Almost half of the in-house legal departments in Australia anticipate cuts to their legal budgets this year, according to a survey by London-based research firm Acritas included in a report jointly published by Thomson Reuters.

The report, published earlier this month, found that 45 percent of the 73 senior legal counsel surveyed in Australia expect legal spending cuts in 2019.

This rate is nearly twice the global average, which had 24 percent of the 1,703 respondents saying they expect cuts. In comparison, 26 percent of 408 respondents in the United States foresee budget cuts, and the rate in China was 14 percent based on 56 respondents.

Meanwhile, the workload for corporate legal departments has increased, according to the report, citing as factors global economic and political uncertainty, increasing regulatory requirements and heightened scrutiny of corporate behaviours. In February, a year-long public inquiry into misconduct in Australia's banking and financial service industry ended with a final report calling for tougher regulations.

As in-house legal teams in Australia continue to do more with less, general counsel have been looking to improve efficiency with innovation. The report indicated that 48 percent of 143 general counsel in Australia implemented "innovative solutions" to handle legal work in the past two years, including investing in document and data management systems, as well as contract management and generation software.

In-house lawyers also increasingly expect external counsel to be more practical, as opposed to the black-letter law technical approach, the report said. Out of 213 respondents in Australia, 16 percent of in-house teams favoured law firms that demonstrate commercial sense, compared with just 4 percent of 1,155 respondents in the U.S. and the global average of 5 percent from 4,696 respondents.

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