GLS: The Real State of In-House Legal – 2025/26 in 7 Minutes

Introduction: A year in review and an accurate pulse check

Most year-end review pieces in legal sound the same. A lot of hype, a lot of prediction, and not much resemblance to how most in-house teams actually operate.

This one is different … and I am hoping that this will be one that you actually want to read – as it concerns what you do for a living – in-house lawyering.

It’s not a glossy take on the future of the in-house industry. It’s not built around an “AI will fix everything” narrative. And it’s not written for teams with big transformation budgets or dedicated legal ops squads – of which few exist.

It’s written for the average in-house legal team / lawyer dealing with the real world. It is written for you! There are 25,000 other people just like you in the GLS Legal Operations Community.

Over the past year, we’ve been working closely with in-house teams all across the World, seeing first-hand what actually played out in 2025 - what worked, what didn’t, and where well-intentioned efforts quietly ran out of steam.

We’ll look at what legal teams focused on in 2025, where effort paid off, where it didn’t, and what we think real success will look like as teams head into 2026 – given the constraints most of us are operating under.

No fairy dust. No big promises. Just a grounded view from the trenches, intended to help you think more clearly about what comes next.

So – perhaps grab a coffee – and let’s do this!
 

2025: The Vibe, The Reality, The Things We Don’t Say Out Loud

Let’s start with what mattered most to you in 2025: the in-house job market.

If the year had a soundtrack, it was caution on repeat. Hiring froze. Movement slowed. If you were hoping to move, you likely stayed put - not for lack of ambition, but because the upside wasn’t worth the risk. Everyone knew it.

There was bloodletting, but it was incremental, not dramatic. No slash-and-burn restructures - just quiet, targeted exits. Under-performance remains harder to address than it should be, and many who should have moved on bunkered down. When conditions tighten, leaders see exactly who they’re carrying.

That reality forced a hard recalibration. With headcount frozen, protecting top performers became non-negotiable. If you can’t hire, you retain — and you stop carrying passengers. Many teams used 2025 to quietly lift the floor, knowing rougher waters lie ahead.

Meanwhile, in-house resourcing had its theatre moment. Short-term assignments increased. Interim roles multiplied. Agency fees (20–30%) were justified as “non-recurring” costs. Finance liked the optics.

The reality was different. Continuity suffered. Knowledge leaked. No one owned the glue. It was a false economy. Flex if you must - but design for continuity, treat knowledge as an asset, and stop paying for theatre.

For in-house lawyers, the year felt paradoxical. Transformation rhetoric dominated, yet lived experience was static: fewer roles, fewer moves, and more pressure to do more with less - with no cavalry coming.

Which is why retention became the quiet obsession of every smart leader. When the seas are rough, you don’t just need your best sailors on deck — you need them to know they matter.

So yes - workloads picked up–but ironically not just because of headcount freeze. In 2025 internal change drove a lot of volume - reorgs, transitions, other people’s transformation projects you had to stabilize and steer safely. 

And here’s another surprise: morale stabilized. The Brownian motion of the last couple of years slowed, and most teams settled into a pressure - cooker–but a more familiar one. Busy doesn’t mean broken. Sometimes it just means things are moving. The industry seemed to have developed greater acceptance that in-house is “a busy place to be”. 

Budgets? Everyone provisioned for next year–but for many a little less than last year. That trim is telling: efficiency talk is real, spend is tight. But for some, the discussion around budgets evolved in a better direction. 
 
The smart teams we worked with stopped asking for “more legal budget.” They walked in with investment cases - modelled returns in time saved, cycle time reduced, self-service adoption up, business enablement increased. Finance can fund clarity. They can champion ROI. They cannot and will not reward entitlement in this climate. 

This is significant. When times are tough the business looks at costs savings – and an in-house legal team with the right leadership can deliver substantial time and cost savings. It’s a reliable outcome that just needs to be leveraged and embraced. If you can find time to focus on it. Which most cannot / choose not to do. 

This leads to a really interesting point – in-house transformation has definitely changed its fuel source. Three years ago, we thought fear would power the train. “Transform or else.” Today? That’s not what’s driving the teams who actually moved. The winners didn’t act because someone was cracking the whip - they acted because they saw the upside. They wanted the win - and they got it. 

