While we here at the Litigation Daily were asking big firm litigators what to watch for in the world of disputes in 2022, the folks at Baker McKenzie were putting similar questions to in-house legal and risk professionals at large companies.

Late last year, Baker McKenzie surveyed 600 senior legal and risk leaders from organizations based in the UK, USA, Singapore and Brazil whose annual revenue tops $500 million to ask about what they expect to see in 2022. While half the respondents said they expect the volume of disputes facing their organizations to remain flat this year from 2021, a third expect to see an increase. And nearly half – 48% – said they expect COVID-19 to be the biggest external factor driving disputes.