In-House Legal Tip: Get Your Legal Department Operating Authority

What Is A Legal Department Operating Authority?

The Legal Department Operating Authority ("LDOA") is an essential legal department policy that clearly defines the legal team's authority mandate. It is a vital corporate asset necessary to empower the performance of your in-house legal team.

Operating an in-house legal team that has not been properly enabled by an LDOA is like being asked to take your Business on a long journey in a car without wheels - it’s going to be bumpy and you may not get there, particularly if optimal performance is your goal.

There are no exceptions to this principle. 
 

Benefits Of A Legal Department Operating Authority

The LDOA enables the following: 

1) Operating Responsibility: the LDOA defines precisely what the in-house legal team is responsible for and drives internal understanding (and acceptance) of the legal team’s role. For many teams, this will bring an end to highly toxic internal “border” skirmishes around responsibility.

2) Resourcing Justification: a clear mandate makes it far easier for the legal team to make justified resourcing requests of the Business. The team has a clear mandate that the Business is either willing or unwilling to resource. 

3) Performance Validation: it is very hard for a legal team to be judged fairly if its mandate is not clear. The LDOA provides clear benchmarks against which legal team performance can be fairly judged.

4) Operational Efficiency: being clear on your team’s mandate promotes streamlined decision-making (and process delegation), and increases responsiveness by empowering the team to act promptly and with clarity, without unnecessary bureaucratic delays. 

There is a virtually-endless list of benefits that result from a legal team operating by reference to a clearly defined LDOA.
 

What Should A Good Legal Department Operating Authority Cover?

A good LDOA should cover: 

▪️ a clear mission / responsibility statement

▪️ the legal duties of the team

▪️ primary function articulation 

▪️ primary mandate articulation 

▪️ specialist role mandates 

▪️ special project mandates

▪️ global synergies & rationalization mandate

▪️ legal operations mandate

▪️ compliance management mandate

▪️ legal team management

▪️ external consultant management

▪️ corporate management mandate

▪️ reserved decision making

▪️ key offices inside the legal team

▪️ key team member roles & responsibilities

▪️ the team's functional roles & responsibilities

▪️ approved structure and reporting lines of the legal team

▪️ how the legal team's performance will be judged

▪️ recognized “value add” contributions

If you do not already have an existing LDOA, you can get one at: GLS Legal Team Operating Authority
 

Ready To Transform Your Legal Team?

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. 

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