General Counsel Law delivers custom legal audits, comprehensive risk assessments, and detailed reports spotlighting urgent concerns. Attorney Kevin M. Plante specializes in identifying vulnerabilities and developing preventive strategies to mitigate exposure to costly legal disputes. The firm tailors its signature offerings, including audit services, risk evaluations, and contract reviews, to address the distinct requirements of individual organizations.
Most organizations do not discover a legal problem until it arrives in the form of a demand letter, an agency charge, or a lawsuit. By that point, the options are narrower, and the cost is higher. A legal audit works in the opposite direction. It examines your contracts, policies, personnel practices, and governance documents while the matter is still an internal question, and it tells you where your exposure sits before someone outside your organization finds it for you. Over a 25-year career representing businesses, nonprofits, and individuals nationally and internationally, Attorney Plante has built the firm’s signature services around that principle.
Legal Audits
A legal audit is a structured review of the documents and practices that govern how your organization operates. Rather than answering one question at a time, the audit examines your legal footing as a whole and identifies gaps between what your documents say, what your team actually does, and what state and federal law requires.
What a Legal Audit Reviews
The scope of every audit depends on the size of the organization, the industry it operates in, and the risks that matter most to it. A review commonly covers:
- Customer, vendor, and consultant agreements, including renewal, indemnification, and termination terms
- Employee handbooks, offer letters, and employment agreements
- Independent contractor classifications and consulting arrangements
- Restrictive covenants, including non-competition, non-solicitation, and confidentiality provisions
- Personnel records retention and data breach notification obligations
- Bylaws, board minutes, conflict of interest policies, and other governance documents
- Acceptable use of technology policies and related compliance measures
- Insurance coverage as it relates to the exposure the audit identifies
Employment and Human Resources Audits
Employment claims are among the most common and most expensive disputes an organization faces. General Counsel Law conducts employment and human resources audits designed to confirm that your policies and procedures comply with applicable Massachusetts and federal employment laws. That review usually touches on things like wage-and-hour rules, how the company handles matters, whether they’re treating everyone fairly, how they report discrimination and harassment, what they do when someone’s disciplined, and how their handbook aligns with what they actually do. When they find a problem during an audit, the firm updates the language and provides helpful advice, rather than just listing issues to fix without a plan.
Risk Assessments
A risk assessment takes what an audit finds and ranks it by consequence. Not every issue carries the same weight. Some create immediate liability, some invite a regulatory inquiry, and some are housekeeping. A risk assessment separates the three so that leadership can direct attention and budget where it matters.
Prioritizing What Deserves Attention First
Attorney Plante measures each identified issue against several practical questions: how likely it is to result in a claim, what the financial and reputational costs would be if it did, how difficult the correction is, and whether the correction can be handled internally or requires outside support. The result is a working plan rather than an abstract warning. Organizations use these assessments to prepare for growth, to answer questions from a board or a lender, to prepare for a transaction or a funding round, and to respond to the question boards ask most often: whether the organization is protected.
Contract Reviews
Contracts define nearly every relationship an organization depends on, and boilerplate language rarely reflects the way a particular business actually works. General Counsel Law reviews and revises agreements so that the terms match the transaction at hand. That work covers commercial and government contracts, service and consulting agreements, vendor and supplier terms, licensing arrangements, leases, severance agreements, and settlement documents.
A contract review looks past the commercial terms to the provisions that decide what happens when something goes wrong, including indemnification, limitation of liability, warranties, termination rights, assignment, dispute resolution, and choice of law.
Reports That Identify What Needs Immediate Attention
Every engagement ends with a written report documenting everything reviewed and found, along with the urgency and recommendations. This report is designed for those who need to take action, such as owners, executive directors, human resources leaders, and board members. Having served as general counsel and board secretary to a large private school near Boston, Mr. Plante understands what a governing body requires to facilitate decision-making.
Organizations That Benefit From a Legal Audit
Signature legal services are most valuable at particular moments. Organizations frequently request an audit or a risk assessment when they are:
- Growing quickly, hiring, or expanding into a new state
- Operating without counsel and only retaining counsel when disputes arise
- Preparing for a sale, applying for a grant or financing, or merging with another entity
- Responding to a government inquiry, an agency charge, or a regulatory review
- Working from outdated handbooks
- Seeing a pattern of employee complaints and other disruptions, such as high turnover
- Nonprofits and other entities that are overseen by a board or are under reporting obligations
How a Boston Business Attorney Can Help
General Counsel Law proactively mitigates legal risk in order to prevent legal problems. Attorney Plante handles each matter himself, which means the attorney who reviews your documents is the same one who explains the findings and the same one you call when a question comes up months later. Many clients start with a single audit and then retain the firm as their General Counsel, using its advice whenever needed. When a dispute cannot be avoided, that same familiarity with your contracts and policies supports negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and litigation.
Reach Out to Learn How General Counsel Law Can Help
Investing in a legal audit might seem like a small expense, but it’s a smart move to avoid potential disputes down the road. To get a comprehensive view of your organization’s position, General Counsel Law can review your contracts, policies, and governance documents, then create a focused plan to address any issues it identifies. Contact Mr. Plante today to discuss a legal audit, risk assessment, or contract review for your organization.