Yesterday, Norton Rose Fulbright released the 2025 Annual Litigation Trends Survey, it’s 20th annual survey on litigation issues and trends!
The 2025 Annual Litigation Trends Survey (available here) is based on a survey of more than 400 general counsel and in-house litigation leaders in the United States and Canada in industries such as financial services, technology, healthcare, energy, retail, real estate and construction, among others. The research also includes findings from in-depth interviews with corporate counsel to more fully understand the concerns and priorities of industry leaders.
This year’s survey shows 70% of respondents reported involvement in at least one regulatory proceeding in 2024, compared to 61% in 2023 and 50% in 2022. Nearly half of respondents – and 60% of those with more than US$1 billion in revenue – expect to see more regulatory investigations and proceedings against their organizations in the coming year, though areas of exposure may shift under the Trump administration.
Corporate counsel also expect to see more litigation (61%) and uncertainty (73%) in regulated industries following the Supreme Court’s overturning of the Chevron deference doctrine, with the majority of respondents predicting a more cautious approach to developing new regulations (70%) and anticipating more specific or narrowly-written laws (64%).
Other findings of note include:
- Eight in 10 respondents said they were increasingly concerned with the growing prominence of “nuclear verdicts” – unexpectedly high jury awards – over the past 12 months, heightening the importance of pre-trial settlement.
- The top litigation areas in 2024 are likely to remain a concern for organizations in 2025. Employment and labor and cybersecurity and data privacy remain the top two most common types of litigation in 2024, extending trends from the previous year, and are still the areas of most widespread concern for 2025.
- Corporate counsel are more confident in their litigation preparation despite anticipating more lawsuits in 2025. The share of respondents who say they are “very prepared” to address litigation over the next 12 months jumped to 43% from just 29% last year.
- Nearly three-quarters (73%) of respondents are supportive of outside counsel’s use of generative AI to help with litigation work, but more than half (56%) say it has been challenging to manage the surrounding legal risk.
The 42-page report, which is chock-full of additional stats and graphics, is available here. It’s a must read every year!
So, what do you think? What do you find most interesting about the 2025 Annual Litigation Trends Survey report? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.
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