Scott Ewart

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Legal Departments are always managed by General Counsel who are very talented lawyers.  Their careers have been focused on the law itself and traditionally they have not had general management experience or training, and often learn their skills on the job.  They can overlook the benefit of putting a Functional Business Plan in place and, as a result, the Legal Department is not managed in the most effective and productive way.

 

One of the early skills learned by all general managers is the benefit of the operational plan which defines the targets for a department consistent with the goals of the organization.  Such plans also provide tactics to meet both the mid-year and year-end goals.  General Counsel often do not create these plans and, as a result, at year end review time have difficulty demonstrating to the CEO the value both the General Counsel and the Legal Department has generated for the organization during the past year.

 

The answer to this problem is the creation of a Legal Functional Business Plan with appropriate scorecard measuring progress against a set of pre-determined objectives agreed with the CEO.  Without the rigour of this process, a CEO might be hard pressed to see what the Legal Department has delivered, particularly when he is evaluating the performance of other departments.

 

Legal Functional Business Plans provide a framework that link the Legal Department to the objectives of the organization.  In addition, this Plan can provide other benefits for the management of the corporate Legal Department, namely:

 

1. more cohesive Legal Department and organization working relationships;

2. all Lawyer activities linked to, and delivery of, the business objectives;

3. defined lawyer accountabilities with improved year-end performance reviews;  and

4. reduced organization risk through active management of litigation and major contracts.

 

A Legal Functional Business Plan linked to the goals of the organization will help the General Counsel demonstrate to the CEO at review time the value the Legal Department has generated over the prior year.