政府法律机构报告

2023 GovernmentLaw Agency Report Staffing and technology top list of concerns 2023 Government Law Agency Report:Staffing and technology top list of concerns It has been a bumpy few years for many government law agencies and for the legalprofessionals at other government departments. During the pandemic, agencies, and For public legal departments — like the offices of district attorneys, public defenders, or city/county attorneys — that meant online meetings, virtual hearings, and much more work doneremotely using technology that may have been new to many government legal professionals. Executive summary In this new Thomson Reuters report, we summarize the findings of our recent GovernmentTrends Survey, conducted in 2022 with attorneys in public agencies at the Federal, State,and County/Municipal level. The objective of this and other surveys (including a similar one in To that end, we ask questions about where their main challenges now are, what their currentwork processes are (especially around technology use and outsourcing), how they are In our survey, we discovered that while many government law departments were resilientin handling a myriad of challenges, they were still vexed by some long-standing issues thatwere evident even before the onset of the pandemic. For example, our survey showed that Indeed, many of the challenges our survey respondents cited fell into several major areas Staffing issues— As mentioned, staffing issues were top of mind for many surveyrespondents, with the challenges of recruiting new talent and the potential loss ofinstitutional knowledge due to retiring staff among their chief worries. Growing complexity of legal work— Respondents see the complexity and variety of the legalissues they handle increasing, while time and budgetary resources decrease or stay the same. Ongoing challenges of remote working— Even with pandemic restrictions being lifted,hybrid work arrangements are very common in government law agencies. Hurdles to technology adoption— While technology adoption has increased, significantbarriers remain, leaving some government legal professionals concerned that they do not Security concerns— A sizable minority of respondents reported that their agency hasexperienced a security or malware breach with unplanned downtime being the most How the leaders of government law agencies and other legal departments navigate theirteams through these challenges will likely determine how effective and efficient their legal Key findings Other important insights in the report include: •Staffing issues were the top challenges cited for government agencies, while recruitingnew talent (64%) and loss of institutional knowledge due to retiring staff (60%) •On average, government law agencies report that more than one-third (37%) of theirlegal research issues are complex, and that there is less time to thoroughly researchcomplex items. In fact, almost two-thirds of respondents said they have seen increases •Most respondents said their work environment contains either hybrid or remotearrangements, indicating that many of the changes made during the pandemic •While 49% of respondents say tech investment within their agency has increased inthe past two years, 59% say their technology resources lag behind the private sector.Worse yet, only 23% say they are confident that they have the necessary tools to do •At least 28% of government law departments or legal agencies have experienced Methodology The data in this report was taken during an online quantitative survey that was conductedbetween November 18th and December 20th, 2022 by Thomson Reuters’ Market Researchand Competitive Insights team. Target survey respondents were gathered from government There were 135 surveys completed from 21 Federal, 57 State, 41 County, and 16 Municipalattorneys. Agency roles of these respondents included Attorney, Counsel, Prosecutor, PublicDefender, Attorney General, and District Attorney. All respondents had been in their roles for As an incentive to participate, survey respondents were offered a $10 donation to theAmerican Cancer Society and early access to a white paper summarizing the survey results. Part 1: Staffing issues Staffing issues were clearly at the top of many government agency legal professionals’concerns over the past year. The top two challenges cited by survey respondents showedthat recruiting new talent, with 64% of respondents citing this, and the loss of institutional Also, 59% of current survey respondents see too few budgetary resources as a majorchallenge that their departments or agencies were facing. This has been a re-occurring Indeed, legal staffing issues among government agencies have risen in prominence in thelast five years. Past survey data from 2017 and 2018 found that roughly one-quarter ofgovernment agency respondents said that recruitment of new legal talent was a problem. By And it appears that attorney/staff turnover and retention will be a