General Counsel Barometer 2025
Rising to the challenge of global expansion trends
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Today’s general counsels (GCs) face a perfect storm of ongoing market uncertainty, rising regulatory demands, and tightening in-house resources. The GCs we surveyed at the start of 2025 expect widespread international growth this year, adding yet more complexity to global entity management.
As the GC’s role becomes even more critical, new legal technology solutions—including artificial intelligence (AI)-driven tools—are quickly becoming essential to managing growing international complexity, handling increased workloads, and staying ahead of evolving regulatory frameworks.
Our latest report, based on insights from 350 GCs around the world, delves into these fast-evolving legal and compliance industry trends and offers practical, expert insights to help you succeed.
Key findings
98% of GCs surveyed say their organizations plan to expand this year
72% expect legal and compliance costs to grow over the next three years
58% have increased levels of outsourcing to specialist providers to overcome a lack of internal resources
What you’ll learn
Spotlight on global expansion strategies
Discover the top drivers behind domestic and international expansion this year, from M&A to strategic partnerships, and how industry trends in 2025 are shaping corporate growth initiatives.
Complexities in compliance
Explore why GCs ranked the changing regulatory landscape as their number one risk to legal operations. Discover which evolving compliance trends experts are watching, and how GCs are managing increased requirements with best-in-class compliance technology solutions.
Accelerating tech adoption
Read how GCs are using AI and emerging technology to support the work of their legal teams, and get expert insights on how to integrate technology successfully.
Expert insights
Managing growth in a variety of jurisdictions is complex; increasing your footprint means navigating additional regulations, which means you must have the right controls in place to maintain oversight and compliance.
Ian McConnel
CSC Chief Legal Officer
The way in which a law is enacted in one country compared to another can be worlds apart. GCs need help in setting expectations for their businesses, which may want to move quickly but may not understand local nuance.
Robert-Jan Bertina
Head of CSC Corporate Solutions, Europe
You can never outsource your responsibility for legal compliance or risk management, but there are certain tasks around those responsibilities you can outsource. This brings peace of mind to GCs and legal teams because they know their entities are in good standing.
Thijs van Ingen
Global Head of CSC Corporate Solutions
