can the rest of the in-house community keep pace?

  
• Hard graft – the pan-europe bribery crackdown
  

  As European agencies turn up the heat on bribery and corruption, we team up with Simmons & Simmons to assess how clients are responding.

  
• Clause and effect – The arbitration backing Africa’s investment boom
  

  As foreign investment into Africa grows, so does the demand for dispute resolution. We team up with Simmons & Simmons to assess how clients can get the best out of that crunch arbitration clause.

  
• Gateways – the lawyer’s view on gaining access to North Africa
  

  While Morocco stands apart as a portal into Africa for foreign investors, neighbour Algeria starts to open up. We ask international law firms to share their experiences of working in the region

  
• Hunting dragons – anti-corruption in Asia
  

  Once a byword for bribery, the Asia region has toughened anti-corruption measures in recent years, but enforcement remains hard to predict. We team up with Simmons & Simmons to assess the client response

  
• Anatomy of a breach
  

  With breaches impossible to stop, companies are focusing on managing the huge risks of a major cyber incident. We teamed up with PwC to gauge the client response

  
• ‘The worst case scenario is £200m – litigation is containable’
  

  An unprecedented wave of global enforcement has pushed risks facing banks to once unthinkable proportions. In the follow-up to our banking litigation Insight with Stephenson Harwood, bank counsel discuss managing the biggest risks in global business. Alex Novarese reports

  
• Leadership and innovation – Visionaries, politicians and survivors
  

  In today’s ultra-competitive legal market, the thin line between success and failure hinges on the quality of a firm’s leadership. We teamed up with Berwin Leighton Paisner to investigate what separates the truly visionary from the merely ordinary

  
• Leadership and innovation – Profession, disrupt thyself?
  

  The Innovator’s Dilemma has become arguably the most influential business book of the last 20 years and is often cited as a key text for a profession facing unprecedented challenges. We assess its relevance to global law

  
• Leadership and innovation – The partnership dilemma
  

  Demanding clients, advancing tech and a tough economy have ushered in intense pressure for law firms to change. Can law firm leaders press their institutions to adapt or does the partnership model fundamentally block innovation?

  
• Here be monsters – will LPOs help clients find the threats in the data jungle?
  

  From disclosure to global investigations, companies are being forced to search an expanding jungle of data for threats. We teamed up with Clutch Group to find out if clients believe LPOs will aid the hunt

  
• Hunting titans – the disputes outlook as watchdogs and claimants target banking giants
  

  As banks remain in the crosshairs of regulators and claimants, we teamed up with Stephenson Harwood to seek the views of the in-house banking community on attitudes to disputes and risk

  
• Getting proprietorial – the client view as the battle to secure IP rages on
  

  From smartphone patent wars to online piracy, companies have never been more focused on protecting their intellectual property. In this special report, we teamed up with Bristows to gauge client attitudes to IP