Digital White Papers

28 WWW.ILTANET.ORG | ILTA WHITE PAPER POTPOURRI Who Is Responsible for Risk Management? Respondents were asked to specify who bore responsibility for their firm's risk management. Compared to 2015 results, 2016 responses showed a definite shi in responsibility toward general counsel rather than CIOs/CTOs or heads of risk/compliance. The expansion of the "Other" category was another notable finding in 2016, showing a splintering of responsibility spread across many job titles. Responses in this category included IT manager/ director, infrastructure and finance executives, and generalized responses like "divided among several" and "blend of compliance and IT," indicating that risk management responsibility was shared by more than one individual at the firm. Job Title 2015 2016 Change General Counsel 29.22% 38.16% +8.94% CIO/CTO 38.31% 21.05% -17.26% Head of Risk/Compliance 27.27% 17.11% -10.16% Other 5.19% 23.69% +18.50% Risky Business: Life in Legal Largest Risk Management Challenges Cyber threats topped the list of risk management challenges the respondents expect to face over the next 12 months, with more than half of respondents listing it first. Pace of technology followed, then mobile office technologies and mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Over 10% of respondents wrote in a diverse set of threats in the "Other" category, including social media, conflicts, and careless lawyers and staff. A comparison of the 2016 numbers against 2015 shows the largest risk increase was in cyber threats and the biggest percentage drop was in M&A. This correlates with recent headlines. According to Altman Weil MergerLine, 2015 saw the largest number of law firm combinations since MergerLine came into existence in 2006. 2016 was much quieter on the M&A front, instead bringing headlines of cyber threats, security leaks and hack aacks. Ability To Address/Mitigate Risks Survey respondents were asked how they would rate their firm's overall ability to address and mitigate risks. Although more than half felt capable of dealing with risk, these legal IT professionals expressed Risk 2015 2016 Change Cyber threats 40.91% 55.88% +36.60% Pace of technology 24.68% 22.06% -10.66% Mobile office technologies 22.73% 10.29% -54.70% M&A 5.19% 1.47% -71.68% 2016 responses showed a definite shift in responsibility toward general counsel rather than CIOs/CTOs or heads of risk/compliance. 71.8% CIO, CTO and IT 15.38% Other (unspecified) 6.41% Practice Support 3.84% Risk/Compliance 2.56% Partner/Executive Director

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