Dive Brief:
- Increases in legal disputes, the changing regulatory environment, more eDiscovery, and ambitious company growth strategies are the prime reasons why employers expect to spend more on labor and employment issues over the next year, according to a new survey.
- Proskauer, the international law firm, released of its inaugural Value Insights: Delivering Value in Labor and Employment Law survey this week, and the firm reports that one of the study’s most surprising findings is that 23% of respondents say they expect to boost legal spending.
- When asked the top two ways they are advised of labor or employment disputes, 88% of respondents said that hearing directly from HR was most likely, followed by 43% who reported receiving a letter from a claimant’s lawyer.
Dive Insight:
Elise Bloom, partner in Proskauer’s Labor & Employment Law Department and co-head of the firm’s Class & Collective Actions practice, said that her firm sees the increasing challenges employers face in managing labor and employment matters.
Other survey results found that 74% of litigation is handled by outside counsel, and 65% of those surveyed reported that responsiveness is the most important criterion when selecting outside litigation counsel. In the growing area of arbitration in the workplace, just 30% of those surveyed have arbitration agreements in place, and only 14% require such agreements for the entire workforce. Half of respondents with arbitration agreements say they reduced litigation, but 37% were unsure. Regarding savings, only 35% were confident that arbitration reduced costs.
