In 2025, legal leaders face a challenging paradox: the very resource constraints that make their daily work difficult also limit their career advancement opportunities. However, large-scale legal projects present a unique opportunity for legal leaders to showcase crucial skills that can drive career progression—leadership capabilities, organizational expertise, strategic planning prowess, client communication effectiveness, and cost management discipline. Axiom's recent research, conducted in partnership with Wakefield Research, reveals how legal leaders can leverage these high-stakes projects to demonstrate the skills needed for advancement while addressing critical operational challenges.
The Resourcing-Career Progression Paradox
The data tells a compelling story: nearly half (47%) of legal leaders report their legal departments are under-resourced and unable to perform their jobs effectively. This resource constraint doesn't just impact operational efficiency, it directly affects career development. A striking 98% of under-resourced legal leaders also report challenges related to career progression in their current positions.
This creates what we call the "resourcing-career progression paradox." When legal departments operate with insufficient resources, many legal leaders, especially deputy general counsels, find themselves caught in a cycle where immediate operational demands consume time that might otherwise be spent developing the strategic skills necessary to advance to General Counsel positions.
Large-scale legal projects, while challenging, offer legal leaders the opportunity to break this cycle. By effectively managing these complex initiatives, legal leaders can demonstrate their ability to handle the strategic responsibilities required for advancement while addressing the resource challenges that typically hold them back.
Large-Scale Project Challenges in 2025
With 82% of legal leaders reporting challenges in effectively completing large-scale legal projects, the ability to address these pain points becomes crucial, particularly as regulatory shifts may trigger more such project. These challenges include:
- Talent Acquisition: 31% report difficulty finding or onboarding specialized talent
- Leadership Expertise: 27% lack the right legal expertise among team leads
- Project Volume: 27% have too many large projects simultaneously
- Staffing Bandwidth: 26% lack appropriate staffing capacity
- Compliance Complexity: 26% struggle with multi-jurisdictional compliance requirements
- Timeline Pressure: 25% face tight completion deadlines
Regional variations are notable: UK teams struggle more with staffing bandwidth (31%) and talent acquisition (34%), while US teams face greater challenges with external resource management (28%) and project volume (30%). These nuances become particularly important when managing international implications of US policy changes.
Successfully navigating these challenges presents career-defining moments for ambitious legal leaders. Those who can demonstrate innovative solutions to these complex problems position themselves as strategic leaders ready for greater responsibilities. Large projects become the proving ground where legal leaders can showcase their ability to overcome precisely the organizational and leadership challenges that separate middle management from executive leadership.
Strategic Resource Allocation for 2025
As we navigate the complexities of a new presidential administration and its ripple effects globally, legal leaders should consider these strategic approaches to resourcing:
1. Adopt Agile Resource Models
Create a flexible talent bench that can quickly adapt to changing regulatory requirements. This enables legal departments to:
- Rapidly respond to new compliance demands
- Scale up specialized expertise when needed
- Maintain core operations while handling surge work
2. Focus on Skill Development Opportunities
With 80% of deputy general counsels reporting they face career progression challenges, strategic resourcing can create space for developing the skills needed to advance to GC roles, including:
- Strategic leadership and governance (48% identified as crucial)
- People management (clear communication ranks as most important at 45%)
- Legal department management (41% cite business operations understanding as vital)
3. Optimize GenAI Implementation
While 94% of legal leaders believe GenAI's benefits outweigh its risks, implementation challenges require thoughtful resource allocation:
- Address AI compliance and regulatory risks (42% cite as primary concern)
- Provide comprehensive training (only 43% consider current training sufficient)
- Develop metrics to measure success (47% focus on efficiency and cost savings)
4. Balance Internal and External Expertise
When managing large legal projects in a changing regulatory environment:
- Use flexible talent for specialized expertise in new regulatory areas
- Reserve law firm engagements for high stakes matters
- Align your core team with business-critical ongoing operations
Each of these strategic approaches not only enhances project outcomes but also provides legal leaders with opportunities to demonstrate the executive-level skills needed for career advancement. By implementing these strategies within the context of large-scale legal projects, legal leaders can showcase their ability to think strategically about resource allocation—a critical skill for those aspiring to GC roles and beyond.
The Path Forward: Creating Value Through Flexible Resourcing
In 2025's dynamic regulatory landscape, the traditional binary model of legal resourcing no longer suffices. As 80% of legal leaders report they'll need to change employers to advance their legal careers, organizations risk losing valuable talent if they don't address the underlying resource constraints.
Flexible legal talent provides a solution that addresses both operational challenges and career development needs. By strategically deploying specialized expertise when and where it's needed, legal leaders can:
- Free up time to develop strategic leadership skills
- Gain exposure to board governance and corporate leadership
- Focus on building people management capabilities
- Develop cross-functional business alignment
- Navigate regulatory changes more effectively
For enterprise legal leaders in 2025, legal services partners beyond costly law firms—such as ALSPs, flexible services providers like Axiom, and digital talent marketplaces—enable agile team resourcing that accomplishes both immediate work needs and long-term career development.
Large legal projects thus become not just operational challenges to overcome, but strategic opportunities to demonstrate the value legal leaders bring to their organizations. By leveraging these projects as showcases for leadership, strategic planning, and resource management capabilities, ambitious legal leaders can build the portfolio of experiences needed for continued career advancement.
Want to explore more insights about the challenges facing today's Legal leaders and the strategic solutions that can drive both operational success and career advancement? Download Axiom's full research report for comprehensive data, actionable strategies, and peer perspectives on how to thrive in today's complex legal environment.
*Axiom commissioned Wakefield Research, a leading global market research organization, to survey 200 in-house legal leaders across the United States and United Kingdom.