The disruption factor

We interviewed leaders in positions such as Group General Counsel, Senior Legal Counsel, Head of Litigation, Head of Legal and Senior Principal Legal Counsel, to find out more about their experiences of the disputes landscape and how they are preparing for change.

Our research identifies a wide range of disruptive factors that may impact disputes in the coming years. From the one-off, headline disruptors, like the global pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, to evolving disruptors such as environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG), which is disrupting the wider economy and setting new trends in the disputes market. And in our view, Artificial Intelligence is also likely to become a prominent battleground as its use in the economy develops.

We found that only a sophisticated minority of corporates are proactively incorporating disputes risk into their wider risk assessment as they look to meet these unavoidable, if unseeable, challenges coming down the tracks. And in formal disputes, respondents told us that external specialists are increasingly required.

As well as the disruptive factors we identified, we have shone a spotlight on the topics that we believe will come to the forefront of disputes in the near future:

• ESG
• Class Actions
• AI
• Use of technology in disputes