A benchmark on progress, a blueprint for action:
Introducing the S&B Activate Index
Clients tell us they want to share knowledge with their peers — benchmarking activity and finding more effective ways to enable growth, mitigate risk and adapt to regulatory change. That’s why we’ve built the S&B Activate Index.
The Index measures the distance between where businesses need to be and where they actually are. It’s a regular tracker of progress on the priorities that matter most to in-house counsel and the barriers holding their businesses back.
These priorities have been determined based on upcoming law and prevailing market conditions, and future editions will change to reflect new shifts. This edition focuses on M&A, geopolitical risk and digital readiness. Three areas in which we know organisations need to take action now.
The S&B Activate Index is our latest initiative designed to bring clients the insights they need to achieve their goals. It’s the result of many conversations with our legal community, and we believe it will spark many more.
Managing Partner
About the research
The Index draws on the perspectives of 100 senior legal professionals in UK-based mid-market businesses. Research was conducted in June 2026.
To form the Index, responses are converted to a 0–100 scale, where higher scores indicate greater progress. Scores are averaged within each dimension and then combined to produce the overall S&B Activate Index, with each dimension contributing equally to the final score.
legal directors, general counsel & heads of legal
of companies have international operations
average turnover
mean increase in turnover last year