Cambridge
Academy
In London

Introduction

Legal Operations teams are increasingly responsible for ensuring legal services are delivered with strong governance, controlled risk, and consistent compliance—while maintaining ethical standards and audit readiness. This advanced program equips legal support and operations leaders with practical frameworks to design control environments, manage legal operational risk, prepare for audits, and embed ethics and compliance into day-to-day legal workflows.

 Course Objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

·        Design a GRC approach tailored to legal operations and support functions

·        Strengthen internal controls, policies, and evidence practices for audit readiness

·        Implement risk assessment, monitoring, and remediation processes across legal operations

·        Enhance compliance management for key legal processes (matters, contracts, vendors, data)

·        Apply ethical decision-making and confidentiality standards in legal service delivery

·        Build governance routines, KPIs, and reporting for leadership oversight

Target Audience

This course is designed for:

·        Leads and managers in Legal Support, Legal Operations, and Corporate Legal Services

·        Matter management, contract management, and legal admin leaders

·        Compliance, risk, and internal audit professionals working with legal teams

·        Procurement and vendor management staff supporting legal services

·        Legal technology and reporting professionals supporting legal operations

Course Outlines

Day 1: GRC Foundations for Legal Operations & Governance Setup

·        GRC in legal operations: why it matters (risk, cost, trust, compliance)

·        Legal operations operating model: roles, responsibilities, and accountability

·        Governance structures: decision rights, approvals, and escalation pathways

·        Policies and standards: what to document and how to keep it current

·        Activity: Legal ops GRC maturity assessment + key risk and control gap mapping

Day 2: Control Design for Core Legal Operations Processes

·        Controls in matter management: intake, approvals, scoping, and billing governance

·        Controls in contract workflows: delegation of authority, approvals, and version control

·        Vendor and outside counsel controls: onboarding, conflicts, rates, and performance oversight

·        Confidentiality and information handling controls: access, storage, and sharing rules

·        Workshop: Build a Risk & Control Matrix (RCM) for a priority legal ops process

Day 3: Audit Readiness, Evidence & Testing Methods

·        Audit types affecting legal ops: internal, external, compliance, and regulatory reviews

·        Evidence standards: documentation, audit trails, and retention practices

·        Control testing methods: walkthroughs, sampling, re-performance, and exception handling

·        Issue management: severity, root cause, and remediation tracking

·        Practical activity: Audit simulation (test a control set + compile an evidence pack)

Day 4: Risk Management, Compliance Monitoring & Ethics

·        Risk assessment: identifying operational, regulatory, reputational, and third-party risks

·        Compliance obligations mapping: laws, policies, contracts, and internal requirements

·        Monitoring routines: KPIs/KRIs, periodic reviews, and continuous improvement loops

·        Ethics in legal operations: conflicts, integrity, reporting concerns, and decision discipline

·        Case study: Ethics and confidentiality incident scenario (response, escalation, and controls)

Day 5: Reporting, Governance Rhythm & Implementation Roadmap

·        GRC reporting for legal leaders: dashboards, issue logs, and decision-focused insights

·        Governance cadence: monthly controls reviews, quarterly risk reviews, and annual planning

·        Embedding quality: SOPs, training, and accountability for control owners

·        Change management: adoption, reinforcement, and sustaining compliance culture