There is no scope to “scare people to act” when it comes to transformation. Whilst it is accepted by all – that in-house needs to evolve how it operates - the reality is that there is still too much legitimate corporate “cover” allowing in-house leaders to do nothing. 

So, if that is you - if you choose to sit it out, nobody’s firing you for it. But if you’re the type who sees the upside - who wants to build a legal function that gets more done without heroics - this was your year. And you know it. 

CLMS projects remained the place where good intentions continued to go and die in 2025! The CLMS trend continued unabated – in many cases without any consultation back to the in-house legal team. Well done IT and Procurement teams! 

Buying “feature lists” instead of systems that fit your process remains the #1 mistake. You can’t buy your way to a better operational state with demos and slideware. Process first. Then tech that fits your reality. If your CLMS conversation doesn’t start with mapping your “as-is” workflows, you’re setting money on fire. 

AI threw kerosene on the bonfire - mostly misunderstood. Boards asked, “What’s our AI strategy?” with this silver-bullet expectation. The reality: agentic systems are emerging–but the wins today are in operational chatbots (templates, approvals, routing, FAQs). Advisory-grade agentics? Still quite some way off. Keep humans on the loop. 

Highlight. Low-tech, high-yield kept winning. Playbooks. Clause banks. Intake. The boring basics delivered the biggest shifts. If you don’t have formal intake, you don’t have data. And if you don’t have data, you don’t have ops. That’s the ladder. Skip rungs and you fall. 

Highlight. A.I based contract review tech matured. Prices trimmed, capabilities clarified, limits understood. Adoption stayed low. That’s a miss. You don’t need bleeding edge; you need faster triage, cleaner issue-spotting, and fewer hours spent on structured review. “Just enough” tooling should be standard. If you’re not using it, you’re throwing away hours you could invest elsewhere. 

2025 gave us a verdict on the work from home caper - and it’s brutal. It works for senior lawyers. It is a disaster for juniors. Full stop. If you’re a junior lawyer and you think working from home in your pyjamas is a career hack, think again. Most of your learning comes from what you overhear, what you see, and what you absorb in real time. If seniors aren’t in the office, you aren’t progressing. That’s not opinion. That’s fact. 

Expect the pendulum to settle at two days WFH - max - not five – and for many – none! And, if you’re junior, avoid teams that live on video calls. Your career velocity matters more than comfy pyjamas. Seniors? You have an obligation to develop juniors. If you’re hiding behind Teams, you’re failing them. 

Your law firm – they are definitely working harder to keep your relationship – but sadly there is nothing they can do to make the Business of running a law firm or your in-house legal team cheaper! Through all the talk of fixed, caps, value this and that – their invoices still hit with the “thud” of a car crash. You would love to use them more – but you cannot afford to. 

Obviously, a lot of other things happened – but the above seem the most noteworthy. 

So – what does 2026 hold and what will the “winners” be doing?

The winners won’t chase hype. They’ll chase clarity and compounding wins that won’t bend them out of shape but which will add up fast. 

They’ll repeat a proven formula for transformation change. They will start with a current-state assessment - a data-based view of how they’re performing and where the bottlenecks live. Not a beauty parade. A truthful baseline. You can’t fix what you have if you don’t know what you have. 

From there, they’ll benchmark against peer departments - similar industry, similar scale, similar complexity. Benchmarking only works when your mirror looks like you. This keeps the outlook real – you are not Google – so don’t try and replicate what Google has. 

And you will be doing lots of things well – and the focus will be on leveraging that – nothing fancy, no cost – keep doing more of what you are already doing well. Amazing – who would have thought of that! 
They’ll also build a wish list that’s more than a wish. A long-form specification of what they want the legal team–or a specific process - to become. Clarity beats aspiration every time. 

Understanding what your team “can become” in the current market of steady new innovations that can make a difference will remain key. But it’s not an easy ask. However, for in-house leaders – keeping up with change and considering what it means for you “is now part of the job!”

