Legal Risk Management in the Department of Justice
Appendix C: Data Collection Instruments (cont'd)
Evaluation of Legal Risk Management
Case Study Interview Guide
Since 1999, the federal government has managed potential and realized legal risks within the framework of the Legal Risk Management (LRM) Initiative. Wide in scope, the Initiative reaches into organizational structures and processes, work and management tools, and expected skills and behaviours of legal counsel and managers within the Department of Justice and Government of Canada departments and agencies.
The Department of Justice Canada's Evaluation Division is now evaluating the implementation of the LRM Initiative. As part of the data collection process, case studies of selected models of LRM will be conducted. The case studies focus on LRM processes and practices within your region/legal services unit (LSU) and not on any case-specific information.
All information that you provide is confidential and will be used only for research purposes. No individual participant will be identified in any of the reports submitted to Justice Canada. The information that you provide will be reported in aggregate form, and individual responses will not be shared outside of PRA Inc. and the DOJ LRM Evaluation Team, which includes representatives of the Evaluation Division and the Law Practice Management Directorate.
The interview should take about 60 minutes and, with your permission, will be tape-recorded to ensure the accuracy of information reported. All tape recordings will be erased at the end of the study. Finally, we would like to remind you that your participation in this interview is completely voluntary.
Roles and Responsibilities
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1. Please describe your current role and responsibilities. How do they relate to LRM?
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2. Within your region/LSU, is there a common or shared understanding of each staff member's role and responsibilities under LRM? What is your understanding of those roles and responsibilities?
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3. What is the staffing and organizational structure for LRM in your region/LSU?
- Are there employees exclusively dedicated to LRM functions?
- If not, are there employees who contribute significant time to LRM, outside the LRM requirements of daily practice?
- In either instance, please describe the staffing, including number of staff, their classification groups, their duties.
- Does your region/LSU have any LRM-related committees? If so, what are their responsibilities and who serves on them?
Identifying and Assessing Legal Risks
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4. How does your region/LSU identify and assess legal risks for litigation/litigation support/advisory files?
- How are the activities in your region/LSU monitored to identify potential legal risks?
- What standards/criteria are considered in assessing legal risks and what tools are used?
- Are risk assessments entered into iCase? When would that be done and by whom?
- Who is involved in assessing legal risks?
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5. If your region/LSU uses the LRM risk matrix, what standards are used to determine the likelihood level or the impact level of loss? (Probe: How do you decide 60% versus 80%, for example?)
- Do you believe that the assessed risk levels are comparable across your region/legal services unit's files? Why or why not?
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6. Does your region/LSU have any standards for reassessing legal risks? If yes, what are they, and when would this reassessment typically occur? Who would be involved in reassessing risk?
Mitigating and Managing Legal Risks
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7. Has your region/LSU developed any structures, practices, or tools to mitigate or manage legal risk? Is the use of these various structures, practices, or tools based on the assessed level of risk (e.g., certain ones are used only in high risk cases, etc.)? Please describe these structures, practices, and tools and specify, as applicable, the level of risk to which they apply.
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8. Does your region/LSU have certain standards or templates for developing contingency plans? (Probe: At what stage in litigation are they done; who does them; when and why might they be revised, if ever?)
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9. What practices for communicating or reporting legal risk, if any, does your region/LSU use to coordinate its legal risk management with any of the following:
- DOJ headquarters
- senior management in your region/legal services unit
- relevant LSU(s)
- specialized advisory groups of the DOJ (i.e., specialized units within the Public Law Sector and Policy Sector)
- your client department(s)/agency(ies)
- other affected DOJ portfolios
- other potentially affected LSUs
How well do these practices work?
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10. Has your region/legal services unit undertaken any activities to engage client departments/agencies and enhance their understanding of LRM? Please describe those activities and any best practices or lessons learned.
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11. Are there any key components of your region/LSU approach to LRM that we have not yet discussed? If yes, please describe those components and who is responsible for them.
Resources for LRM
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12. (Managers only) Are there adequate resources (human, financial, information, training, technological) to support the management of legal risk in your region/legal services unit? What additional resources, if any, are needed? (Probe: dedicated/additional staff, training opportunities, resources to overcome any technological challenges, etc.)
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13. (Managers only) Are risk assessments used in resource allocation and planning in your region/LSU? Please explain how they are used. (Probe: What measures might be taken, such as additional counsel, reassignment of senior counsel to file, etc., and are there criteria for when these steps might occur?)
Results
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14. In your opinion, does LRM as practiced in your region/LSU improve the quality of legal work provided to clients? If yes, in what ways? If not, why not?
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15. Does LRM as practiced in your region/LSU improve client understanding, acceptance, and use of LRM? Why or why not?
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16. Can you provide any examples of when LRM as practiced in your region/LSU has successfully avoided or mitigated legal risks? Has it reduced government liabilities?
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17. Are there any other benefits/results from LRM in your region/LSU that we have not discussed? Are there any lessons learned?
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18. Are there any aspects of your region's/LSU's LRM model that should be adopted as a standard practice nationally?
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19. What suggestions, if any, do you have for improving LRM in your region/LSU?
Thank you. We greatly appreciate your participation.
