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Legal Responsibilities

The Legal function protects Kyndof's intellectual property, manages legal risk, and enables business growth through clear accountability using the RABSIC framework. This page defines who owns what legal decisions and how legal coordinates with other departments to support operations while safeguarding the company.

General Counsel (GC)​

RABSIC: A (Accountable)

The General Counsel owns all legal outcomes for the company. This person is accountable to the CEO and board for legal compliance, risk management, intellectual property protection, and legal dispute resolution. When regulatory violations occur, when lawsuits are filed, or when intellectual property is compromised—the GC answers for these outcomes.

Strategic legal leadership includes advising on major business decisions with legal implications. Should we enter a new market with different regulatory requirements? How should we structure a collaboration agreement with another brand? What contract terms protect us adequately? The GC provides legal counsel that enables informed business decisions.

Risk assessment and mitigation sits with this role. The GC identifies legal risks facing the company—liability exposures, compliance gaps, contract vulnerabilities—and implements strategies to manage these risks. This includes ensuring adequate insurance coverage and establishing legal processes that prevent problems.

High-stakes negotiations require GC involvement. Major client contracts, key supplier agreements, partnership deals, and employment contracts for senior leadership all benefit from GC negotiation expertise. The GC understands not just legal requirements but business dynamics that shape favorable terms.

External counsel management means selecting and coordinating with specialized attorneys when we need expertise beyond our internal capabilities. Trademark litigation, international trade law, complex employment disputes—these situations may require external legal specialists. The GC manages these relationships and budgets.

Board and executive legal counsel involves supporting the CEO and board on governance matters, fiduciary duties, and strategic legal questions. The GC serves as trusted advisor on legal dimensions of business strategy.

RABSIC: R (Responsible)

Legal Counsel executes day-to-day legal work including contract review, intellectual property management, compliance monitoring, and routine legal matters. This person handles the majority of legal work that keeps the business operating within legal boundaries.

Contract review and drafting for standard agreements falls to Legal Counsel. Client service agreements, vendor contracts, NDAs, freelancer agreements—Legal Counsel reviews these documents for legal risks and compliance with company policies. Routine contracts get handled without GC involvement. Complex or high-value contracts escalate to the GC.

Intellectual property administration includes trademark filings and renewals, design documentation for IP protection, and maintaining our IP portfolio. Legal Counsel coordinates with external IP counsel on formal registrations while managing internal IP documentation and policies.

Compliance monitoring involves tracking regulatory requirements that apply to our business and ensuring we meet them. Labor law compliance, data privacy requirements, consumer protection rules—Legal Counsel maintains compliance calendars and coordinates with operations on implementing required practices.

NDA management is a significant responsibility given our celebrity client work. Legal Counsel creates NDAs for new relationships, tracks existing NDAs in our database, and advises employees on confidentiality obligations. When public disclosure questions arise, Legal Counsel provides guidance.

Dispute response at early stages involves handling client complaints, vendor disputes, and employment issues before they escalate to litigation. Legal Counsel works with relevant departments to investigate issues and resolve them without requiring GC intervention or external counsel.

Template and policy development maintains our library of contract templates and legal policies. Legal Counsel creates standardized agreements that enable business teams to execute routine deals without legal bottlenecks. As business needs evolve, templates and policies get updated.

Legal training for employees helps the organization understand key legal requirements and company policies. Legal Counsel provides training on NDAs, IP protection, contract basics, and other topics that improve company-wide legal literacy.

RABSIC: S (Support)

The Legal Coordinator handles administrative tasks that keep the legal function running smoothly. This role provides organizational support that enables attorneys to focus on substantive legal work.

Contract administration includes organizing contract files, tracking signature completion, entering contract data into databases, and maintaining version control. When someone needs to find a past contract, the Coordinator's organization makes retrieval quick and easy.

NDA tracking involves maintaining our NDA database with parties, execution dates, expiration dates, and scope of confidentiality. The Coordinator sends reminders when NDAs are approaching expiration and flags situations where new NDAs are needed.

Document management means maintaining organized legal files—both digital and physical—for easy retrieval. Signed contracts, legal correspondence, trademark certificates, employment agreements—all get filed systematically for access when needed.

Calendar management includes tracking legal deadlines like contract renewals, trademark maintenance deadlines, filing due dates, and scheduled legal reviews. The Coordinator ensures nothing falls through the cracks by proactive reminder systems.

Legal intake coordination involves receiving and routing legal questions and requests from across the company. When employees have legal questions, the Coordinator triages them—resolving simple questions using existing resources and routing complex questions to Legal Counsel or the GC as appropriate.

Meeting and communication support includes scheduling legal meetings, preparing materials, documenting action items, and following up on commitments. The Coordinator keeps legal projects organized and moving forward.

Outside Counsel​

RABSIC: C (Consulted)

Outside Counsel provides specialized legal expertise for matters beyond our internal capabilities or requiring external perspectives. These external attorneys are consulted on an as-needed basis for specific issues.

Specialized legal expertise includes areas like IP litigation, international trade law, tax law, securities law, and other specialized domains. Rather than maintaining internal experts in every legal specialty, we engage external counsel when those needs arise.

Litigation representation becomes necessary when disputes escalate beyond settlement negotiations. Outside litigation counsel manages court proceedings, discovery, motions, and trials. The GC oversees outside counsel but delegates day-to-day litigation management to specialists.

Jurisdictional expertise supports business in locations where we lack internal knowledge. Entering new markets may require consulting with attorneys familiar with that jurisdiction's legal landscape. International contracts benefit from counsel familiar with relevant foreign law.

Second opinions on high-stakes decisions provide external validation of internal legal analysis. Before major transactions or risky decisions, the GC may consult outside counsel for independent perspectives that test our thinking.

