An unexpectedly small percentage of corporate legal and compliance departments appear to be in the driver's seat when it comes to steering data privacy compliance programs, according to a new survey from Womble Bond Dickinson.

The law firm's 2022 State of U.S. Data Privacy Law Compliance Report, released Wednesday, also indicates that corporate leaders are overly confident about being prepared to comply with new state data privacy laws set to take effect next year.

"The main point we're trying to drive home is you actually need to dig in a little harder right now, because you're not as well-positioned as you might anticipate," said Tara Cho, a Raleigh, North Carolina-based partner at Womble who chairs the firm's privacy and cybersecurity team.