Law Department Management
Planoring
n the
f
year ahead
Creating a business plan not only provides objectives to
meet, but gives the legal department a focus when dealing
with the business units. Vawn Himmelsbach
In-house counsel is expected
to provide legal advice — but nowadays
that's just the beginning. They're also
expected to add strategic value and
advance the goals of the business.
But if the legal team is spending all
of its time putting out fires for the business units, there's not a lot of time left
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over to focus on strategy. A business
plan can help create an alignment of
priorities and plans with the business
focusing more on longer-term strategy.
Oftentimes the organization itself
has a business strategy, but the legal
department doesn't — at least not
one that's written down, says Richard
INHOUSE
Stock, founding partner of Catalyst
Consulting.
"Most legal departments don't
reduce it to a formal plan with targets;
they do it more intuitively or in reaction to things," says Stock. But coming up with a formal business plan
isn't difficult, he notes, and it offers a
