Inside Client Intelligence1 MIN READ
1. KPMG launches 2026 Global General Counsel Outlook
KPMG published its 2026 Global General Counsel Outlook, based on a survey of 468 general counsel worldwide.
Source: KPMGclient-intelligenceGC & Buyer Behaviour
KPMG published its 2026 Global General Counsel Outlook, based on a survey of 468 general counsel worldwide.
Relativity said part two of the 2026 General Counsel Report found generative AI adoption in corporate legal departments nearly doubled year over year, with 87 percent of general counsel reporting use within their teams versus 44 percent in 2025.
Thomson Reuters Institute’s 2026 State of the UK Legal Market says client demand remains steady but buyers are more selective, with spend growth cooling and expectations rising around commerciality and AI-enabled delivery.
Conventus Law argues that outside counsel guidelines need to move beyond billing, resourcing, expenses and reporting to govern how firms use AI for research, drafting, review and analysis.
Relativity and FTI Consulting’s General Counsel Report series continues to position capacity pressure, provider management and automation as connected GC priorities.
GC AI’s vendor-authored outside counsel management guide frames 2026 as a portfolio question: which work belongs outside, which belongs inside, and what AI moves the line.
Thomson Reuters' 2026 State of the Legal Market has put a name to the central tension in the buyer-firm relationship: the "client value squeeze.
The Axiom 2026 GC Report (500+ senior in-house leaders, eight countries) reveals that while 96% of in-house legal teams have adopted AI in some capacity, only 31% have initiated wide-scale implementations.
KPMG's 2026 Global General Counsel Outlook, based on 468 senior legal leaders across 28 jurisdictions, finds the GC role shifting from gatekeeper to strategic leader.
UC Berkeley Law's Advanced Program on Law and Innovation (APLI) surfaced a live tension in the market: many outside counsel guidelines (OCGs) contain AI prohibitions drafted in 2022–2023 that now directly conflict with current in-house client expectations that firms use AI to reduce costs.