Litigation Trends from the View of Corporate Counsel
What's on the minds of corporate General Counsel? The Fulbright & Jaworski 2005 Litigation Trends Survey provides a fascinating view of what US and UK Corporate Counsel are most concerned about. Not surprisingly, the costs of litigation and the growing burden of e-discovery are high on the list. In fact, cost was the single most cited concern about litigation in general, far more than any specific type of litigation. Electronic discovery was the number one new litigation-related issue.

Following are highlights from their survey that are particularly interesting to anyone involved with compliance, risk management and/or records management.

Corporate Counsel on the Growth of Corporate Litigation

• Nearly 90% of the US corporations surveyed are engaged in some type of litigation, and the average company balances a docket of 37 lawsuits at any one time.
• For mid-to-large corporations it's worse: US companies in the survey with revenue of more than $1 billion are juggling an average of more than 140 cases simultaneously.
• Technology and communication companies were the most frequent subjects of arbitration filings - followed by health care, insurance and manufacturing.
• US companies filed two-and-a-half times the number of suits that UK companies did, and initiated eight times as many arbitrations.

Corporate Counsel on the Growth of Litigation Costs

• For almost 20% of the companies, the overall costs of litigation, rather than any specific category of lawsuit, was the leading concern.
• A corporation with $1.5 billion in revenues averages more than $8 million per year in corporate litigation costs.
• Respondents who track their legal costs and have an established legal budget most frequently answered that their budgets for all types of legal work averaged 1.34% of their companies' gross revenues.
• Despite the growing concern over costs, many Corporate Counsel are having a difficult time budgeting for litigation expenses: 43% are unable to predetermine the costs of managing business disputes.
  
  

Corporate Counsel on Electronic Discovery and Compliance

• For US companies with revenues over $100 million, electronic discovery is the number one new litigation-related issue.
• Complying with increased regulation is the largest growing burden for smaller businesses.

Corporate Counsel on the Importance of Records Management

• 82% of the companies surveyed have written records retention policies.
• 74% of the companies also had litigation hold policies.
• Almost half the companies with litigation hold policies have revised them in the last year.
  
  

By all indications the concerns expressed in this survey - ballooning litigation costs, emerging electronic discovery and regulatory burdens - will only get worse before they get better. In this environment, a legally credible records management program coupled with the right technologies to help manage litigation costs will be more important than ever.

The international law firm, Fulbright & Jaworski, commissioned this independent survey of corporate General Counsel in the US and the UK to gain their perspectives on key litigation trends corporate counsel face today. The survey was completed by over 300 US corporate counsel managers in the US and 50 corporate counsel in the UK. For a copy of the survey or for further breakdown by industry or region, contact Fulbright & Jaworski at litigationtrends@fulbright.com.