In-House Legal Tip: Write down your Policies

1 min • 19 Apr 23

A formal policy is one that is written down. Anything less than that is just one person’s preferences.

Most people dislike the impact of excessive policies on their lives. However, in the in-house legal environment, a good “policy foundation” is a pre-requisite for optimal team performance.

All too often many in-house legal teams fail to commit essential tasks, processes and outcomes to a policy format i.e. “in writing that is available to those that need it”.

The results are less than ideal outcomes, including:

Uncertainty: regarding positions, processes, outcomes, etc.
Delegation: is impaired due to the inherent uncertainty as to who, what, where and how things are to be done.
Informal: policies carried in one’s head are merely preferences.
Tool Adoption: an inability to define the process rules required to deploy legal tech e.g. CLMS, automation, A.I. review tools.
Productivity: is adversely impacted by the above.
Compliance: is harmed by the above.

The in-house legal environment is one of the few domains where performance genuinely depends on the quality of your policy infrastructure.

Whilst we all might have a love/hate relationship with policies – if your legal team does not have the right policy foundation – it is simply wading in treacle.

Also, can you add this to the bottom of every Legal Ops Tip Blog

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Please check out the GLS solutions and know-how resources listed on the right side of this page – they might assist your legal team with the issues explored in this Blog.