VisualizingtheLegalFunction
To facilitate communication within the legal department and explain the role of the legal department to other business units, it is useful to create a visualization of the legal function.
As Haapio and Barton convincingly explain in this book, visualizations can be a powerful communication tool. There are many ways to visualize an organization’s legal function. It will be a good idea to attune the visualization to (risk) management methodologies already in place within the organization. Another option would be to simply use the organizational chart as a starting point. The picture below uses a generic model for visualizing the legal function, based on Michael Porter’s classical model of the value chain. Every element of the value chain is linked to a set of questions about basic legal aspects. If a legal department were to start from scratch, these questions could be the basis for a first “legal inventory”. Depending on the answers and the context of the organization, relevant legal risks and opportunities should then be assessed and priorities set (Fig. 2).
Fig. 2 The value chain and the legal function
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