CASE STUDY

I need to identify how my legal function can perform even better.

With a high-performing legal team that increased five-fold from a sole counsel to a team of 5, this Chief Legal & Risk Officer wanted a roadmap to help his team to add even more value.

The Problem

This legal team on face value appeared to have few, if any, problems. It is highly regarded, technically brilliant and fielded a range of complex legal queries daily with ease.

The Chief Legal & Risk Officer was confident in his team but curious if there were more efficiency gains to be had.

The problem for the Chief Legal & Risk Officer was not knowing what he didn’t know. So he commissioned a legal function service review and recommendation report from Sian Wingate.

The brief included:

  • an objective view of the legal services delivery model

  • options to reduce the time burden for contract reviews

  • identifying ways to support the procurement processes

  • methods to better deploy the senior legal counsel to own and deliver legal service requests

I performed a comprehensive legal services review benchmarking exercise against my trademarked sole to scale legal operations framework, a best practice 16-point legal services delivery model.

I interviewed more than 30 personnel across the Office of the Ombudsman to gather a deep understanding of the legal services delivery model and opportunities to enhance it

The Process

  • Planning The scope of the gap analysis exercise was agreed with the Chief Legal & Risk Officer, Stuart McGilvray to focus on the delivery methodology, knowledge management controls and compliance support of Legal Services.

  • Current State Assessment A review of source information such as legal services resources and assets was gathered from within Legal Services and reviewed, including:

    > Existing policies

    > Systems overview (internal document management systems, intranet and team drives)

    > Legal Templates (including for procurement)

    > Training Materials for legal induction and organisation-wide training

    > Project Plans for existing legal team projects

  • Interviews This was supplemented by stakeholder and personnel interviews ranging from executive leaders to case co-ordinators and high-users of the legal services function

I focused on tactical initiatives that could be deployed using the existing team structure and within the same legal budget

The Results

  • A tactical plan was produced as key deliverable of the legal services review

  • The Chief Legal Officer implemented a raft of changes within weeks of receiving the report

  • The Chief Legal Officer reduced his handling of medium to lower risk legal service areas and successfully delegated to senior counsel freeing him up to deliver higher risk, executive level legal support

  • Longer term projects are now programmed into a legal work programme that is achievable over the next 12 months

  • The executive leadership team has an action plan to streamline their reporting process

What the Client Says

  • I was so impressed with how quickly Sian grasped the issues and could articulate them in a straightforward report that we can implement with ease

    Stuart McGilvray, Chief Legal Officer
    The Office of the Ombudsman

  • The experience of working with Sian was a real pleasure. She made us feel so at ease and her knowledge of how in-house legal teams really operate was invaluable. .

    Senior Solicitor
    The Office of the Ombudsman

  • Sian grasped the nuances of our reporting and risk structure effortlessly.

    Deputy Ombudsman
    The Office of the Ombudsman