A Checklist is a structured list of essential steps, criteria, or requirements that must be confirmed as met (or determined to be irrelevant) in relation to a specific legal or business process.

Checklists serve as powerful productivity tools, enabling legal teams to standardize processes, ensure consistency, and reduce human error.

A well-designed Checklist enhances legal team efficiency, accuracy, and quality assurance, ensuring that all critical factors in a legal review or business decision have been properly addressed.

Checklists help streamline workflows, mitigate risk, and ensure compliance by embedding structured guidance into routine legal and contracting processes.

Given their ease of implementation and high impact on legal team performance, checklists are among the most cost-effective tools available to enhance legal department productivity.

Legal teams that fail to utilize checklists are more prone to inconsistencies, missed details, avoidable legal risks, and increased review times.

Checklists can be tailored to support a variety of legal and contracting processes, including:

◼️ Contract Review Checklists: Ensuring all key legal, commercial, and risk factors are addressed before contract execution.

◼️ Compliance Checklists: Verifying adherence to regulatory and internal compliance requirements.

◼️ Negotiation Preparation Checklists: Structuring key positions, fallback options, and approval workflows before negotiations.

◼️ Dispute Resolution Checklists: Ensuring all dispute-handling steps are followed in line with contractual and legal obligations.

◼️ Due Diligence Checklists: Standardizing assessments in M&A, regulatory reviews, or supplier vetting.

◼️ Litigation Readiness Checklists: Ensuring key documentation, evidence, and procedural steps are prepared for dispute management.

◼️ Contract Obligation Monitoring Checklists: Tracking key deliverables, milestones, and compliance obligations.

◼️ Risk Management Checklists: Identifying and assessing key contractual and legal risks before decision-making.

◼️ Internal Legal Process Checklists: Streamlining legal team workflows such as contract approvals, policy updates, or legal service requests.

◼️ Technology Implementation Checklists: Ensuring structured adoption and integration of legal tech solutions.

In GLS legal ops, the Checklist enabler is considered both a "Foundational" and "Repeater" resource within legal operations.

A Foundational Resource: Plays a key role in determining the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of legal processes—if not optimized, legal workflows become fragmented and inefficient.

A Repeater Resource: Used across multiple legal functions, ensuring standardization in contract management, compliance, dispute handling, and risk assessment.

A well-structured Checklist framework improves legal team productivity, reduces risk exposure, and enhances legal service delivery consistency.

The best practice features of a Checklist framework include: 

◼️ Standardized Criteria: Ensuring all checklists follow a structured, repeatable format.

◼️ Risk-Based Approach: Prioritizing high-risk areas for enhanced scrutiny.

◼️ Clear, Concise Language: Making checklists user-friendly for legal and non-legal personnel.

◼️ Integration with Legal Workflows: Embedding checklists into contract and compliance processes.

◼️ Real-Time Tracking & Audit Trails: Documenting completion of checklist items for accountability.

◼️ Customizability: Allowing teams to modify checklists based on specific business needs.

◼️ Collaboration Features: Enabling multiple stakeholders to contribute to checklist completion.

◼️ Digital & Automated Formats: Leveraging technology to integrate checklists into legal management systems.

◼️ Regular Updates & Refinement: Ensuring checklists remain aligned with evolving legal and regulatory requirements.

◼️ User Training & Awareness: Educating teams on effective checklist usage for optimal performance.

The Checklist enabler delivers significant value to the business:

◼️ Increased Process Efficiency: Reduces time spent on repetitive legal reviews and risk assessments.

◼️ Standardization Across Business Units: Ensures legal and compliance consistency.

◼️ Reduced Legal Risks: Minimizes the likelihood of overlooking critical contractual or regulatory factors.

◼️ Improved Contract Quality: Ensures contracts are thoroughly reviewed before execution.

◼️ Enhanced Compliance & Governance: Strengthens internal controls and regulatory adherence.

◼️ Faster Decision-Making: Ensures structured review processes that prevent unnecessary delays.

◼️ Lower Legal Costs: Reduces reliance on external counsel for routine legal checks.

