10 Questions CEOs Should Ask GCs About the Legal Business Plan (#corpgov)

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!