There are several reasons why a Disciplined Agile® approach to legal is important:
- Protect your organization. There are many opportunities for your organization to get into legal trouble, so a primary goal of your legal group is to protect you from doing so. They will do so by guiding your organization in legal decisions and responding to legal challenges.
- Negotiate and finalize successful contracts. Your organization has relationships with external organizations and people, and very often those relationships will be governed by one or more contracts. These contracts need to be mutually negotiated and agreed to by the relevant parties, and that requires an effective legal group.
- Successfully navigate evolving legal frameworks. Your organization must conform to the legal frameworks – the laws, regulations, and rules – of the territories in which it operates. Territories may include countries, states/provinces, cities, counties, and other areas. These legal frameworks are constantly evolving so must be monitored and then acted upon accordingly.
- Ensure regulatory compliance. The initiatives taken on by your organization must comply to the regulations applicable to their context. The overall regulatory environment evolves over time, and as a result your legal team must constantly monitor the environment, understand what is changing, and then guide the rest of the organization accordingly.
- Educate and coach staff in legal fundamentals. Your legal team can greatly improve the way that your organization navigates the legal frameworks under which it operates by helping people gain a fundamental understanding of those frameworks.