◼️ Greater Business-Legal Alignment: Ensures commercial teams follow structured legal review processes.

◼️ Stronger Stakeholder Confidence: Improves clarity in legal decision-making and execution.

◼️ Scalability for Growth: Supports business expansion by ensuring legal processes are repeatable and efficient.

The Checklist enabler provides the following benefits for the legal department:

◼️ Reduced Legal Review Burden: Streamlines repetitive tasks and ensures thoroughness.

◼️ Improved Risk Management: Ensures no key legal risks are overlooked.

◼️ Increased Accuracy & Consistency: Standardizes contract and compliance assessments.

◼️ Faster Legal Approvals: Reduces delays by ensuring completeness before review.

◼️ Optimized Legal Team Workflows: Enhances efficiency and prioritization of legal matters.

◼️ More Effective Use of Legal Resources: Ensures lawyers focus on high-value tasks.

◼️ Greater Internal Client Satisfaction: Ensures business units receive structured legal guidance.

◼️ Enhanced Technology Integration: Supports legal automation initiatives.

◼️ Stronger Knowledge Retention: Ensures legal processes remain consistent despite staff turnover.

◼️ Higher Quality Legal Outputs: Enhances contract review, compliance monitoring, and dispute resolution quality.

A Checklist framework is essential for:

◼️ Legal Teams: To streamline contract, compliance, and dispute resolution workflows.

◼️ Procurement & Sourcing Teams: To ensure vendor contracts meet compliance requirements.

◼️ Sales & Commercial Teams: To manage customer contract quality and risk.

◼️ Compliance Officers: To ensure regulatory obligations are consistently met.

◼️ Operations Teams: To track contractual and operational obligations effectively.

◼️ Finance & Risk Officers: To assess financial and risk implications of agreements.

◼️ Contract Administrators: To standardize contract management tasks.

◼️ Legal Operations Teams: To integrate automation and efficiency into legal service delivery.

◼️ Senior Executives: To ensure corporate governance frameworks are consistently applied.

◼️ External Legal Counsel: To align external reviews with internal checklist protocols.

A business that does not implement a Checklist framework will face:

◼️ Higher Legal Error Rates: Increased risk of overlooking critical legal issues.

◼️ Inconsistent Review Processes: Legal and commercial teams work without standardized criteria.

◼️ Longer Review & Approval Times: Increased inefficiencies in contract and compliance workflows.

◼️ Higher Legal Costs: Greater reliance on external counsel for avoidable legal tasks.

◼️ Weakened Compliance Frameworks: Greater likelihood of regulatory breaches.

◼️ Greater Risk Exposure: Poor contract oversight increases legal and financial risks.

◼️ Inefficient Legal Workflows: Repetitive tasks consume excessive legal resources.

◼️ Reduced Knowledge Retention: Legal teams lose institutional knowledge due to lack of structured checklists.

◼️ Lower Business-Legal Alignment: Disorganized legal processes create friction with commercial teams.

◼️ Limited Technology Utilization: Missed opportunities to automate legal review processes.

Implementing a Checklist framework requires consideration of:

◼️ Digital Checklist Tools: Ensuring checklists are accessible and interactive.

◼️ Workflow Automation Integration: Embedding checklists into contract and compliance workflows.

◼️ AI-Powered Compliance Monitoring: Using automation to track checklist adherence.

◼️ Version Control & Audit Trails: Ensuring compliance with checklist execution.

◼️ Collaboration Platforms: Enabling team-based checklist completion.

◼️ Scalability & Customization: Ensuring adaptability across different legal functions.

◼️ Cloud-Based Access: Allowing secure, remote checklist management.

◼️ Integration with Legal Ops Systems: Aligning checklists with case and contract management tools.

The GLS Knowledge Centre has a wealth of resources available for learning more about the importance of the Group Legal Policy and how you can effectively implement one - check out a few on the right.

The GLS Legal Operations Centre contains everything you need to effectively implement your own tailored Group Legal Policy in a cost-effective and timely manner. Check out the resources linked on the right. 

Also, feel free to contact GLS to book a consultation to discuss your Checklists needs right here.