Legal Department Mission and Vision

Legal Department Mission and Vision: Objectives

A legal department’s mission and vision go a long way in establishing the direction of a department. When used correctly, they should provide guiding principles for both the department’s long-term direction and its daily activities. More broadly, the mission and vision should set and align a department’s structure, services, and internal culture. 

When setting or resetting a mission and vision, a legal department can accomplish a wide range of tasks and often serves as a precursor or companion to larger departmental change. It may, for example, serve as the basis for structural reorganization, ensuring that new legal functions support the larger department goals. A department may also decide to update its mission and vision if it undergoes major changes in leadership. In such cases, a new mission and vision can provide a necessary foundation for the department culture going forward.

Whenever considering a new mission or vision establishment, a legal department should do so in consult with experts. Argopoint can provide valuable guidance on mission and vision best practices, so that changes implemented have the maximum opportunity for success.

Legal Department Mission and Vision: Overview

The process of installing a new legal department mission and vision has multiple components. Success depends not only on drafting the most appropriate mission or vision, but also on the process with which these are created. Deciding which members of leadership to involve, how to involve clients, and how to structure discussions around new missions and visions can all impact the future success of their installation.

Argopoint helps legal departments to break the process into appropriate stages and to provide expert guidance throughout the process of:

• Gathering input from internal staff, external or business clients, and other appropriate stakeholders, supported by Argopoint’s industry knowledge of other leading companies’ legal department vision and mission creations.

• Incorporating the information gathered into the goals and priorities of leadership, as well as distilling these ideas into clear, actionable statements that can form a part of a mission or vision.

• Workshopping and testing potential statements with stakeholders to ensure clarity, understanding, and impact.

Legal Department Mission and Vision: Solution and Savings

Installing a new legal department mission and vision may bring an initial cost, but it brings the opportunity to generate long term savings for the department that far outweigh initial expenditures. A strong mission and vision, for example, can be used better align the work of practice areas with the core goals of the department. If the legal department decides to undergo a structural reorganization, then a mission and vision can be used as guides to ensure that each legal group serves a core function of the department, minimizing waste in the long-term.  

When a legal department can most efficiently support its main priorities, it has a ripple effect on the entire legal group. Attorneys understand that their work directly supports the department’s goals, legal operations can appropriately track key performance indicators and metrics measuring success, and positive outcomes typically rise across legal activities.

Legal departments rely on Argopoint to consider these savings opportunities when crafting initial missions and visions, so that long-term effectiveness and efficiency are prioritized. Because we have worked with legal departments all stages of reorganization, we understand how to ensure that the process can support the department’s future self with each step in mission and vision development.