Knowledge

Auditing the Legal Department

My top three audits for any legal department:

Client satisfaction audit. Satisfaction of internal clients and being recognised by them as a "strategic business partner" are top priorities for a majority of legal departments. Logically, auditing client satisfaction should be a top priority audit. 

Organisational efficiency audit. With the crisis and the pressure to do more with less, an increasing number of general counsel keep the eyes focused on improving the efficiency of the legal department. How do we do what we do, and how can we do it better? 

Outside counsel policy audit. Outside counsel are the natural partner of the legal department. But looking into the ways the legal department is dealing with outside counsel and looking for ways to improve it can lead to interesting discoveries and decision on matters from decision on what to outsource vs. what to keep in-house to selection of lawyers to letters of engagement to budget arrangements to instructions for specific assignment to evaluation etc.

Antoine Henry de Frahan | 16 August 2009 |