The goal of KPMG’s Global General Counsel Survey 2012 was to find out how much progress GCs are making as business decision makers and the challenges they face in this growing role. The research is unique in its scope and scale and is the culmination of information gathered from across 32 countries, 320 corporate counsels, across sectors and in both mature and high-growth economies.
The survey provides some interesting insights, as well as practical recommendations for GCs. Some interesting findings:
- 79% of GCs believe that their involvement in commercial decisions reduces corporate risk.
- 67% said they were now more involved with the formulation of business strategy compared to five years ago.
- 86% were concerned about the growth in volume and complexity of regulation, especially anti-trust, consumer protection and anti-bribery regulation.
- 67% expect regulatory disputes to increase over the next five years.
- 61% of respondents believe that the complexity of disputes will increase over the next five years.
- 59% of respondents anticipate that the volume of information to be disclosed in disputes will increase during that same period.
- 76% of respondents believe that new technology, such as social media and cloud computing pose little or no risk to their organization.
- Regulation and avoidance and early resolution of disputes are the two areas GCs most often seek advice.