Your business is growing rapidly. You are looking for new investors. Or maybe an IPO is on the horizon. Here’s a critical investor question: do you know what could derail or disrupt your plans? Specifically, what are the legal risks to your business?
Some would prefer not to think about this question or maybe don’t have or can’t make time to think about it during the hectic start up phase. Or perhaps there is a general awareness of legal risk, but no actual plan to manage those risks. Unfortunately, being reactive or fire fighting is in itself a high risk strategy.
So, how do you get ahead of the curve and tackle legal risks before they mature into a derailment? Well, as Mark Twain put it: “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”
In this scenario, we recommend an initial legal risk assessment tailored to the scale of your business and the resources available to support the exercise.
The key deliverables from this exercise are:
An overview of the main legal risks facing the business (developed in part through conversations with management and reviewing past events);
An evaluation of those risks (focusing on likelihood and consequences);
A framework for prioritization decision making (to decide how to allocate resources to risk management) ; and
A risk management plan (identifying a set of actions which will enable the business plan to be implemented within the risk tolerance of the business.
This exercise enables the business to evolve towards proactive legal risk management to reduce the risk of business disruption or damage as a result of legal or regulatory violations.
Just as resources and scope vary from business to business, so, too, do plans and budgets for legal risk management.
Get in touch to talk about how we can help you take control of your legal risks and avoid disruption or derailment of your plans.
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