Who we are and what we do
Summing up Owllegal and the services it provides is relatively straight forward, Owllegal provides Commercial law support for business, (be they profit or non-profit), from inception through creation, during existence and termination.
Be that compliance with local, national and international regulations, disputes with customers, disputes with staff, disputes between partners, directors, disputes with governments in fact disputes with anyone.
Owllegal’s purpose is to proactively risk manage problems before they arise, by investigating potential issues, putting into place appropriate policies and procedures and addressing the compliance issues faced by the organisation.
Contracts, polices and or agreements are opportunities to integrate protections and dispute resolution procedures into a deal from the outset.
Traditionally, clients come to their lawyers once they, the clients, have perceived that they have a problem, it is only then that a legal opinion is sought.
The problems with this approach are obvious, It is unlikely that the client is a lawyer and will be able to recognise all their potential legal problems, and even those that they do perceive may in any event be noticed too late to allow the most effective precautionary steps to be taken and Clients may not themselves be able to prioritise amongst legal assignments and may direct work to be done in an order that does not reflect the relative legal risks involved.
The question of reactive and proactive legal services is well illustrated in the context of the management of projects.
Many project managers are suspicious of lawyers and regard the law as cumbersome, full of jargon and divorced from the realities of the day-to-day business community.
In the past this has led to work being undertaken in isolation from the intricacies of the legal system, leaving the law to lawyers without attempting to integrate good legal practice with sound project management discipline, and sensible business management.
It is recognised as being sensible in any project or activity that key business and technical issues are formally addressed at the outset.
Sadly the relevance of legal protection issues are not really brought sharply into focus until disputes arise.
The law then tends to rear its head most noticeably for many projects at the cradle (contract negotiations) and then at the grave (in the resolution of disputes) but often the intervening period, at times when those crucial preventative measures can be taken are regarded as the esoteric province of lawyers.
Many corporate clients are increasingly suspecting that reactive service (a service they themselves instigate and encourage) is unsatisfactory and are now speaking to their lawyers about adopting a more proactive approach they are coming to prefer a “fence at the top of the cliff rather than an ambulance at the bottom.”
Lawyers must spend time with their clients and do more than just listen to their clients’ concerns and desires, lawyers must ask questions that help identify the legal issues at stake and use the answers to identify the legal point at issue.
Once the issue had been identified the lawyer must act on the client’s behalf, research the law of the jurisdiction and then provide advice, guidance and where appropriate suggest a solution.
ATTORNEY OVERVIEW
Ian Randall our senior counsel is a UK trained lawyer with an honours degree in law and a master’s degree in Employment Law and Practice, who chose to qualify in America, New York to be precise.
This has given him the ability to diversify and exposed him to a level of National and International legal experience over the past twenty years which he simply would not have been able to acquire had he worked solely for a traditional legal practice in the UK.
Ian is also an accredited civil & commercial mediator and this permits a much wider spectrum of dispute resolution experience, which with the dramatic increase in civil legal charges and the Courts driving organisations to Alternative Dispute Resolution procedures is invaluable.
Also many organisations especially regulated ones or charities are subject to oversight with decisions being made via Tier 1 Tribunals, and Ian has over 600 appearances in various tribunals.
Whilst Ian is heavily involved in the provision of legal services, Owllegal has access to barristers, solicitors, HR specialist and experts in many fields as well as maintaining subscriptions to legal support matched only by the big city firms, effectively Owllegal provides city legal services, for small firm costs whilst retaining personalised service provision.
