We can help businesses across all sectors to understand the way they interact with law and regulation and stay on top of the legal risks they face. Our firm specialises in a broad range of corporate and commercial legal matters (such as commercial contracts, corporate, data privacy, disputes, IP and technology) and is equipped to assess the legal risks that our clients face and to help prevent or deal with them.
Risk is pervasive in today’s busines world. From globalisation and digitalisation to increased regulation and scrutiny, businesses in all sectors face new challenges on a daily basis. These challenges can often lead to the need for businesses to change or transform themselves to survive and thrive.
We understand that risk and reward are two sides of the same coin. Without risk, there is no reward. Taking risks can improve business performance and deliver on business goals. Taking no risks can lead to failure.
Legal risk, however, can act as a brake on the competitiveness of business. It can lead to financial and reputational loss if not manged properly. Legal risk covers all areas of business where the law and regulation impact on operations and decision-making.
Top 5 legal risk categories:
- Legislative / regulatory (legal, compliance, change of law)
- Contractual (contract terms, contract management)
- Non-contractual obligations (ethics, conduct, duty of care)
- Non-contractual rights (IP protection, management)
- Disputes (assessment, management)
Effective management of legal risk is key for businesses to maximise value whilst minimising cost and exposure to legal losses. It enables better decision making, helps businesses to be more competitive, reduces claims, protects reputation, improves insurance coverage, saves costs and instils confidence in the market and with key stakeholders (e.g. members, lenders, investors).
Legal risk mapping
We aim to build trusted and longstanding relationships with our clients and, therefore, fully understand their business, their strategy and the legal risks they face.
We can help our clients map their legal risks, which is a process to identify, understand (assess and evaluate), manage and mitigate the legal risks they face.
Legal risk management and mitigation
We can assist our clients with legal risk management and mitigation.
Legal risks can be managed in essentially five ways:
- Avoid the risk
- Eliminate the risk
- Transfer the risk
- Reduce the risk
- Accept the risk
Legal risks can be mitigated in various ways, including by:
- Corporate governance and structure of the business
- Updating / drafting internal policies and procedures
- Providing training at all levels of the workforce
- Updating / adding / amending clauses to a contract
- Implementing changes in the business practices
- Streamlining processes
- Issuing notices and alerts
- Extending insurance cover
Empowering staff
We can help businesses train their staff to be legally attuned, ensuring that they have a good level of legal awareness to be able to do their jobs with confidence.
Training the entire business to be legally aware and compliant is vital. We have found that a combination of holding roundtables or workshops (face to face sessions) and briefing notes, model documents with commentaries and FAQs can be very effective. Key information can be communicated informally (for example at staff meetings) or formally (using online training).
Positive pre-emptive action can also be taken to reduce governance risks by training and ensuring that business managers are up to date on the impact of the law on their jobs.
Having well briefed staff who are confident in dealing with regular issues and who know where to turn for unusual or major issues is probably the best form of internal risk management.
In summary, our risk and compliance service can help your business:
- on good governance, ethics, controls, structures, policies and processes
- understand the legal boundaries within which it operates
- map legal risk and help identify, assess, manage and mitigate legal risk
- ensure a consistent approach to legal risk across the business
- keep pace with legal and regulatory change
- upskill and empower your staff to be legally aware.
This in turn can help your business to reduce claims and losses, save costs, protect reputation and gain business advantage.