The size of the average in-house legal team across EMEA countries has increased by a third over the past year, according to research from legal recruiter Laurence Simons.

Internal legal departments now comprise 16 lawyers on average, up from 12 in 2013 and 10 in 2012. Over a quarter of departments said they have already recruited externally in 2014, and two thirds expect their team will increase further in size over next two years.