Got 4 minutes? Tell us how this uncertain economy is affecting your hiring plans and technology spend.

The current state of legal tech

Sales thinks contract review is much slower than Legal does

82%

of Legal respondents say contract reviews and approvals take 5 days or less

vs

59%

of Sales respondents agreed that contract review would take 5 days or less

But AI may be the answer to speeding up this process

53%

of Legal respondents believe AI can help complete work more quickly and efficiently
This year’s survey shows that organizations are increasingly willing to adopt AI to bolster organizational efficiencies. We’ve reached a tipping point in AI evolution, as nearly half of respondents—in a traditionally conservative field when it comes to tech adoption—plan to incorporate AI into their workflow processes. And a significant percentage are already using AI today.
David Wang
Chief Innovation Officer, Wilson Sonsini

key survey findings

What Legal teams hear from Sales teams

"What does your Sales team identify as challenges when working with Legal?"

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44% The document isn't being returned quickly enough
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31% Contract review reduces deal velocity
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24% Contract review isn't necessary because the agreement is simple

Legal and Sales disagree on NDA turnaround times

"How many business days does it typically take to respond to a NDA request on 1st party paper from an internal team member?"

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54% of Legal respondents say that turning around an NDA takes 2 days or less vs. 40% of Sales respondents
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Legal's most cited turnaround time is 1-2 days, vs. Sales anticipating 3-5 days

Legal and Sales misaligned on contract review timelines

"How many business days does the current contract review and/or approval process take up in the deal cycle?"

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82% of Legal respondents say contract review is completed in 5 days or less, but only 59% of Sales respondents agree
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26% of Sales respondents say contract reviews and approvals take more than 10 days vs. 3% of Legal respondents

For many, AI means speed and efficiency

“What are the benefits you'd expect from using artificial intelligence software in your Legal department?”

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53% see AI helping to complete work more quickly and efficiently
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62% expect AI to remove repetitive tasks
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Less than 14% see AI replacing Legal headcount

Other findings

Economic outlook, preferred tech, implementation, AI trends, and more!

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26% of Legal respondents took 6+ months to implement their contract management system
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71% of respondents agree that technology can help create efficiencies in a downturn
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13% of Legal respondents state that their teams have no legal software in place (up from only 1% last year)
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14% of Legal respondents are dissatisfied in their current jobs (more than doubled from last year)

Economic Outlook

Concerns around revenue growth dwindle, but persist

Economic uncertainties become less concerning

“How concerned are you about economic uncertainties affecting your company?”

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12% of 2023 respondents reported no concern over economic outlook vs. 3% in 2022
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36% of 2023 respondents reported being concerned or very concerned over economic outlook vs. 63% in 2022

Workload management remains a top concern

“How do you plan to manage the impacts of economic uncertainty in your legal department”

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Anticipating higher workloads (38% vs 35%) and adding technology to increase efficiency (44% vs. 33%) were the top choices in both 2022 and 2023
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25% of 2023 respondents don't anticipate any impact, vs. 19% in 2022

Want to read the full report?

Dive deeper into this year's surprising findings, including

  • Expectations and concerns over revenue growth
  • How teams like yours are finding efficiency with less
  • Job satisfaction and outlook across in-house teams
  • ...and other unexpected insights from your peers!

Fill out the form below to unlock all that and more.

Artificial Intelligence

Cautious outlook towards AI usage in legal tech

A majority of Legal teams aren't using AI

“Is your Legal department currently utilizing artificial intelligence technology?”

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35% Yes
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52% No
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13% Not sure

Cautiously optimistic about Legal's AI future

“Does your Legal department plan to utilize artificial intelligence technology in the future?”

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40% Yes
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33% Not sure
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27% No

Getting hands on with artificial intelligence

“How is your Legal department using—or planning to use—artificial intelligence technology?”

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28% Contract review
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28% Workflows
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25% Contract creation

For many, AI means speed and efficiency

“What are the benefits you'd expect from using artificial intelligence software in your Legal department?”

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53% see AI helping to complete work more quickly and efficiently
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62% expect AI to remove repetitive tasks
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Less than 14% see AI replacing Legal headcount

AI privacy and accuracy are top concerns

“What are the concerns you have regarding using artificial intelligence software in your Legal department?”

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The top potential concern was "privacy issues," at 68%
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Potential for "errors" was a concern for 62% of respondents
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Less than 20% were concerned about AI resulting in headcount reduction
No more panic requests! No more stress trying to upload contracts, read the contract and extract the details. Lexion's AI technology does it for me and all I do is quickly review what it's captured! Due diligence activities have been a breeze.
Maria Lunden
Paralegal, Elastic Path

Economic Outlook

Concerns around revenue growth dwindle, but persist

Economic uncertainties become less concerning

“How concerned are you about economic uncertainties affecting your company?”

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12% of 2023 respondents reported no concern over economic outlook vs. 3% in 2022
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36% of 2023 respondents reported being concerned or very concerned over economic outlook vs. 63% in 2022

Workload management remains a top concern

“How do you plan to manage the impacts of economic uncertainty in your legal department?”

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Anticipating higher workloads (38% vs 35%) and adding technology to increase efficiency (44% vs. 33%) were the top choices in both 2022 and 2023
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25% of 2023 respondents don't anticipate any impact, vs. 19% in 2022

Expectations around revenue growth dampen

“How do you expect your company's revenue growth to be affected in the next 6 months?”

