What is strategic legal affairs?Explaining the differences between clinical law and preventive law, specific examples, and required qualities
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2023 January 10We will provide a detailed explanation of the specific work content of "preventive legal affairs," which is one of the legal services in companies, and the qualities required of preventive legal affairs personnel.We will also introduce information that can help you improve your future career, improve your skills, and consult with a lawyer, such as the difference between strategic legal affairs and clinical legal affairs and specific examples of work.
Preventive legal affairs are legal activities that take measures in advance to avoid disputes.
Preventive legal work is legal work that aims to prevent a company from becoming involved in a legal dispute or trouble before it suffers serious damage.Our mission is to anticipate various problems that may arise in corporate activities, such as contract, labor, intellectual property, and legal violations, to prevent them from occurring, and to be prepared to quickly resolve them should they occur.Our work covers a wide range of areas, including checking contracts before they are concluded and strengthening the compliance system. Legal activities that take necessary measures in advance to deal with various legal risks such as disputes, scandals, and claims that may occur in the future. is the activity of preventive legal affairs.
The importance of preventive legal affairs
Preventive legal services for preventing disputes and hedging risks are considered to be of particularly high importance within the legal field.The reasons for this are that by avoiding disputes, the company does not have to devote resources to resolving them, and in the event of a dispute, the company's damage can be kept to a minimum.
Companies that do not have preventive legal systems in place will be forced to deal with problems after they occur.The amount of effort that must be devoted to resolving disputes is enormous.Even if you hire a lawyer after a dispute has occurred, there is a high possibility that you will not be able to reach the optimal result in the limited time available, and if it goes to trial, it will take time to resolve it, and you will not only have to pay attorney fees but also a large amount of compensation in court. In some cases, you may be charged.By preparing in advance, you can resolve disputes early and arrive at the best solution.
Differences between preventive law, clinical law, and strategic law
Legal matters related to corporate activities are classified into three categories: clinical legal affairs, preventive legal affairs, and strategic legal affairs.While explaining each type of work, we will explain the difference from preventive legal work.
Clinical legal work refers to legal activities that deal with disputes and court cases that have already occurred.
In contrast to preventive law, which aims to prevent disputes from occurring, clinical law deals with legal matters that deal with conflicts that have already occurred.We consider legal approaches based on not only legal theories and principles, but also various cases, and work to solve problems while proposing concrete proposals.The main objective is to minimize the company's losses.The longer the conflict lasts, the more damage it will cause.We aim to quickly resolve legal disputes and troubles by appropriately collaborating and sharing roles with external lawyers.
Strategic legal affairs are legal activities that utilize legal knowledge in management strategies.
Strategic legal services support companies' business strategies from a legal perspective.My mission is to lead the company's business strategy to fruition in a legally acceptable manner.Important legal activities that involve many complex tasks, such as support for new business launches, overseas expansion, M&A, and corporate alliances.Our strategic legal work involves collaborating with management and business partners to help create new value that will lead to the growth of your company.
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Specific work content of preventive legal affairs
We will introduce the specific work content of preventive legal affairs, such as the creation of contracts and rules, and the maintenance of internal systems.The duties of preventive legal affairs are mainly divided into external work and internal work.
Contract creation/legal check
A typical external job is contract-related work.When conducting transactions with other companies, it is essential to conclude a contract in advance.Preventive legal work involves examining the contents of contracts before they are concluded in terms of transaction conditions, risk allocation, troubleshooting, etc., and drafting contracts from scratch.
Preparation and response to general meeting of shareholders
Managing shareholder meetings in an appropriate manner is one of the duties of preventive legal affairs.We will prepare the general meeting itself so that it can proceed correctly in accordance with laws and regulations so that the resolutions that are the purpose of the general meeting of shareholders can be carried out smoothly.It is also important to prepare a set of anticipated questions and answers to avoid confusion at the general meeting of shareholders and hindering the progress of the proceedings.
Examination and creation of internal regulations
The purpose is to reduce the risk of scandals by establishing internal regulations that are appropriate for the company.Each company has various internal regulations, but recently we have heard a lot about harassment regulations, social media use regulations, etc.Harassment regulations specify the definition of harassment and prohibitions to prevent various types of harassment within the company.In order to prevent employees from inadvertently causing an uproar on SNS, social media usage regulations are created to prevent various problems from occurring, such as clearly stating prohibited items on SNS.
Establishing a compliance system
We will create an internal environment for compliance by ensuring that employees are fully aware of the importance of complying with various laws and regulations, providing opportunities for legal education, and establishing a system to double check internal approval flows.
Preliminary investigation regarding intellectual property rights
Preventive law is also useful in the field of intellectual property rights, such as trademark rights, patent rights, and copyrights.To avoid being sued by other companies, check in advance whether your products or services infringe on the intellectual property rights of other companies.It is also important to acquire intellectual property rights for your brand to prevent other companies from acquiring rights to your important technologies.
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Qualities of legal personnel required for preventive legal affairs
What qualities should a person in charge of preventive legal affairs, which is an important role in corporate legal affairs, have?We will explain the required experience and qualifications.
Possesses extensive legal knowledge and experience in corporate law
Preventive legal work requires a wide range of legal knowledge, including skills related to contract review, preparation, and management, an understanding of legal regulations and standards, and an awareness of compliance.It is essential to have an understanding of the company's business as well as the ability to detect risks.Personnel with extensive experience in corporate legal affairs are ideal candidates.
Possesses a high level of expertise in the area of responsibility
In addition to legal knowledge, a high level of expertise in the area of responsibility is also required.A person with deep knowledge of the laws and regulations of the relevant field and industry is ideally suited for this position.Communication skills are also required to convey legal issues in an easy-to-understand manner to non-specialists.
Able to appropriately analyze risks and propose solutions
Stay informed of industry trends and legal changes, and identify and analyze risks that may affect your company.Requires the ability to anticipate potential legal risks and propose appropriate solutions.The right person will be able to propose solutions that support business growth while avoiding legal risks.
In order to carry out appropriate preventive legal services, it is important to improve your skills and consult a lawyer.
The purpose of preventive legal affairs is to avoid future legal troubles and support the sound management of an organization.When receiving consultations from various departments within the company, legal risks within the company must be discovered and considered as soon as possible.Avoiding or minimizing problems and troubles can lead to cost reductions for the company.To do this, it is necessary to constantly improve your skills by being exposed to the latest information on a daily basis.
On the other hand, in complex cases, it is important to have an environment where you can consult with a specialized external lawyer with sufficient knowledge from an objective and professional standpoint.By seeking advice based on cutting-edge legal issues, you can receive timely answers.When there is a huge amount of research, it is often difficult to handle it in-house alone, so the support of external lawyers is essential.
"FRONTEO Legal Link Portal" (FLLP) provides an environment where you can watch many explanatory videos on legal intellectual property, supervised by top lawyers and experts, for free.You will have the opportunity to learn about the risks your company faces in advance by experiencing various problems and solutions to the problems.Once legal trouble occurs, it is difficult to restore public trust and the damage to the company can be enormous.How about using the FLLP instructional videos supervised by professional lawyers and experts as a reference to improve your skills and update your preventive legal knowledge?