A legal secondment brings a lawyer into your business for an agreed period to work alongside your in-house team. It provides capacity or specialist expertise without creating a permanent role. For General Counsel and Heads of Legal, this can mean greater budget control, flexibility and support for AI adoption.
Globally, flexible staffing is already part of many legal teams’ resourcing mix. The 2026 ACC and Major, Lindsey & Africa benchmarking report found that four in ten (42%) legal departments surveyed use interim talent to manage workloads. Furthermore, this figure rises to 74% in companies over $20B. This reinforces the use of legal secondments and contractors as a standard operating model used at scale within in-house legal teams.
How can legal teams meet growing demand without permanent headcount?
Keeping headcount flat does not stop legal work arriving. Meanwhile, routine contracts can leave experienced lawyers with little time for strategic priorities.
CLOC’s 2026 research found that only 32% of participating legal departments expected lawyer headcount to increase. However, workloads were rising in areas including regulatory compliance and cybersecurity. The international findings highlight the pressure to deliver more without a matching increase in resources. [1]
Similarly, Lawyers Weekly’s In-House Counsel Guide 2026 highlights rising regulatory expectations and pressure for faster advice. It also describes budgets struggling to keep pace with workloads. [2]
As a result, legal leaders need ways to close the gap without simply asking existing staff to work harder.
Use legal secondments to match your workload and budget
A legal secondment lets you agree the scope, rate, days and duration around a defined need. Consequently, you can plan expenditure without committing to a permanent role.
For example, a senior lawyer could independently manage a complex project. Alternatively, a junior or mid-level lawyer could progress routine matters with appropriate supervision. This frees experienced colleagues to focus on strategic work.
For recurring assignments, a secondee may also reduce reliance on external advisers. However, compare the total engagement cost with your current arrangements before assuming savings.
If priorities change, you can discuss adjusting the engagement, subject to agreed terms and availability.
Move AI from experimentation to everyday use with a legal secondment
Successful implementation also requires reliable information, clear governance, practical skills and measurable outcomes.
However, busy teams may lack the time or expertise to bring these elements together.
Alongside lawyers, Aclaria can embed legal, technology and operations specialists to support AI implementation. [3]
Depending on your needs, they can help:
- • Identify valuable use cases and redesign the workflows around them.
- • Prepare precedents, playbooks and knowledge resources for use with AI.
- • Establish appropriate governance, data safeguards and human review.
- • Configure and test tools, train colleagues and support adoption.
- • Measure changes in turnaround times, review effort and output quality before expanding successful pilots.
Importantly, privacy safeguards and human oversight should be built into the work from the outset. [4] In addition, training and knowledge transfer help your team retain capability after the assignment ends.
Talk to Aclaria about the capability needed to move your AI plans forward.
Control costs and bring in the expertise you need
Legal secondments can help reduce external spend, match capacity to demand and provide specialist expertise. Alongside this, embedded AI specialists can help build lasting capability.
Tell us where work is building up, which skills you need and your available budget. Together, we can scope flexible support around the outcomes your team needs.
References
2026 Law Department Management Benchmarking Report
1. Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC). 2026 State of the Industry Report: Rising Legal Demand Outpaces Budget and Staffing Growth, Forcing Operational Shift. 2 March 2026. Read the research summary.
2. Lawyers Weekly. Future-ready legal teams: In-House Counsel Guide 2026. View the guide overview.
3. Aclaria. Implement AI. Explore Aclaria’s AI implementation support.
4. Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). Guidance on privacy and the use of commercially available AI products. Read the guidance.