And then they’ll ruthlessly socialise what they could be. They’ll reduce the list to bare minimums based on change capacity, GLS-style prioritisation logic, budgets, business importance, and the ability to validate resources. That discipline is the difference between shipping and grandstanding. 

2026 is about ruthless discipline. The Golden Rule? Don’t broker transformation initiatives unless you’re 95% certain you can deliver. Reduce scope until success is a no-brainer. Implementation must be small and incremental - no big bangs, no bets on big tech magically fixing what broken process refuses to admit. Ship frequent, low-risk releases people can feel week to week. 

Of course, some will choke - and choke badly. The big players with fat budgets? “MNC-itis” will remain incurable in 2026. Cue the million-dollar consultant decks preaching that big problems need big, bold, expensive solutions. And off they’ll sprint into the quicksand. GLS recovery crews will be on standby in three years to unwind the mess. 

But back to the positive! With guaranteed wins to mind - the contracting function will take centre stage because it’s more mature, more visible to internal clients, and tethered directly to revenue. There are loads of easy interventions that deliver back time and money to the Business. 

Wins here count - and they count loudly. It is safe ground to operate on – and the footprints of success are clearly laid out in the sand to follow. Big gains, low risk. No excuses. 

2026 will also be about a widespread acceptance that legal service intake must be real and mandatory – it is the gateway to data, ops, and prioritisation. No excuses. If we cannot make a legal service request protocol stick then legal tech-led transformation is a pipe dream. So, in-house leaders must start there – it’s a brilliant litmus test for what kind of change capacity exists in your organisation. 

And yes - despite all the warnings, leaders will still want that “tech win” for the snap-crackle-pop effect. And that’s fine. In 2026, the smart teams will make it count by standing up tools that actually solve pain points - like an ops chatbot that kills the interruptions chewing up your day: Which template? Who approves? What’s the process? Simple, visible wins that free up real time. 

And there’s no shortage of safe bets. Operational agents that route and classify. Automated clause banks that surface the right language fast. AI reviews that make issue-spotting less manual. Frame these as operational lifts, not magic tricks. They’re low-risk, high-impact–and they work. Advisory chatbots? Still too soon. Keep humans in the loop and keep the hype in check. 

CLMS will still flirt like a flame. Even our most disciplined clients will feel the pull. The difference this time is they’ll undertake a readiness assessment, define the specification they need, and use data analytics to drive the decision. That alone will be a major victory. Just spend a few minutes looking at the direction and speed of the traffic before you cross the road – it just isn’t that complicated. GLS CLMS rescue teams will be called out to help those that skip this step. 

Retention will get deliberate in 2026. The best people won’t just be kept - they’ll be invited into the plan, upskilled, and trusted with broader responsibilities. Pastoral care will matter because when seas turn, you want your best sailors on deck. For those who “get on the bus,” this will be a year of serious career acceleration. 

For the A-team of in-house - careers will diversify, skillsets will broaden, and hybrid roles will become the norm. The best leaders will formalise hybrid skill paths, reward enablement over heroics, and sit down with their A-players to give them ownership of the plan. We saw the rise of energetic 35–50-year-old in-house leaders doubling as legal ops champions in 2025. In 2026, they’ll shine even brighter. 

Yes, there’ll be some pushback against the inevitable from the rank n file of in-house world - time-based analysis, intake protocols, and governance don’t always land softly. But the winners will take the medicine and keep moving. Blend the vegetables into the pasta, and most won’t notice - they’ll just taste progress. 

And the winners amongst in-house leaders? They’ll be in the boardroom talking transformation in a language the business actually understands - time saved, cost cut, agility gained. They won’t be asking for budget; they’ll be showing ROI. Big ROI. Thirty-times-your-investment kind of ROI that no CFO can ignore in this climate. And they’ll prove it, quarter after quarter, reporting like a product team - clear metrics, visible wins, undeniable impact. That’s how you make transformation irresistible. 

Law firms will still be part of the picture - but 2026 won’t be easy for them. Expect redundancy programs and a lot of belt-tightening. The upside? Tough times tend to sharpen the edges–firms will get leaner, more candid, and more focused on value over hours. 

