Legal Department Mission and Vision

Legal Department Mission and Vision

“Revisiting the mission and vision is a relatively small investment that can be a success factor for legal initiatives and leadership alignment, reaping significant benefits both financially and culturally.”

A legal department’s vision statement should answer the question “where are we going”? And a legal department mission statement should answer, “what are we going to do to get there”? When used correctly, they should provide guiding principles that align legal leaders on the department’s long-term direction and its daily activities, get buy-in for important strategic initiatives, and help instill a sense of institutional continuity.

WHEN MISSION AND VISION COME INTO PLAY

Revisiting one’s vision or mission statement often serves as a precursor or companion to larger departmental change. It may, for example, serve as the basis for structural reorganization, accompany a change in legal department leadership, or ensure that new legal functions support the larger department goals. In such cases, a new mission and vision can provide a necessary foundation for the “new” department.

WHAT THEY SHOULD LOOK LIKE

Effective vision statements are vivid, clear, and specific. They are realistic for the organizational and legal department context, both memorable and motivating, and should reinforce a common sense of identity. They are a “north star” or focal point for strategic planning, a fundamental objective or strategic direction for the legal department.

Mission statements describe the what, who, why, and how of the legal department. They describe why it exists, what it does, and how it fulfills its vision - including measures of success. Effective mission statements are stakeholder oriented, feasible, useful and translatable into metrics (KPIs /OKRs) and also take into account the unique qualities of the team or group.

Legal Department Mission and Vision: real results

The process of creating an effective mission and vision has multiple components. Deciding which members of leadership to involve, how to involve clients, and how to structure discussions around new missions and visions, as well as what the statements say, can all impact the future success of their installation.

Argopoint helps legal departments to break the process into appropriate stages and to provide expert guidance throughout the process of:

Gathering input from internal staff, external or business clients, and other appropriate stakeholders, supported by Argopoint’s industry knowledge of other leading companies’ legal department vision and mission creations.
Incorporating the information gathered into the goals and priorities of leadership, as well as distilling these ideas into clear, actionable statements that can form a part of a mission or vision.
Workshopping and testing potential statements with stakeholders to ensure clarity, understanding, and impact.

Revisiting the mission and vision is a relatively small investment that can be a success factor for legal initiatives and leadership alignment, reaping significant benefits both financially and culturally. Argopoint has led many legal mission and vision statement development initiatives, prioritizing long-term effectiveness and efficiency. Because we have worked with legal departments all stages of reorganization, we have this process down to a science and can guide legal departments through it with a refined process backed by industry experience.

Updated February 20, 2025 | Argopoint Consulting