There's good news out there in LegalLand. According to The Pittsburgh Business Times, 
the Association for Corporate Counsel conducted its ninth annual survey of in-house legal departments and found that more than half surveyed are feeling the pinch from tough economic times. (Well, that's not the good news, obviously.)
The survey polled 5,300+ members with 619 responses. More than half of the companies polled work at companies with 1,000 or less employees and have revenues of under $500 million.
ACC President Frederick Krebs stated that the legal landscape had changed and that CLOs must change the way they manage their legal departments. Almost 80% of the respondents have implemented practices to implement time and cost savings. Nearly half said they increased the utilization of paralegals.
Transactional work is the area that respondents expect to spend the most time in the coming months.
I hope that law firms are utilizing the same practice of increasing the utilization of paralegals. We have heard from some paralegals that increased duties also include more secretarial work, more office management work and technology. What have you heard?