Legal concerns with policy governance

✍ Scribed by Jim Hyatt; Bill Charney

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2005
• Weight: 353 KB
• Volume: 2005
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1061-4249
• DOI: 10.1002/bl.38620057803

✦ Synopsis

HENEVER WE HELP a board develop governing policies, we recommend that the resulting document be reviewed by the boards legal counsel to ensure compliance with applicable statutes prior to its formal adoption. Over the years, many attorneys in numerous jurisdictions have vetted policies developed pursuant to Policy Governance principles with little or no comment. But some attorneys do raise objections. Ours is a litigious society, and attorneys are ever on the lookout for potential sources of exposure to liability. So every now and then, we do encounter policies that some attorneys consider problematic. These may have arisen out of a specific case in a particular jurisdiction or a novel theory of liability on the part of a plaintiffs attorney that prompts legal counsel to seek to protect clients from a perceived threat. In any case, when attorneys' comments or opinions are provided, we have noticed, certain policies receive more attention than others.