Legal Compliance

Do you need help with legal compliance? We help large organisations comply with complex laws (like data protection laws, IT laws, cyber crime and cyber security) in a practical and effective way. We do this by following our four-step compliance process.

The Governing Body’s Responsibility regards Compliance

The King Code (practices under principle 13 on pages 63 and 64 of the final King IV) recommends that the governing body should:

• set the direction (or strategy) for how the organisation should approach and address compliance,
• approve policy (often called a compliance policy) that gives effect to its direction and identifies the non-binding rules, codes and standards the organisation adopts,
• delegate to management the responsibility to manage compliance effectively,
• oversee compliance, including that the organisation:
  • understands that compliance creates obligations, and afford rights or protection,
  • takes a holistic view of how laws relate to each other,
  • monitors the regulatory environment and responds to changes in the regulatory environment (for example by doing a legal assessment or gap analysis),
• consider receiving periodic independent assurances on the effectiveness of compliance management (for example by doing a compliance audit),
• disclose the governance and management of compliance by the organisation, including an overview, focus areas, actions taken and plans,
• disclose material or repeated regulatory penalties, sanctions or fines for non-compliance,
• disclose any inspections by environmental regulators, findings of non-compliance and criminal sanctions or prosecutions. (Watch Before the Flood for the context of this practice).

Please note that this is the plain language version of this principle – you must read the full text yourself.

There is a broad, transparent approach to compliance

The Michalsons Legal Compliance Process

Our process is insightful, entrepreneurial, and will reduce your overall costs. We have a “faster to market” practical approach. We have developed an approach to legal compliance projects that is both rigorous and pragmatic. It is simpler and quicker than most others. We help you to achieve the most, at the least cost. The benefits of using Michalsons include:

• Get expert practical legal advice, support, guidance, tools and templates
• Fast track your efforts
• Reduce your overall cost of legal compliance by using your resources as much as possible

Lawyers should be judged on what they lawfully enable and not what they block

Four-Step Process

The four steps are:

1. Learn
2. Plan
3. Act
4. Sustain

If you are interested in us helping you through the process, complete the form on the left or contact us. We can give you details about how we can help with any step in the process and a fixed price quote.

Regulatory or Legal Compliance Policy or Charter

The King Code says that “the governing body should approve policy that articulates and gives effect to its direction on compliance, and that identifies which non-binding rules, codes and standards the organisation has adopted.” These are therefore the two essential elements to a compliance policy. We can review your existing compliance policy or draft a new compliance policy for you. Some organisation have a Compliance Policy for each law (like a Data Protection Compliance Policy) whilst others have one compliance policy for all laws.

Legal Compliance Assessment, Gap analysis and Audits we offer

We can do a legal assessment, gap analysis, or compliance audits for you. Each one is different and it is important to make sure you do the right one.

Compliance Monitoring

We can also help you with compliance monitoring, which will help you to respond to changes in the regulatory environment.