In a feature story titled "A Bird's Eye View of Compliance Departments," Compliance Week, the industry leading information service on corporate governance, risk and compliance, issued a report on the latest Lexakos study on how compliance departments operate and plan to allocate resources in 2010.
As the Good news and bad news for corporate compliance officers: Anyone feeling strapped for budget and resources, you're not alone ... but don't expect much sympathy from regulators or enforcement attorneys who might pay you a visit sometime.
For the second year in a row, Compliance Week magazine, the leading publication and information service on corporate governance, risk and compliance, chose Lexakos as the source for analyzing legal compliance needs of organizations worldwide.
In February, Compliance Week published an article featuring the results from our 2009 Law Department Strategy Planning Survey. This year, more than 230 companies participated in our study.
In the survey, Lexakos asked law department leaders again about their concerns, priorities and resource allocation plans for 2009. This year's benchmarking survey covers reporting metrics, outsource planning for IP and litigation, budget pressures, e-discovery, privilege waiver management in relation to new Federal Evidence Rule 502, and other compliance priorities.
The results are compelling. Forty percent of legal departments expect a decrease in their overall operating budget for 2009, compared to only 8 percent in 2008. At the same time, however, litigation activity is rising—particularly for the financial sector, besieged by investors unhappy with the sub-prime mortgage meltdown and victims of the Bernard Madoff "Ponzi" scheme.
In evaluating the results, it should come as no surprise that cost-cutting is a focal point for law departments in 2009. Litigation volume and compliance risk continues to increase across all industries, however, and organizations, now forced to do more with less, are very concerned about maintaining quality legal services. Centralizing legal work through litigation and contract management systems, and outside counsel convergence projects are examples of plans underway to reduce spending and improve efficiency. Utilizing existing IT resources and infrastructure in achieving these objectives, is also recognized as a fiscally responsible step in the process.
For a full copy of the Compliance Week article, click here.
For a copy of the 2009 Law Department Strategy Planning Survey or other studies please email information@lexakos.com.
For a copy of the Third Annual Strategic Planning Survey results click here.
