Exterro’s 2020 Corporate Legal Leaders Survey Finds General Counsel & Chief Legal Officers Taking a Leading Role in Strategizing Against Business Risk
Exterro and Today’s General Counsel partner to deliver an all-encompassing report showcasing the growing corporate influence of the GC and CLO in overcoming data risks that threaten business operations
PORTLAND, Ore., June 9, 2020 – Exterro Inc., the preferred provider of Legal GRC software specifically designed for in-house legal, privacy, and IT teams at Global 2000 and AmLaw 200 organizations, and the Association of Corporate Counsel exclusive Alliance Partner for Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Compliance and E-Discovery, announced the release of the 2020 Corporate Legal Leaders Survey. Partnering with Today’s General Counsel, this report surveys 153 legal department heads to gain insight into how they’re working with other departments to overcome enterprise risks stemming from new data privacy regulations and the proliferation of data.
This report takes a closer look at the converging priorities among enterprise Legal, IT, Security, Privacy, and Compliance departments—and in particular, how Legal leaders collaborate cross-departmentally to mitigate risk across the organization,” said Chief Marketing Officer Bill Piwonka. “Given the reality of today’s regulatory environment, different business units are no longer able to silo themselves; rather, it’s critical that they come together to implement an effective and efficient risk mitigation program.
The 2020 Corporate Legal Leaders Survey shows that Legal leaders now feel that it is incumbent upon their department to quarterback the increasingly-complex compliance efforts between departments. This was evidenced by the following:
- 4-out-of-5 GCs and CLOs now report directly to their company’s CEO
- Despite that only 1-in-6 Legal departments is tasked with ensuring data compliance with privacy or litigation requirements, “preventing a data breach” still ranked as the top concern for GCs and CLOs
- 7-in-10 Legal teams are now pursuing enterprise-wide collaboration through sharing legal technology to manage litigation, data privacy, compliance, and cybersecurity concerns
Many GCs and CLOs are now seeing the importance of a comprehensive data management strategy throughout the organization—and they have the ear of the CEO now more than ever,” said Piwonka. “With data privacy regulations becoming a larger concern—and not just for large global enterprises anymore—it’s no surprise that nearly 100% of respondents acknowledged the importance of having such a policy in place, despite that only 1-in-5 actually do.