We are honored to share this article, published by Stanford Law (law.stanford.edu), which was written with the insight and expertise of Renee Meisel, Chief Executive Officer, UnitedLex, and coauthors Adam Rouse, Tamra Moore, Kassi Burns, and Olga Mack.
Litigation is not disappearing, but the people who lead, draft, and direct it are changing quickly. Empirical studies show that corporate legal departments have steadily grown their litigation management responsibilities over the past decade (Annual Litigation Trends Survey, Norton Rose Fulbright (2025).
For many years, litigation sat firmly within the domain of law firms. (Wald, Eli, Getting in and Out of the House: Career Trajectories of In-House Lawyers, Fordham Law Review, Vol. 88, No. 1765, 2020 (June 22, 2020)). Corporate legal departments traditionally played a reactive role. However, based on numerous recent conversations with in-house legal leaders, legal operations professionals, and litigation experts, a different reality is taking shape. In this new environment, in-house counsel is increasingly producing the first draft, standardizing its litigation processes, and redefining how outside counsel fits into the workflow.
AI, analytics, exemplar libraries, playbooks, and modular document builders are key factors driving this transformation. Litigation is becoming modular, data-driven, and coordinated by in-house teams who seek more than cost savings, they want uniformity, transparency, and strategic leverage. This piece highlights five major trends in the legal landscape and offers predictions on how litigation workflows and relationships with outside counsel are likely to evolve in the coming years.
Read the full article HERE
