PROMPTS FOR SETTING UP A LEGAL FUNCTION

When you accept a job as the first legal adviser for an organisation, you will no doubt have had some opportunity to assess the sort of outfit you are joining. You should have some ideas of the attitudes of the CEO and other senior managers to legal services, the resources you will have and the 'honeymoon' if any which you will have to get up to speed with what needs to be done.

To the extent to which you have a chance to check that some of these things are in place before your arrival, all well and good. It is a bit disconcerting to turn up and find you have no desk, or the nastiest one in the office. Some of the items may fall into the ideal world category and you should not feel short-changed or feeble if you cannot obtain them immediately or achieve them all.

1. OFFICE EQUIPMENT AND SERVICES

• What space / budget is envisaged for desk, workstation, files, support staff?
• An enclosed office, with a good sized work surface (L shape recommended)
• A laptop with a docking station for the IT network, extra keyboard and a large (say 17'') monitor
• A printer and a fax facility, located conveniently for confidential documents
• Convenient access to a quality copier with collation
• Secure filing cabinets of which at least one should be fireproof.
• Mobile phone
• Internet access and e-mail account
• Depending on what dedicated support staff you will have, you need to establish what services are available within the organisation for:
• Document processing copying and faxing
• Ordering stationery - don't forget the business cards
• Post collections and courier services
• IT support
• Travel arrangements and taxis
• Meeting rooms and teleconference facilities (even if it is only 3 way calling)

2. SUPPORT STAFF

If you are allocated an existing secretary, you need to make a fairly rapid assessment of whether their skills and attitudes match your needs.

Prepare a job description which you can use for discussion / assessment or recruitment

Establish what budget there is for staff costs

Consider a temp to perm opening, so that you can both try each other out

Above all, remember that a good assistant, well managed and trained over time to provide real support can make all the difference between effectiveness and misery. Skills can usually be added, attitudes shortfalls are harder to fill.

You need to have basic proficiency in applications like Word, Excel and PowerPoint or whichever equivalents are used in the organisation.

3. COMMERCIAL AND ORGANISATIONAL AWARENESS

As part of the recruitment process, you will have had some information about the organisation, but you need to get up to speed rapidly on what the opportunities, threats, strategy and issues are. A good induction programme may be laid on for you, but if you are the first lawyer, this may not happen.

Set up induction meetings with key players at all levels, phased over the first three months. After all you have to do some work. Use those meetings to conduct a non-threatening legal review, by posing or leaving questions for them, as well as asking them to explain how what the priorities are for their areas of activity. You may want to use the legal risk models as agendas for discussion.

• Executive directors and their secretaries
• Company Secretary ( if you are not assuming that role)
• Key customer managers
• Purchasing manager
• Personnel manager
• Risk or insurance manager
• Functional managers for a regulated area e.g. health and safety, environment
• Anyone dedicated to business development
• Whoever is considered to be a regular user of legal services

It is a good idea to include a visit to a major centre of operations to get a chance to talk to one or two operators to get their perspective.

By the end of your first three months, you should have formed a reasonable idea of:

• Business strategy / plans
• Profitable areas
• Major customers
• Areas which are in difficulty or loss making
• Competitors - known and potential
• Significant suppliers
• Regulators who can affect the business to a material degree
• Review key documents, which may impact how you advise down the track
• Constitutional documents - Memo and Arts
• Organigrammes of entities and managers
• Any contracts with investors or co-investors e.g. joint venture agreements
• Contracts with finance providers
• Material contracts with major customers or suppliers
• Employment/staff policies
• Compliance policies
• Annual report
• Latest broker reports (if listed)
• Examples of promotional literature
• Manuals, notes or minutes which address corporate procedures and authority levels

If some of these documents are hard to locate, you may want to assemble copies for convenient reference. Don't unwittingly become the corporate filing service, unless there is agreement that you are to be resourced to provide it! Clearly if you are performing the Company Secretary's role, there is a different emphasis.

As you review more complex agreements, make synopses for your benefit and future ease of referral.

4. AWARENESS OF STAFF POLICIES/ATTITUDES WHICH MAY AFFECT HOW YOU OPERATE

• Hours of work
• Holidays
• Travel, especially in more comfort
• Use of car for business travel
• Working from home
• Availability when out of the office
• Internet access and use in the office
• Dress codes
• Entertaining at the company's expense

5. THE LEGAL SCENE

External advisers

Who are they? What are they currently doing and for whom?

Ask them for a status report of WIP, with estimated cost to complete and summary of what they have done over the last 2 years and what they charged for it?

Suggest that you meet them to review this information, once they have sent it to you. This should prevent the first meeting being unproductive.

As you progress your induction you should build up an internal picture and see how it matches.

Don't be too rapid to be the new broom and pull work back in-house or switch firms.

The law you need to know

Which legal topics do you need to reinforce or refresh?

Access to relevant articles -lawdepartment.net

Who are the experts?

Are there any round tables or in-house lawyer groups which are sector specific?

Bear in mind that demanding training in your early days can be disconcerting to an organisation, which thought it had recruited someone who knew what to do!

6. STRATEGY FOR LEGAL SERVICES

By the end of your first six months you should have made good progress in putting together a first pass at your strategy and had some discussions to test its validity and likely acceptance. It should cover:

What are you going to concentrate on?

What are you going to use external advisers for?

What should business colleagues be encouraged and expected to do?

It is worth remembering that some organisations will want to use their lawyers incoherently - one minute as people carrying out a tedious ministerial task and the next expecting true general counsel input. Even if you get your strategy accepted, you will have to deal with behaviour which cuts across it. Nevertheless no strategy condemns you to perpetual fire-fighting or drudgery.

7. SETTING YOUR OBJECTIVES

• You may have to agree this earlier than you would like, but ideally they should cover for the first six months:
  
• Building your commercial and organisational awareness (section 3)
  
• Familiarising yourself with the legal scene (section 5)
  
• Formulating a strategy (section 6)
  
• Preparing a budget (section 8)

Thereafter your objectives should be reviewed and agreed for performance purposes.

If your organisation or your boss does not operate an appraisal process, make it clear that you would like one after your first year.

8. BUDGET

• Professional memberships - make a judgement about including practising certificate
• Periodicals / database subscriptions - a one-stop shop like lawdepartment.net
• Reference Books - be selective. You are not setting up a law firm
• Travel - if you are choosing the destinations
• Training - law and management
• Equipment - unless covered elsewhere
• Office supplies - unless covered elsewhere
• Staff costs and benefits
• External advisers - the ones you instruct

9. SOME EARLY PRECAUTIONS

Make sure that there are some good instructions in place for the following:

Handling of summonses and writs being served

Arrival of officials to conduct a regulatory investigation

10. TIGHTROPE

You will be treading a tightrope of trying to please, impress, help and not inviting all and sundry to dump unwanted work or activities on the new arrival.

Filling up your day will not be hard.

Keep the survival tips for in-house lawyers handy and look at them regularly to give you the resolve to look at the bigger picture.

Establish as soon as you can who, internally and externally can help you in the balancing act and remember, performing is what it is all about!

GOOD LUCK

©2000 Lawyers in Business

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