Legal Service Organisation

SMEs rarely have an in-house legal department and only appoint a legal advisor when a specific need arises.
However, this reactive strategy can lead to unnecessary risks, high costs and complications in managing business relationships.
Kenning Consulting offers an agile, efficient in-house legal service model, tailored to the needs of SMEs, without the need to hire a lawyer.
This document describes the characteristics of the project, the steps to a good implementation and the benefits to the company.

Legal service agile and efficient
The internal legal service designed by Kenning Consulting is based on speed and practicality.
To achieve these results, standard contracts are prepared for each function/department manager to avoid delays in formalising agreements.
Rather than introducing a draft contract at an advanced stage of negotiations, these legal documents must always be available, with only the blanks to be filled in.
This ensures transparency from the outset and avoids unnecessary misunderstandings with customers and suppliers.

A streamlined, business-oriented service
The project focuses on the most relevant business activities.
Following the 80/20 principle, once the most important business cases have been outlined and grouped, a set of standard contracts is prepared that can be used as needed.
The administrative manager plays a key role in the management of the internal legal service.
He is the person who supervises all the processes, coordinates with the external lawyer and adapts the texts of the contracts to the specific needs of the company, without legal technicalities.
His contribution is crucial because his knowledge of the business and his use of clear language enable him to draft standard commercial contracts.
This allows him to integrate the legal function into the day-to-day management of the business without creating an additional workload.
This is a new role for him, but thanks to greater management efficiency, he is able to reduce the ex-post workload, for example for administrative controls, which are very burdensome.

Optimised management of contractual deadlines
A fundamental aspect of the legal service is the correct management of contractual deadlines.
To this end, the following are put in place:
A system for monitoring deadlines and renewals.
The parameters of the document management system for modifying, archiving and retrieving the various documents.
The rules and procedures for avoiding errors or resolving them promptly.

Project Implementation

1. Development phases
The Kenning Consulting project follows a structured path that includes
Initial analysis: Evaluation of the main business activities performed and the most commonly used contract types.
Risk definition: Identification of potential incidents that may arise in the management of customer and supplier relationships.
Regulatory review: Ensure compliance with national and international legislation.
Document organisation: Implementing an IT system to store and manage contracts and other legal documents.
Training: Training staff on the correct use of standard contracts and compliance with internal legal procedures.

2. Role of the legal advisor
The legal consultant actively participates in the development of the legal service organisation project, both by reviewing contracts and by providing assistance in specific cases.
Long-term cooperation with the external company's professional allows for cost reduction and the provision of a constant and high quality legal service.

3. Staff commitment
The success of the project depends on the broad participation of all staff, who must also understand the importance of legal aspects in business management.
Therefore, clear procedures must be applied to ensure that each agreement with third parties is complete with all the appropriate documentation.

Benefits for the Company:

1. Professionalism and Legal Security. Having simple, easy-to-read, well-packaged contracts and defined procedures conveys an image of solidity and organization to customers, suppliers and consultants.
2. Reduction of Costs and Conflicts. The model allows you to have continuous and quality legal advice without the need to hire a lawyer. Furthermore, preventing conflicts and formalizing agreements correctly allows you to minimize legal disputes with significant savings.
3. Efficiency in Contract Management. When the company has standard contracts ready for the various cases, it has the advantage of optimizing the administrative management of relationships with third parties, furthermore having a system for controlling deadlines and renewals avoids non-compliance and unwanted automatic renewals.
4. Successful Completion of Tax and Legal Audits. A well-structured internal legal service ensures regulatory compliance by eliminating the random factor typical of tax and legal audits.
5. Improves Business Organization. From administration to commercial management, having an internal legal service provides cross-wise benefits, improving coordination and reducing risks in all business functions.

Conclusion
With a tailor-made in-house legal service, the SME not only improves the legal security of the company, but also optimises operational and administrative management.
With the model proposed by Kenning Consulting, the company can have an efficient, sustainable legal service adapted to its needs, allowing it to adopt better tools to compete with larger companies with greater resources.
In short, this project is not only an investment in legal security, but also a key strategy for the long-term growth and sustainability of the company.