Cross-Functional RABSIC Relationships​

HR/Operations Team (Consulted)​

HR/Operations is consulted on employment-related legal matters since they understand personnel situations and organizational needs. Legal proposes employment agreement terms; HR provides input on market norms and internal equity. Together they develop contracts that are legally sound and operationally appropriate.

Compliance implementation requires operations consultation. Legal identifies compliance requirements; operations figures out how to operationalize them within business processes. This partnership ensures legal requirements get implemented practically.

Finance Team (Consulted)​

Finance is consulted on contract financial terms and payment provisions. Legal understands legal risk; finance understands financial risk and cash flow implications. Contract terms get structured to balance both perspectives.

Insurance coverage decisions involve finance consultation on budget implications while legal assesses coverage adequacy for risk management. Together they determine appropriate insurance investments.

Sales & Client Services (Consulted)​

Sales is consulted on client contract negotiations to balance legal protection with commercial attractiveness. Overly aggressive legal terms can kill deals. Insufficient protection exposes us to risk. Sales helps legal understand what terms clients will accept.

Client Services provides input on service agreement terms based on operational delivery capabilities. Legal drafts contractual commitments that operations can actually fulfill.

Design Team (Consulted)​

Design is consulted on intellectual property issues related to design work. Who owns designs created for clients? What portfolio usage rights do we need? Design expertise helps legal structure IP terms that work creatively and commercially.

Collaboration agreements with external designers require design input on creative relationship dynamics that legal contracts must accommodate while protecting our interests.

CEO and Board (Informed)​

Leadership is informed of significant legal developments including major disputes, regulatory issues, IP matters, and high-value contract negotiations. The GC provides regular legal updates in executive meetings and board sessions.

Legal spending and outside counsel budgets keep leadership informed of legal function costs. Unexpected legal expenses requiring budget increases get communicated promptly.

Decision-Making Flows​

Accountable: General Counsel Responsible: Legal Counsel (execution of strategy) Consulted: Relevant business functions (contracts, HR, finance, sales) Informed: CEO, Board (significant matters)

Strategic legal decisions start with GC analysis, often with input from Legal Counsel and outside specialists. The GC consults with relevant business functions to understand operational and commercial implications before making recommendations.

For decisions within the GC's authority, they make the final call after consultation. For decisions requiring CEO or board approval—like major litigation settlements or significant policy changes—the GC presents recommendations and implements approved decisions.

Leadership is informed of significant legal decisions and their business implications. The GC provides context beyond just legal analysis, explaining how legal choices impact business operations and risk profile.

Responsible: Legal Counsel Consulted: As needed for business context Accountable: General Counsel (escalations only)

Routine legal work is executed by Legal Counsel without GC involvement. Standard contract reviews, NDA preparations, and regular compliance checks happen independently using established policies and templates.

Escalation to the GC happens for non-routine situations—unusual contract terms, significant legal risks, or matters with strategic implications. Legal Counsel exercises judgment on what requires escalation versus independent handling.

This delegation enables legal responsiveness while maintaining oversight on matters that truly require senior legal judgment or carry material risk.

Responsible: Legal Coordinator Informed: Legal Counsel, GC (as relevant)

Administrative legal work is handled by the Legal Coordinator independently. Contract filing, NDA database updates, deadline tracking—these operational tasks happen without attorney involvement.

Attorneys are informed when administrative work reveals issues requiring legal attention—an upcoming deadline, a missing signature, a contract retrieval request that reveals we never documented something we should have.

Metrics Ownership​

Each legal role owns specific metrics tracking performance:

General Counsel: Legal spend as percentage of revenue (2% target), litigation outcomes, major IP portfolio growth, regulatory compliance audit results

Legal Counsel: Contract review turnaround (2-day standard, 5-day complex target), NDA compliance rate (100% of sensitive projects have signed NDAs), contract rejection rate (unfavorable terms flagged)

Legal Coordinator: Document retrieval speed, deadline tracking accuracy, contract database completeness

Outside Counsel: Matter cost vs. budget, resolution timeliness, client satisfaction with counsel performance

These metrics drive continuous improvement and accountability for legal function performance.

Legal judgment involves balancing legal risk with business objectives. Zero legal risk means no business activity. The GC and Legal Counsel assess risk levels and help the business make informed choices about acceptable risks versus risks requiring mitigation or avoidance.

Conservative legal advice that blocks every business initiative creates frustration. Overly permissive legal guidance that ignores real risks exposes the company to problems. Good legal judgment finds the balance—enabling business while managing risk responsibly.

This risk assessment depends on understanding business context. What's the commercial value of this opportunity? How material is this legal risk? What mitigation options exist? Legal professionals who understand business make better legal judgments than those who only know law.

New legal team members need both legal expertise and business acumen. Understanding Kyndof's business model, client relationships, operational constraints, and competitive dynamics helps you provide legal counsel that supports business success rather than just identifying legal risks.

Learn our contract templates and standard positions. Understanding our established approaches accelerates your contract review and negotiation. Ask about the reasoning behind our standard terms—why we insist on certain provisions and where we're typically flexible.

Build relationships with business teams. Being seen as a partner who helps them achieve goals legally rather than an obstacle who only says "no" strengthens your effectiveness. Understand their pressures and constraints so your legal advice accounts for business reality.

Study our industry's legal landscape. Fashion, entertainment, and celebrity work involve unique legal considerations around image rights, confidentiality, and IP. Becoming fluent in these specialized areas makes your legal guidance more relevant.

Ask about past legal issues and disputes. Learning from history helps you spot similar risks in new situations and implement preventive measures. "Why did that contract dispute occur?" "How could it have been prevented?" These lessons improve your legal judgment.