In-House Solicitors: Trends Going Into 2026

In-House Solicitors: Trends Going Into 2026

The Journal of the Law Society of Scotland recently ran a special series on in-house practice, including a feature on what the next phase looks like for in-house solicitors (trends, challenges and opportunities in 2026 and beyond). It is a useful prompt, because it frames in-house as a discipline in its own right, not “private practice, but inside a business”.

From 2026 onwards, in-house teams will be pulled closer to decision-making while the risk landscape keeps widening. The solicitors who thrive will be those who combine strong legal judgement with practical operating discipline.

Legal as a decision partner, not a last-minute checkpoint

In-house solicitors are increasingly judged on speed, clarity and commercial usefulness. The role sits where risk, strategy and execution meet, which means spending less time reacting and more time shaping the system around you: intake, triage, playbooks and stakeholder habits. A&O Shearman has argued the in-house model is under strain from cost pressure and rising complexity, with technology accelerating change.

The workload problem is real, so the workflow has to be real

The most common failure mode is unmanaged demand: “quick questions” without context and urgency that is never tested. The fix is unglamorous but effective:

• A visible intake route
• Triage rules (what legal handles, what business owns, what gets escalated)
• Playbooks for repeat issues (NDAs, procurement positions, basic HR queries)

These are not “process for process’ sake”. They are how you protect time for the matters that carry real legal risk, real money, or real reputational impact.

AI becomes normal, but professional duties stay the same

By 2026, AI will be present in most corporate legal stacks, often embedded in tools teams already use. Governance matters more than novelty. Regulators have been clear that confidentiality, privilege and accountability do not change because a tool is involved. In-house solicitors are often the ones who end up turning that principle into day-to-day working rules.

A workable “house rules” approach:

• Approved tools for approved use cases (draft structure, summarise non-confidential text, research on public sources)
• A short “never input” list (personal data, privileged strategy, client identifiers, full document bundles)
• Human review for anything that influences advice, negotiation stance or external statements

If you want one simple test for colleagues: if you would not paste it into an email addressed to a room of strangers, it does not belong in a public AI prompt.

Data protection and AI compliance land on the 2026 calendar

In the UK, the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 updates parts of the data protection framework, with changes phased in between June 2025 and June 2026. For in-house solicitors, that means privacy work needs a timed plan, not a future intention.

For organisations operating in the EU market, the EU AI Act is applying progressively, with further obligations due from August 2026 and beyond. The implication is that legal cannot treat AI governance as a one-off policy. It needs to be built into procurement, vendor oversight and product change control, so new tools do not arrive “fully live” before anyone has asked the basic questions.

Corporate accountability keeps expanding for in-house solicitors

Two developments already in motion will continue to shape the “beyond 2026” agenda for in-house solicitors.

First, the UK failure to prevent fraud offence came into force on 1 September 2025, supported by government guidance on what reasonable prevention procedures can look like. In-house legal often becomes the translator between policy and process: aligning teams on ownership, documenting decisions, and making sure evidence exists if the organisation is challenged.

Second, Companies House began rolling out legal identity verification requirements from 18 November 2025, phased over 12 months. It is a governance task with operational consequences, touching filings, appointments and how corporate information is maintained.

Legal operations becomes part of the in-house solicitor’s job

Legal departments are increasingly expected to show how they manage spend, cycle times and repeat risks. Legal ops thinking is no longer a specialist add-on. Wolters Kluwer’s 2026 outlook points to more data-driven management, smarter delivery models and stronger vendor management.

If you track nothing else, track:

• Volume by matter type
• Cycle time for key processes
• What drives external spend

Those three lines give you a reliable way to answer leadership’s real questions: what is coming in, what it costs, and what can be prevented or standardised.

People, pressure and influence

In-house roles can feel relentless because colleagues are also the client, and priorities shift mid-day. Sustainable performance is increasingly more-so about boundary-setting with credibility: being able to say “yes, and here is the timeline and trade-off”, or “no, unless X changes”. That approach protects the team and improves service, because it forces the organisation to surface what is truly urgent.

A short checklist for 2026

• Put intake and triage on rails, then protect it

• Standardise repeat advice into playbooks

• Set AI rules that staff can follow day to day

• Plan DUAA-related updates before June 2026

• Coordinate fraud prevention and Companies House verification work across the right functions

• Share simple reporting with leadership on volume, cycle time and spend

Conclusion

What 2026 and beyond holds for in-house solicitors is more influence at the heart of the organisation. The strongest teams will build repeatable workflows, adopt technology with discipline, and treat data handling as everyday professional practice.

FAQs

What will senior leaders expect from in-house solicitors in 2026?
Faster decisions, fewer surprises, and a visible grip on risk and spend.

How can in-house solicitors use AI safely?
Use approved tools, keep confidential and personal data out of public systems, and build in human review for advice and external outputs.

What DUAA timing should we plan around?
The changes are phased in between June 2025 and June 2026, so 2026 is when many organisations need updates completed.

Why does Companies House identity verification matter?
It affects corporate governance and filing processes, so delays can become operational disruption.