Carolyn McNally

Legal process outsourcing (LPO) isn’t new—and after decades in practice, its limitations are hard to ignore. The model allows law firms and in-house teams to delegate routine legal tasks to external service providers at lower costs, promising reduced overhead, scalability, and specialized expertise—but at what cost?

If 2024 was a year of transformation for in-house legal departments, 2025 has been a year of mobilization. Legal teams worldwide faced an incredible convergence of challenges: regulatory upheaval, accelerating AI adoption, a hidden talent retention crisis, and mounting pressure to demonstrate strategic value while managing constrained budgets. With 79% of legal leaders reporting elevated risk due to regulatory and business uncertainty, the profession reached a critical inflection point.

Your legal team looks healthy on paper. Employee satisfaction surveys come back positive. Compensation is competitive. Everyone seems engaged in meetings. But beneath that surface calm, you’re likely sitting on a retention time bomb. Our latest research reveals a sobering truth: nearly half of in-house legal professionals are actively job searching, even when they report high satisfaction with their roles.