Two thirds of legal departments are currently involved in employee safety issues and they expect return-to-work policies to be one of the top legal priorities going forward, as half of Chief Legal Officers (51%) anticipate their organizations will return to a normal level of operation in the first half of 2021, according to a Deloitte survey. Regulatory issues (47%), employee benefits (44%), contractual and supply chain impact (43%) and cyber issues (42%) come next in the top of the COVID-19-related legal issues, according to the survey respondents.
The majority of legal executives (78%) indicate their workload has increased because of COVID-19, as their departments address numerous pandemic-related issues while actively participating in business continuity and cybersecurity efforts and as cost-containment measures forced reductions in workforces. According to the survey, 81% of organizations that place cybersecurity among the top three legal priorities report having a plan to handle the legal ramifications of a cyberattack and 55% of organizations facing contractual and supply chain disruptions have started analyzing impacted contracts.