This is a new area of legal practice that our firm has exclusively initiated. If you compare with legal audits of what other law firms offer, ours is unique, deeper and much more juicer. You can take this to the bank.
In our approach we recognise that Board of Directors of a Company is statutorily responsible for the company’s system of legal control. It should set and approve appropriate policies on internal control and seek regular assurance that will enable it to satisfy itself that the system is functioning effectively.
The board must further ensure that the system of internal control is effective in managing legal risks in the manner which it has approved. In determining its policies with regard to internal control, and thereby assessing what constitutes a sound system of internal control in the particular circumstances of the company, the board’s deliberations should include consideration of the following factors:
- the nature and extent of the legal risks facing the Company;
- the extent and categories of legal risks which it regards as acceptable for the Company to bear;
- the likelihood of the legal risks concerned materialising;
- The Company’s ability to reduce the incidence and impact on the business of legal risks that do materialise; and
- The costs of operating particular controls relative to the benefit thereby obtained in managing the related legal risks.
The key deliverables that one would expect in the legal audit that we undertake include:
- A comprehensive legal audit report;
- A matrix on how to monitor and evaluate past, present and future legal risks;
- Focused, tacit and independent legal opinion on highly contested matters; and
- A Board Statement on Legal Risks Adaption for the Company.
- We also train in-house counsels on how to manage the process on their own.