EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients.
How EY can help
-
Our entity compliance and governance team can help bring efficiency, risk reduction and cost transparency to your compliance and governance. Learn how.
Read more
Key research findings
This report, the third in a series based on a comprehensive survey of 2,000 business leaders (see “survey methodology”) by EY Law and the Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession, examines insights from over 900 interviews with law department leaders who oversee their organization’s legal entity management process. The interviews revealed key insights into the challenges and opportunities facing legal departments
- Limited resources: Many law departments rely on tax and finance functions for help with legal entity management processes, creating coordination challenges and increasing risk for the business.
- Talent: 87% of General Counsel report their department spends too much time on repetitive tasks such as legal entity compliance. Nearly half (47%) report that high volumes of this kind of work are hurting employee morale.
- Technology: While a majority of organizations use purpose-built legal entity management technology, 96% currently report challenges with their systems.
- Cost: 88% of law departments are under pressure to reduce cost, and entity management is an area where many are looking to realize savings.
- External sourcing: Two-thirds of organizations use multiple providers to manage their legal entities, which can lead to increased costs and lack of consistency. The rest use a single global provider and are realizing significant benefits over those who use multiple providers.