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Law360 (August 18, 2020, 6:42 PM EDT) -- Almost a quarter of in-house lawyers surveyed have experienced a decrease in base pay and benefits during the coronavirus pandemic, and more than three-quarters said layoffs or hiring freezes have affected their workload, according to survey results released Tuesday.
About 24% of the 487 respondents in the Association of Corporate Counsel's poll on job security and talent management said their compensation has been reduced during the pandemic. Meanwhile, 38% said staff shortages have led to "some" effect on their workload, and nearly 22% said those changes have had "a lot" of impact.
For the survey, the ACC also asked the corporate counsel about job security. Half of the participants said their job is secure and they aren't worried about losing it, 26% said they are "a little" concerned, and nearly 15% expressed "some" worry about it. Just 6% said they worried "a great deal" about losing their job.
"This snapshot offers some encouraging news, especially that a majority of respondents are not concerned about losing their jobs or experiencing a reduction in compensation," Patricia Trudeau, vice president and chief administrative officer at the ACC, said in a statement. "That said, it also highlights the fact that many in-house counsel and law departments are not getting by unscathed, as they continue to face considerable personal and organizational challenges as a result of this pandemic."
As the coronavirus spread earlier this year, some in-house legal departments, like their law firm peers across the world, furloughed employees and cut salaries.
But unlike firms, corporate counsel aren't uniformly dealing with the financial effects. Those in customer-facing industries are feeling the pain a lot more than those whose businesses are more insulated from a downturn, according to legal experts.
The majority of in-house counsel who took the survey said they aren't thinking about switching jobs, while 17% said they are in the market to do so, according to the ACC.
"The survey results suggest that COVID-19 has impacted legal department talent management and in-house counsel job security, but not dramatically," the ACC said.
For the survey, which opened on Aug. 4 and closed on Aug. 10, the ACC invited 5,000 of its members at random to participate. It is the organization's fifth and final poll asking in-house attorneys to share how their departments are adjusting to the pandemic and its effects.
In an earlier poll that focused on telework, most in-house lawyers said their organization's work-from-home policy has changed in response to the pandemic, but the respondents were almost evenly divided on whether they think the adjustments will continue or be reversed once the crisis wanes.
The ACC also has found that nearly a third of in-house counsel surveyed are experiencing high or very high burnout amid the pandemic, and a majority say they are working more hours than usual.
--Additional reporting by Dave Simpson. Editing by Alanna Weissman.
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