In the last five years [1], the in-house Legal function has been immersed in a process of unprecedented growth and consolidation that entails in practice a really deep transformation [2].

The degree of acceleration and depth of changes in the social, cultural, economic and political framework that derives both from the existing technological revolution and the great challenges that society must currently respond to, place the in-house Legal Function in a leading role. This role demands an increasingly professional, open and dynamic model of governance and management.

This deep transformation that organizations are undergoing, is combined with the external pressure made by several stakeholders. Civil society itself, regulatory bodies, public administrations, clients, suppliers, shareholders, financial entities and investment groups have a much higher awareness and developed a culture of sustainability, transparency and ethics that demands companies safeguard these values [3].

To respond to the above challenges, the Legal Function is migrating from a culture of a reactive and preventive approach towards a culture that is proactive, open-minded, innovative, technological, collaborative and integrated with the organizations they belong to.

In this transformative process, the Legal Function finds an essential base in in-house legal counselling and also establishes solid alliances with a wide range of networks, both internal and external, that interact and contribute to it. We refer to law firms, ALSPs, legal services consultants, technology service providers, legal engineering technology profiles, process engineering profiles, IT departments, cybersecurity, risks, compliance and a long etcetera depending on each organization.

Understanding the root causes and consequences of this large transformation, pushing its development towards an increasingly mature governance model and contributing to its dissemination, were the reasons that served as the starting point for the Book “The Government of the Legal Function in Organizations: Legal Operations, Innovation and Digitization” which was published this week by Thomson Reuters, promoted and directed by Miguel González Inés and including a foreword by Lola Conde.

This collective book (available in Spanish language) is the first compilation ever published in the Spanish market- on the in-house Legal Function. The book provides a comprehensive and integrated vision of the multiple operations carried out by the in-house Legal Function and highlights the essential role it is called to play in the strategy and operations of the organizations. This role is to contribute to the achievement of the company’s business objectives while ensuring that the business activity is carried out within a framework of corporate governance and compliance ruled by the highest standards of ethics, long-term sustainability, transparency, corporate social responsibility and with respect for the interests of the company, Justice, the defense of rights and public liberties and Human Rights. In fact, these interests are recognized as guiding principles of the Spanish legal profession in the first article of its General Statute.

The book is divided into four main parts:

• The role of the Legal Function in the strategic reflection of organizations.
• Strategy and operational tactics of the Legal Function.
• The Legal Function and the Government of information and Technologies.
• The transformation of the professional profile in the legal sector.

The book is divided into 29 chapters, written by 37 authors [4] who are recognized as top leaders in their areas of knowledge and professional fields. It addresses issues that range from the definition of the strategy and planning of the Legal Function, its organization and transformation, the main legal operations and their best practices and the transformation that the professional profile is undergoing in order to adapt to the new paradigm. 

The book promotes a panoramic vision of the in-house Legal Function and proposes the adoption of strategies and practices that allow it to evolve, recognize itself and become a fundamental pillar in the design and construction of the new emerging society and economy.

References

[1] 80% of legal departments state that they dedicate specific personnel to legal operations tasks, compared to 56% who did so in 2017. Legal Department Operations (LDO) Index: The risk of being left behind. Thomson Reuters Institute. Sixth Edition, 2021.

[2] Prestigious international associations of In-house Lawyers, such as ACC and CLOC, work regularly on the continuous improvement of maturity models of legal operations, reaching a greater degree of consensus and standardization in the dissemination of good practices in this matter.

[3] 2021 Report of the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance.

[4] Miguel González Inés, Lola Conde, Ana Buitrago, Silvia López Jiménez, Mercedes Asorey, Marlen Estévez Sanz, Clara Cerdán Molina, Laia Mosconsí, Eugenia Navarro, Andrés Jara, Eva Bruch, Jordi Estalaella, Gloria Sánchez, Sara Molina, Manuel Fernández Condearena, Mónica Rodríguez, María del Mar Fernández Nieto, Aurelio Orillo Lara, Marta Zárate, Inés Bruggeman, Bárbara Sotomayor, Gabriel Rodríguez-Ramos, Ana Burbano, José Luis Pérez Benítez, Sergio Poza, Anna Marra, Diego Alonso Asensio, Isabel Iglesias, Miguel Ángel Esteban, Miguel Ángel Prado Martínez, Tamara Morte, Noemí Brito, María Jesús González-Espejo, Ander Ortíz Ortega, Teresa Pereyra, Nacho Alamillo, Manel Atserias Luque.

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This article was first published in Legal Today (Thomson Reuters), on December 2021.