Top 10 Tips for Assessing Your Legal Department’s Alignment to
Corporate Strategy
Adapted from an article by Joshua Box
1. Ask yourself whether you can summarize your company’s strategy in 35 words
or less. Would your colleagues say the same thing?
2. Ask yourself what it means to be in alignment.
3. Don’t assume that the resources you’ve used in the past are right for delivering
on legal needs determined by your new, strategy-aligned stance.
4. Match task complexity, not just matter type, when allocating work.
5. Equip your in-house team with the necessary skills, training, and rewards to
deliver the services that align with the strategy.
6. Identify the behavioral competencies necessary to deliver successfully. Does
your departmental culture support your efforts?
7. Ensure you have the right firms and external relationships to support the in-house team.
8. Establish clear metrics for measurement.
9. Devise and develop a legal department strategic plan; test it on others within
the organization by making sure they understand what’s in it for them.
10. Ensure that you and your colleagues can clearly articulate the legal
department’s strategy, objectives, budget, and value proposition, leaving no
room for misinterpretation.
