Nowadays, every company needs the services of a legal officer. The position of legal officer in the company is needed because almost all operational activities require licensing and authority from the authorities. Well, this legal officer will be in charge of handling legal issues both internally and externally. Conversely, if contracts, proposals, and other important documents are not monitored by the legal team, it is possible that the company’s initiatives will not run smoothly. Therefore, companies need a legal team that will help take care of all legality issues, from taking care of licensing, making agreements, to taking care of business disputes in the future. Well, seeing its important role, what exactly is a legal officer? What are the duties and importance for the company? Let’s see the explanation in the following article!
What is a Legal Officer?
A legal officer is an individual who has full responsibility for all legal matters in the company. Generally, legal officers can be hired directly by companies, agencies, and other types of companies. The legal officer will report directly to an upper-level staff member such as the chief legal officer or legal staff officer, and some even go directly to the BOD or Director. This usually happens when the business is still new or a startup. Therefore, the need for legal officers in companies will generally follow the scale of the business being run. The larger the scale of the business, the more activities are carried out in it and the legality of business management becomes more complex.
Position of Legal Officer in the Company
Within the company, legal officers are directly under the Board of Directors and the Board of Directors’ expert staff. With this position, they can more easily coordinate with internal parts of the company, such as accounting, marketing, HRD, and internal audit. Because of their strategic position, all information about the company must be known to the legal officer team. Therefore, companies need to be careful when selecting and recruiting legal officers.
The Legal Officer’s Role Inside and Outside the Company
By having a legal team within the company, the legal officer can become an alarm that can immediately detect legal problems within the company, so that they can be resolved immediately without waiting for a long time. Externally, a legal officer is also a liaison between the company and external parties when cooperation occurs. To ensure cooperation with the government, the legal officer is tasked with ensuring that all company licenses have been fulfilled, then making a list of licenses to be submitted to government agencies. Meanwhile, when working with private parties such as vendors or business partners, the legal officer is responsible for preparing contracts or cooperation agreements and monitoring them.
What is the Legal Officer’s Job?
Not only taking care of licensing, making business agreements, and assisting with business legal issues, a legal officer also has several tasks that are equally important. Here are some of the main duties of a legal officer in a company:
Main Tasks
A legal officer has at least three main tasks that need to be performed, including:
- As a Company Advocate: Representing the company in case of problems in Court;
- As Company Executive: Prepare and manage licenses and other documents for both internal and external companies;
- As a Corporate Legal Consultant: Provide legal advice or counsel to company leaders.
Daily Tasks
In addition to their main duties, a legal officer also has daily tasks that they need to complete. What are they?
Providing Legal Advice
The legal officer is responsible for briefing the board of directors on legal issues, potential risks, and what actions to take when problems occur. After that, the legal officer can provide this legal advice in oral or written form to the board of directors in easy-to-understand language. If there is some difficult legal language, they need to translate the terms and explain them to the board.
Managing Legal Documents
Legal officers are also responsible for managing all legal documents belonging to the company, such as employment contracts, cooperation agreements, share certificates, and others.
Conducting Research
Government regulations and rules change frequently. Therefore, a legal officer is required to actively research legal resources such as articles, laws, and court decisions. Thus, the company can stay abreast of regulatory developments and legal issues can be managed properly.
Identifying Risks
Ideally, any business legal issues are risks that should be prevented before they occur. Therefore, a legal officer is required to analyze the company’s actions and decisions to identify risks that could arise due to legal issues. After the identification process is complete, the legal officer is also required to provide advice so that the company can avoid the risks found.
Conducting Socialization
When the company experiences a major legal problem, the legal officer’s job is to conduct socialization and briefings. Legal officer staff need to provide counseling regarding things that need to be avoided so that the company’s reputation can be guaranteed. That way, the company can resolve legal issues more quickly.
What is the Importance of a Legal Officer to a Company?
After discussing the duties, we now understand that legal officers are important for companies. For example, in terms of company legality such as business licenses. Without this business license, company operations cannot run properly. There must be a sense of concern that the business is closed because it does not have a business license. In addition, without a business license, the company also cannot develop and run in place, for example, the company cannot participate in large projects or tenders. This is because projects or tenders require legality as one of the requirements.
READ ALSO: Beware of Legality Services Fraud!
Not only licensing issues, legal officers also play an important role in taking care of all documents, legality, licensing, and other legal issues within and outside the company. So that in the future the company can continue to operate without being involved in legal problems.
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This is an explanation of a legal officer, starting from the definition, role, duties, and importance for the company. However, hiring legal officer staff cannot be arbitrary, because there are many things that need to be considered. Moreover, they must be responsible for not leaking all kinds of company information and helping with all kinds of business problems. Now, you don’t need to worry, because your company can utilize the trusted Digital Legal Assistant (DiLA) service from Kontrak Hukum! Instead of hiring one legal officer, you can get a team of legal professionals from us with a scope of services including unlimited consultations, contracts, legal research, company legality management, to monthly financial and tax reports. So, what are you waiting for? Let’s take advantage of the most complete and reliable legal services from Kontrak Hukum by visiting the KH – DiLA Services page. If you have questions about companies and other laws, don’t hesitate to consult with us at Tanya KH, or via Direct Message (DM) to Kontrak Hukum’s Instagram social media account @kontrakhukum.
