This month’s sponsor thank you to our supporter as Accuity features the PDF summary and expanded commentary of another risk interview. This time Accuity’s Teddy Peck puts the podcast spotlight on Max Welsh from InOutsource.

Their discussion explores issues including: strategies for making the case to invest in risk management, training and developing conflicts staff and navigating Outside Counsel Guidelines.

Here’s a direct link to the PDF article: “In Discussion with A Law Firm Risk Expert” —

• “And that’s because it’s not uncommon for risk to be perceived as a complete cost center and drain on profits. Of course, there are leaders who intellectually understand that there is some benefit to the function in terms of loss prevention. But that can be hard to quantify in precise detail — particularly if risk management is being handled well and the firm isn’t having urgent issues, encountering problems or paying significant hard costs.”
• “It’s definitely ironic. Effective risk teams that have things well under control often struggle to get new investments made — budget, personnel or software — that they know they need to make to improve efficiency and to keep ahead of emerging issues.”
• “If your firm has had an incident or issue, that clearly provides strong support for investment. So if a firm has suffered something like disqualification due to a missed conflict, or information governance problem, like client documents that have been misplaced or retained well beyond a disposition deadline — that creates a clear basis for discussion about change. And that urgency is heightened further if the situation results in an insurance claim and that type of external review.”
• “Well, the broad rule I’d point to is that firms pay close attention to any area of change in policy, process, or even technology that starts to look like a trend or emerging standard. Firms never want to find themselves in a situation where there was an issue that could be traced back to some risk area, policy or capability that they were arguably behind in adopting or adhering to in some regard.”
• “It’s important that the people reviewing these [OCG] terms have both an accurate and a complete understanding of the firm’s capabilities. You don’t want the firm signing on to obligations they only have a 99% ability to implement. Or maybe they are 100% technically capable, but will struggle when it comes to demonstrating compliance or responding to a potential client audit.”