Legal Risk Management in the Department of Justice

1. INTRODUCTION


1. INTRODUCTION

Legal risk management is "the process of making and carrying out decisions that reduce the frequency and severity of legal problems that prejudice the government's ability to meet its objectives successfully"[1]. Although the management of legal risk has always been an inherent part of every lawyer's work, since 1999 the federal government has managed potential and realized legal risks within the framework of the Legal Risk Management (LRM) Initiative. Through the LRM Initiative, the Department of Justice (the Department or Justice) brings a more systematic approach to identifying, mitigating, and managing legal risks. 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 Justice and other Government of Canada departments and agencies. In 2003, the LRM Initiative evolved from a time-limited initiative, with a project office and dedicated human and financial resources, to an ongoing initiative that was integrated into the overall work of the Department.

The Department of Justice conducted an evaluation of the implementation of the LRM Initiative, and this document constitutes the evaluation's final report.

1.1. Purpose of the evaluation

The purpose of the evaluation is two-fold: to examine the implementation of LRM in the Department; and to assess whether the processes and structures established to support LRM have contributed to the effective management of legal risk in the federal government. The evaluation also considers the LRM Initiative from two perspectives. First, although all government departments and agencies have LRM roles and responsibilities, the evaluation focuses on Justice's LRM activities.[2] Second, the evaluation focuses on the LRM Initiative since 2003 when the responsibilities for LRM devolved from the central project office to all Department lawyers.

1.2. Structure of the report

This report contains five sections, including the introduction. Section 2 provides the background and an overview of the LRM Initiative, while Section 3 describes the methodology for the evaluation; Section 4 summarizes the key findings; and Section 5 presents the conclusions.