By
Corrs Chambers Westgarth
Designed in
Australia
Description
The Corrs incisive advice template responds to clients' desire for clear legal advice that helps them make good business decisions. The innovative design features a front page summary that gives the answer and recommendation upfront and a "traffic light" risk analysis table that identifies and assesses legal risks. The distinctive and easy-to-read layout is a significant shift away from the traditional letter of advice which is long, impenetrable and does not offer a definitive opinion. The design has been embraced by Corrs clients who say that it "leads the field" and is "the best advice [they] have ever seen."
Key Features
and/or Benefits
The advice template is driven by what clients want: clear, incisive advice that the client can easily act upon
Clients raised common themes such as 'be concise', 'make a practical recommendation' and 'declutter the issues to show you understand the situation'. These themes formed a set of universal principles which were the basic criteria for designing the advice template. The result is clear, incisive advice that the client can easily act upon.
The modular design of the advice template allows it to be easily used and adapted to the client's specific need
i) the front page summary captures the advice upfront
ii) the body explores each of the key issues, and
iii) the annexures contain the background facts and details.
For clients seeking a short advice, the front page summary captures the question, answer, risk analysis and next steps. Inhouse lawyers can forward that page internally or incorporate it into a board pack. They do not need to interpret or repackage the advice.
The traffic light risk analysis table ensures lawyers bring commercial thinking to the advice to help clients to make business decisions
The advice template has a traffic light risk analysis table that identifies and rates risk on a scale from 'low' to 'high'. The firm has developed a risk matrix 'heat map' to assist lawyers in allocating risk ratings having regard to likelihood and impact. This approach required lawyers to think commercially about issues from the client's perspective, and is supported by focused training.
The advice template incorporates best practice document design principles which make it easy to read
- The front page summary which foregrounds important information and promotes brevity and clear expression;
- The clearly defined sections which highlight the key issues by having:
- main headings on the left of the page phrased as questions to engage the reader;
- section summaries in bold at the start of each section which give a brief answer to the question/issue; and
- The numbered paragraphs which make the advice navigable.
The advice template is integrated into the Word application in the Corrs system and is easy for Corrs lawyers to use
Dialog boxes allow lawyers to insert basic information such as client details, and the shell of the advice is automatically created (including front page summary framework and risk analysis table) ready for the substantive content to be incorporated. The firm has a series of visual tools (tables, timelines, flowcharts) that lawyers can insert into the document.