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Legal and Compliance Top Priorities 2022
Legal and Compliance Top Priorities 2022
Disruption factors
Economic Regulatory Instability Shifts in Public Values and Business Model Operational
Uncertainty and Fragmentation Expectations for Changes Change
Companies
Emerging Geopolitical Instability and Macroeconomic Labor Shortages Continued Supply Chain
COVID-19 Variants Uncertainty Volatility and the Great Resignation Disruptions
Top 5 Challenges for Legal & Risk and Compliance
(sample)
Main categories and activities should account for your major responsibilities but
exclude operational responsibilities (e.g., responding to emails).
Assess the strategic importance and comparative advantage regarding each activity identified in Step 1
Comparative Advantage
• Do others possess the
skills, tools and experiences
Legal necessary to complete
Expertise the task?
• Does the work require
specific expertise
• Does the work require an
executive or enterprise-level
perspective?
• How urgent is this task?
Step 3: Delegate
3. Delegate early
Delegate appropriate tasks as soon as they reach to
ensure adequate time for completion.
1
.
.
Key Benefits of Effective Strategic Planning
1
Properly aligns legal and
compliance’s goals and
strategic objectives with
those of the company. Aligns Department
Goals With
Company Goals
2
Clearly defines the purpose
of the legal and compliance
Establishes Success department and establishes
Defines Goals
Measures and realistic goals and
Objectives objectives.
4
Provides measurements of
progress and establishes
a mechanism for informed Ensures Effective
change when needed. Use of Resources 3
Ensures effective use of the
department’s resources by
focusing on key priorities.
Step 5: The strategy must support the most critical goals
Process for Building a Strategic Agenda (example)
Corporate Goal
The goal is clear, outcome-oriented, and
challenging but realistic.
Compliance’s Goal
Objectives
The Legal and Compliance functional activity map can help prioritize department investments by assessing the
function’s current performance across core objectives.
Step 7: Sample Legal Strategy on a Page
.
6 shifts to make in the legal operating model within 12 months. (suggested plan )
Executing these shifts will enable the legal department to guide the business more effectively
Value driver: The unique contributions and outcomes that the department delivers to the business
- Assess issues rapidly with business-unit leaders to understand how legal creates organizational drag.
- Ensure that leadership consistently champions and incentivizes adherence to processes and technology
- Legal must move beyond providing cost-efficient legal advice, and focus on the speed with which it develops appropriate guidance and efficient governance so business partners
can quickly make good risk-adjusted decisions and pivot with changing conditions
Service portfolio: The essential function and services (e.g., contract drafting and review) the department provides to the business
- How legal services are accessed and consumed by the business units
- critical capabilities, competencies and alignment (to the business) of both individual roles (GC,) and department In fact, 20% of legal department time spent on unplanned, high-
urgency work is wasted.
- Focus on what legal can do to drive the biggest impact on enterprise decision making,
- Understand organizational goals and prioritize enabling legal’s contribution to the decisions needed to meet those goals
- Align resources to decisions that pose high risk to business goals or have high legal and operational uncertainty.
- Agree with functional and business leadership on appropriate service levels for upcoming corporate decisions. Determine which upcoming decisions pose novel legal questions;
codify guidance and try to integrate into business partner workflows. Use business outcomes to evaluate service offerings and decommission legal support as needed.
- Network of law firms, alternative legal service providers, project management support and other non-legal providers.
- Types of common legal work mapped to the tasks within each matter category, and the most efficient and effective providers for each task
- Identify strengths and weaknesses of potential providers. Align providers to tasks and risks accordingly (at the right cost).
Technology strategy:
- Active experimentation with capabilities of modern foundational platforms (e.g., Office 365, Google Workspace) and promising situational technologies (e.g., advanced contract
analytics.
- Identify and prioritize technology solutions which can improve legal processes, operational capabilities and business outcomes.
- Work with stakeholders to identify future needs, pressure-test hypotheses and co-create potential solution designs.
Talent strategy
- Skills gaps and mix are identified and adjusted and processes reengineered to align to skills.
- Lawyers and nonlawyers have skills that help build organizational resilience, including analytics, technology, process management and change management skills.
- HR and legal work closely to identify untapped skills within the department, borrow talent from other functions and hire outside of traditional pipelines to find qualified talent.
- HR and legal to create a shared skills inventory across the organization to find available talent with skills to support legal.
- Motivate legal staff to build important new skills by changing goals and incentives