Analysis: contracts, product consulting high-tech lawyer functions

In Bloomberg Law’s first State of the Practice survey, we asked attorneys what they think technology law will look like in 2022. For most respondents, that includes contracts, product consulting and general data privacy – not to mention some common pain points.

A fifth of the 507 law firm and in-house attorney respondents reported working on tech-related issues. These 104 technology attorneys work primarily in commercial contracts (62%), copyright and trademarks (44%), patents (43%) and corporate law (42%) – core areas of practice consistent with our 2021 Technology Marketing Survey results.

Drafting of contracts is by far the main legal issue dealt with by respondents (70%). Many respondents chose other transactional issues, including licensing new technologies (44%) and mergers and acquisitions (39%).

The majority of respondents (53%) regularly advise product teams, a role commonly referred to as a product consultant. This area requires a strong understanding of privacy policies, which most respondents (41%) regularly draft or update.

The graphic below outlines the legal issues and main pain points identified by respondents.

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Regarding the pain points, nearly half (47%) of respondents identified the need for technical knowledge, which will no doubt be useful in navigating the many emerging legal topics that form part of many of them, as illustrated in the figure below. Experiences of respondents.

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Echoing our 2021 technology survey results, privacy and cybersecurity dominate the topics respondents work on. But another topic that attracts attention and the majority of respondents (57%) – artificial intelligence. As several US agencies seek to prevent bias in automated decision-making and the European Union equips its regulators with tools to ensure algorithmic transparency, the spread of AI is on the rise.

Regarding the topics respondents are most likely to address in the future, digital currency and blockchain are tied for first place (37%). However, many respondents may not have implemented fintech-related topics (48% and 45%, respectively)—which may indicate that many companies are not yet convinced that investing in digital assets is the way to go.

Bloomberg Law subscribers can find practical guidance documents, tools, and reference materials on a variety of privacy and cybersecurity topics in the latest update. Privacy and Data Security Practice Center.

July 2022 Bloomberg Law Webinar topic examining the role of product counsel Privacy by Design: Considerations for Products, Transactions, and Supplier Managementis now available to all readers on demand.

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