Making more effective use of legal budgets

Today’s organisations are awash with legal compliance risks. This may be laws (e.g. health and safety), regulations (e.g. advertising standards), or contractual arrangements with employees, suppliers or purchasers. In order maintain a successful business, legal risks need ongoing attention, in a not too dissimilar way that business finances are controlled.

Larger organisations employ a company secretary to be the champion of legal compliance. A good company secretary will proactively control legal risks, ensuring that matters don’t end up in expensive legal action. In addition he or she will maintain channels of contact with legal representatives (such as solicitors) to ensure the best legal advice is available relative to the legal expenses budget.

With over a decade’s experience of working with solicitors and legal budgets, I find ways to mitigate costs without increasing risk. Here are some examples of what I can deliver:

• build a contract register to monitor and maintain contractual compliance;
• review existing commercial arrangements and alert directors of potential risks to the business;
• undertake a legal and regulatory audit bespoke to the business and its sector;
• review existing legal solutions to ensure cost is not disproportionate legal risk; and
• set up and maintain a panel of solicitors (and in doing, mitigate the risk of over reliance).

Use the legal compliance service as part of a company secretarial package or a standalone piece of work.

Consider this... businesses and lives are wrecked on a daily basis because owners and directors didn’t consider the legal compliance risks they faced. In addition, companies spend huge amounts of money entering into litigation or negotiating compromise agreements. No amount of preventative action can completely remove legal compliance risks and directors can’t be prevented from taking reckless decisions, but surely its better act on fact than to act in ignorance? 

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