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45% of 2023 respondents expected to meet or exceed planned revenue growth targets vs. 63% in 2022
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12% of 2023 respondents expected no growth vs. 4% of 2022 respondents
We’re now able to win more opportunities that, before Lexion, we were losing because of workload management. Our legal team hasn’t expanded, but with Lexion, we can scale with our organization’s growth.
David Prado
Associate General Counsel, D4C

Hiring concerns persist

“Looking at your entire organization, how likely is your company to slow down or freeze hiring?”

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15% of respondents indicated that it was very likely that their company would slow down or freeze hiring, vs. 12% in 2022
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6% of organizations have already slowed down or frozen hiring, vs. 2% in 2022

Mid-level Legal roles
are in demand

“Which jobs would you like to hire for in the next 6 months assuming you have budget?”

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Associate Counsel / Counsel roles remained a top choice, at 29% in 2023
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Paralegal / Legal Assistant roles occupied a top slot for another year, also at 29% in 2023

Legal Technology

Maximizing efficiency: in-house legal teams are doing more with less

Technology mitigates fallout from downturns

“Do you think technology can help create efficiencies in a downturn?”

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Respondents overwhelmingly believe that technology creates efficiencies, at 72% in 2022 and 71% in 2023
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Less than 4% disagreed, and less than 2% strongly disagreed
Our CEO and GC wanted instant reports on active contracts. With our prior CLM, it would have taken me anywhere from six months to a year to make that possible, but with Lexion, I can run these kinds of reports on-demand anytime.

It’s a huge advantage for helping other departments figure out what's going on with their agreements.
Trung Do
Legal Operations Manager, MicroVention

Spending on technology is back on the upswing

“How likely is your company to slow down or freeze technology spending?”

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Fewer organizations planned to slow down or freeze technology spending in 2023 (25%) vs. 2022 (37%)
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18% of 2023 respondents said that it was very unlikely that technology spend would slow or freeze
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Less than 4% of 2023 respondents and 2% of 2022 respondents have already slowed spending

eSignature and storage systems are table stakes

“What legal software do you currently use?”

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eSignature tools continued to occupy the top slot, at 62% in 2023 and 41% in 2022
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Contract repository and file folder storage were also popular choices
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Legal task management and general project management software increased in popularity from 2022 to 2023, rising 3% and 4% respectively

Legal is dreaming of more intelligent tooling

“What legal software do you want to purchase in the next 6 months assuming you have the budget?”

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The top choices for legal software buys in 2022 were eSignature tools and contract repository
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In 2023, the top choices for new technology shifted to contract creation and contract analytics / reporting tools

Job Satisfaction

Low value tasks are dragging Legal down

Job dissatisfaction in Legal is on the rise

“How satisfied are you in your current job?”

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Job dissatisfaction increased from 2022 to 2023, growing from 6% to 14% of respondents reporting being dissatisfied or very dissatisfied
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Very satisfied respondent rates stayed relatively flat, shifting from 26% to 27%

Too much tedium and too few resources

“What keeps you from doing your job well?”

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The top issue cited in 2022 and 2023 was a lack of resources / people, coming in at 38% and 45% respectively
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Being buried in low-value administrative tasks took second place in both years
It wasn’t long before I realized I was receiving a lot fewer questions from across the company. It wasn’t because they stopped having questions about contracts, but because they had already started using Lexion to answer those questions themselves.

Now I deal primarily with much more complex legal requests, which is how legal should be spending its time.
Amy Lund
Director of Legal, RetailNext

CLM Implementation Experience

Implementation is painful and time consuming

Implementation headaches plague
Legal teams

“In your current role, what has your implementation experience been like with contract management systems?”

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32% had a "very bad" or "bad" experience with implementation
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Fewer than 5% considered the experience to be "very good"

CLM implementations take much longer than anticipated

“How long did you initially think it would take for your organization to implement a contract management system?”

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39% anticipated that their CLM implementation would take less than 60 days, but only 31% were actually complete within that timeframe
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26% of CLM implementations took longer than 6 months
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17% of CLM implementations took longer than a year
Overseeing the implementation of other contract management systems in previous roles taught me a valuable lesson: People don’t want to learn new systems unless they’re going to use them every day.

With Lexion, they don’t have to. The only thing they need to do is to email Lexion instead of me.
Michael Leman
Vice President, Deputy General Counsel, FOX Factory

Respondent overview

Lexion surveyed 200+ legal professionals

Role

General Counsel/Chief Legal/Head of Legal/Legal Director
Assistant GC
Senior Counsel
Associate Counsel/Counsel
Paralegal/Legal Assistant
Contracts Manager
Legal Operations
Legal Administrator/Secretary
Other
13%
10%
12%
11%
7%
10%
10%
8%
19%

Company Size

0–50
51–200
201–1,000
1,001–5,000
5,001–10,000
10,000+
14%
21%
28%
16%
6%
16%

Industry

Advertising & Marketing
Agriculture
Airlines & Aerospace (including Defense)
Automotive
Business Support & Logistics
Construction, Machinery, and Homes
Education
Entertainment & Leisure
Finance & Financial Services
Food & Beverage
Government
Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals
Insurance
Manufacturing
Nonprofit
Retail & Consumer Durables
Real Estate
Telecommunications, Technology, Internet & Electronics
Transportation & Delivery
Utilities, Energy, and Extraction
2%
<1%
2%
4%
8%
4%
4%
1%
9%
4%
15%
8%
3%
3%
3%
2%
3%
18%
1%
2%

Want to learn more about Lexion?