But let’s keep it real: law firms are built for advisory, not operational reinvention. No matter what diet you put the elephant on, it’s never walking through the doorway of your average home. So use firms for what they’re brilliant at - the big outdoor jobs - and stop trying to make them fit inside your house. 

And thankfully – 2026 is going to be about putting our juniors back in the room. Hearing how work gets done is not nostalgia. It’s how you build lawyers. Two days WFH is the steady state at the most. If you’re junior, dodge teams that live on video. Your career velocity matters more than comfy pyjamas. 

The big-end-of-town predictions? Let’s be honest - they make great headlines, but they’re mostly written for Magic Circle law firms and the largest, best-resourced legal teams. They’re outlier narratives dressed up as industry trends. They don’t reflect the lived reality of most in-house teams. Still, for completeness - and because it’s always fun to see what the hype machine is selling–here are some of their calls, with our reality check alongside. 

“AI as the operational backbone” isn’t going to define average teams in 2026. Your wins live in ops AI, not advisory. 

“Legal – Compliance - Risk fully integrated” exists in some giant MNCs; for most, silos still hold. Integration starts with shared workflows and common data, not org charts. 

“Strategic partnerships everywhere” is nice if you can swing it; most teams still need targeted support - measure partners on enablement and ROI. 

“Tech stack convergence saves us” sounds tidy; workflow convergence matters more. 

“Global compliance pressure intensifies” is true; don’t freeze, build repeatable controls and automate the boring. 

“Responsible AI governance is universal” should be true; write it down and live it. 

Back to reality. The teams that do the work in 2026 will deliver results you can touch - palpable, verifiable, engineered. Their best year yet. Time and cost savings flowing back to the business, often in multiples of their entire legal budget. Success won’t be luck; it’ll be designed. And those teams? They’ll be celebrated. 

For everyone else, it’ll be more of the same - busyness, reactivity, and the endless heroics that look impressive while you quietly fall behind. And here’s the kicker: you won’t pay for it in 2026. Your job will be safe because everyone knows in-house is busy. Phew! But the point will be missed - just like the opportunity. 

Conclusion: Engineered Wins, Not Fairy Dust

2025 stripped the theatre away. It proved fear doesn’t fuel transformation anymore–ownership does. It reminded us that “busy” isn’t progress, that CLMS without workflow truth is a bonfire, and that AI without scope and governance is just noise. 

It showed that low-tech leverage still rules: intake, playbooks, clause banks, and simple, operational agents beat slideware every day. It forced a clear view on people: protect your A-players, get juniors back in the room, reward hybrid leaders who can enable - not just advise–and be honest about resourcing optics that leak continuity and knowledge. 

It was also the year budgets got smarter. The teams that won didn’t ask for more; they showed modelled returns and reported like product owners. Law-firm invoices still landed with a thud; use them for the outdoor jobs they’re built for, not indoor ops. And yes - corporate cover exists. You can do nothing and be fine. Overworked, reactive, safe. But you will miss the opportunity sitting in plain sight. 

So, 2026 is not about chasing headlines. It’s about engineered, compounding wins. Make intake mandatory and make the data real. Benchmark against true peers so the mirror doesn’t lie. Turn wish lists into specifications, then ruthlessly socialise them until they fit your change capacity. Ship small, frequent releases people can feel. Start where the wins are loudest - the contracting function - because it’s mature, visible, and revenue-tethered. Stand up the ops chatbot that kills interruptions. 

Take the low-risk tech lifts: routing/classification agents, automated clause banks, AI reviews that triage without pretending to replace judgment. Treat CLM as a decision driven by readiness and data, not demos. Speak ROI to finance and report returns quarterly. Retain your best sailors, upskill them, give them ownership. Put juniors back in earshot of how work gets done. 

Ignore the big-end-of-town narratives as defining truths. They describe the few, not the many. Your path is simpler: discipline, clarity, consistency. If you choose it, you’ll deliver palpable, verifiable results–time and cost savings that easily outstrip your budget, cycle times that shrink, self-service that rises, a function that finally feels engineered rather than improvised. 

If you don’t, you’ll stay busy. Safe. Comfortable-ish. And unchanged. 
You already know which side you’re on – and for those that are on the “right side” – we will no doubt see you in 2026!