More than nine in 10 corporate employees say in-house legal teams play an important role in revenue operations, including through contracting and negotiations, according to Onit’s 2023 Enterprise Legal Reputation Report.

Overall, 53% of non-legal enterprise employees say the legal department helps accelerate deal cycles, a five percentage point increase from the prior year’s report.

When asked about contract renewals, 64% of survey respondents cited the positive impact legal departments have.

“Nowhere is Legal more materially impactful than the revenue generation process,” the report said.

Along those lines, slightly more than three in four (76%) respondents highlighted Legal’s negotiation skills as a key factor in revenue generation.

The report’s research, which was conducted in November 2022, features insights from 4,000 enterprise employees and 500 corporate legal professionals spread across the U.S., U.K., France and Germany. 

Employees from finance, HR, IT, marketing, procurement and sales teams were among those whose views contributed to the report’s findings.

Procurement

Procurement is another area in which legal teams are seen as making important contributions to the broader business.

More than half (54%) of enterprise employees across the four countries rate legal departments as having a positive effect on procurement.

In the U.S. alone, nearly two-thirds of enterprise employees rate Legal as having a positive impact on procurement.

“With so much attention in today’s economy on EBITDA and margin controls, maximizing Legal’s impact on operations and procurement processes serves as a positive focal area for efficiency-hungry enterprises,” the Onit report said.

Room for improvement

Efficiency is an area where many enterprise employees believe legal departments have room for improvement.

For the second year in a row, just 41% of the surveyed employees find Legal to be efficient compared to nearly three in five (59%) who do not. 

In the U.S., 44% of enterprise employees perceive in-house legal teams as efficient, a 10 percentage point increase from a year ago.

Additionally, 35% of enterprise employees see Legal’s role in sales and revenue cycles as “very efficient” and believe it’s an area where the legal department triumphs the most. 

“This is proof positive that Legal’s effect on materiality is real,” the Onit report said.