2026 Litigation Trends Survey: Midyear Pulse

Cybersecurity and data privacy have emerged as the leading sources of increased litigation exposure for corporate counsel since the start of 2026, according to a midyear poll of 135 corporate counsel across the energy, financial institutions, healthcare and technology sectors. More than half of respondents now report increased exposure at both the federal (56%) and state (53%) levels, well above what companies anticipated heading into the year.

Some key findings:

• AI-related litigation risk is elevated but fragmented. No single risk area is cited by a majority of respondents, with privacy violations (47%), bias or discrimination claims (43%) and regulatory investigations (42%) leading the list.
• Data breaches and workforce changes remain the top anticipated triggers of class action litigation in 2026, cited by 51% and 47% of respondents respectively, while AI-enabled product launches are emerging as a new catalyst at 41%.
• Despite rising exposure, legal teams report meaningful gains on cost and operational pressures, with 55% citing improvements in managing internal legal budgets and 71% saying outside counsel costs have stayed the same or become easier to manage.