Things go wrong all the time because the responsibilities placed on an individual to take action to achieve the objectives are not supported by the authority required to take such action. This policy and procedure is designed to help legal practices manage the process of defining and allocating responsibilities and authorities for the purposes of meeting customer and regulatory requirements.

1. 1
Issue Date: 1/4/2014 Author: Val Antoff
Review Date: 1/4/2017 Approved by: Val Antoff
Policy and procedure for defining and communicating authorities
and responsibilities in a legal practice
LAW 9000 – Best Legal Practice
1. Purpose
To define and communicate the responsibilities and authorities throughout the legal practice for the
purposes of meeting customer and regulatory requirements.
2. Scope
This procedure covers all responsibilities and authorities in our legal practice.
3. Persons affected
All professional and support staff.
4. Policy
It is [Practice Name]’s policy to communicate the responsibilities and authorities throughout the
practice. It is our policy to ensure that lawyers have been authorised to perform the tasks they have
undertaken to complete and appropriate levels of authority and responsibility have been given to
lawyers and support staff depending on knowledge and experience.
5. Definitions
Authority - the power allocated to an individual in a practice to take action or to commit resources.
Examples of authority are: accepting instructions, handling matters, viewing received documents,
giving advice to clients, sending documents, signing documents, handling of trust money.
Responsibility - the obligation placed on an individual to take action to achieve an objective.
6. Responsibilities
(a) The management team/principal is responsible for establishing the organisation structure and
lines of reporting including the allocation of responsibilities and authorities.
(b) all lawyers and support staff are responsible for ensuring compliance to this procedure.
(c) all lawyers are expected to adhere to the guidelines of this procedure when taking actions,
committing resources and achieving objectives.
7. Procedure
In accordance with our QMS the management team will communicate all responsibilities and
authorities to all professional and support staff in our legal practice. This is done through the following
methods:

2. 2
Issue Date: 1/4/2014 Author: Val Antoff
Review Date: 1/4/2017 Approved by: Val Antoff
a) job descriptions are available to all staff upon commencement of their appointment.
b) the work and performance objectives associated with their position is communicated through
tasks and functions lists.
c) an organisational chart is available to all staff upon commencement which delineates the
broad areas of authority and responsibility within the scope of our practice.
d) the procedures in the quality manual have the relevant responsibilities. The quality manual is
made available to all staff upon commencement. Training on procedures and work
instructions is provided as part of induction.
e) all applicable standards for compliance with the law, regulations and ethical behaviour are
made available to all staff on our intranet.
8. Filling in the gaps
The [Practice Name] ensures that all responsibilities and authorities are defined and allocated to staff
by taking the following steps:
a) we maintain lists of tasks and functions and the work to be carried out
b) we look at position descriptions
c) we identify any gaps between the two
d) we allocate the responsibilities and authorities that have not been assigned
e) we communicate these to staff by email and intranet.
9. Essential controls
a) Any unallocated responsibility and authority which has been identified by a staff member
will be communicated by that person to the quality systems manager/principal through the
corrective action process.
b) The lists of authorities and responsibilities will be reviewed by the management team
annually at our quality management system annual review meeting. Any gaps will be
identified and addressed.
c) The key performance indicators for our QMS processes are used to determine the
effectiveness of planning and managing the organizational structure, responsibilities and
authorities.
Supporting Documentation
1) Organisation chart
2) Job descriptions
3) Tasks and functions lists
4) Induction manual
5) Quality management system manual
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