This is
a very interesting article. The outline of the 10 questions is:
1) Does
the legal plan manage risk and maximize opportunity?
2) Does
the legal plan reflect company input?
3) What
is "must do" versus "nice to do" in the legal plan?
4)
What's the ROI here?
5) Is
our risk profile improved?
6)
What's the value-add here?
7) Will
efficiency improve?
8) Will
quality improve?
9) Are
there appropriate and adequate resources to execute the plan?
10) How
will we know the plan is being executed and whether it is having a positive
impact on the business?
Some of
the questions are pretty tough, but that does not mean that we should not
address them. From discussions with various GCs I think there is a lot of
challenge particularly around questions 4 and 6. However, the article gives
good examples. Others to consider might be: what is the impact of the
registration of a trademark on future potential costs of enforcement not only
with respect to trademarks but also with respect to cyber-squatters using that
trademark in the URL? What is the potential saving from a good compliance,
anti-fraud and anti-corruption program to future investigative costs, penalties
and damage to reputation? I bet Wal-Mart could now put some figures around that
one!
