In-house lawyers at multinational companies flagged cybersecurity and data privacy as their top disputes risks heading into 2025, according to Baker McKenzie’s annual disputes survey.

The Global Disputes Forecast 2025 survey – the eighth edition of the report – showed that 45% of respondents said cybersecurity and data privacy was their greatest disputes risk, closely followed by artificial intelligence (44%) and employment (32%). Commercial and contracts, as well as tax, was flagged as a risk by 25% of respondents.

Meantime, 85% of respondents said they expect their disputes spend to increase or stay the same over the coming year, indicating the disputes landscape is not slowing down. Organisations are also increasingly concerned about class actions and investigations.

Vinod Bange, a partner at Bakers in London, said: “We are at an inflection point where cyber risk is concerned. With technological advancement – such as AI and other drivers for digital transformation – as well as the increased global geopolitical threat, it’s not hard to see why we are witnessing a rapid increase in cyber-attacks right across the eco-system.”

Of those respondents most concerned about cyber risk, 70% said investigations and enforcement action, including fines, were the primary reason for their concern. Some 44% are also worried that their insurance policies may not fully cover damages caused by cyber attacks or could lead to disputes over claims. Another 41% said cyber and data compliance issues in their supply chains was a driver of their concern.

Meantime, for those respondents that are most concerned about AI, 60% of those said that issues around data privacy and security were their biggest worry, followed by ethical disputes (59%) and IP disputes (55%).

Isabella Liu, a partner at Bakers in Hong Kong, said: “Companies should remain savvy in monitoring AI developments across legal disciplines – not just IP-related case law and legislative developments, but also existing privacy and sector-specific regulation as well as emerging horizontal AI regulation – to develop a strategy to manage legal risk and maximise opportunities.”

When it comes to employment disputes, 42% flagged issues around restrictive covenants and noncompetes as the main risk.

The survey was based on responses from 600 senior in-house lawyers from a range of sectors, based in Brazil, Hong Kong, Germany, UK, US and Singapore.