jdrlegal's services

General Counsel Office (GCO)

The General Counsel Office (GCO) is an outsourcing relationship, in which we embed our team into a client’s existing operations in order to drive better deal flow and shortens payback periods. It translates our clients’ legal risk management philosophies into an operational and measurable roadmap; day to day, quarter to quarter, year to year.

We work closely with the senior management team to create customised business processes and legal contract documents that fit with your business objectives and goals.The GCO can be engaged on short term (3 month) or a longer term (rolling 24 month) engagement.

vGCO (Virtual General Counsel Office)

vGCO (Virtual General Counsel Office) is a our innovative collaborative platform for managing, tracking and controlling your legal and risk management issues and personnel. Having this platform "in the cloud" allows you, your executive and legal to team to share, discuss and contribute anytime and from anywhere in the world.

vGCO offers process designs, templates and document libraries to quickly get your team up and running quickly and effectively. Accessible via a standard internet browser, the SmartSheet® platform utilises an easy to use spreadsheet-style user interface.

Common Bottlenecks in the Legal and Risk Management Process

From jdrlegal’s vast experience in this area we have identified common bottlenecks in the legal and risk management process:

Legal and Risk Management Issue	vGCO Value Proposition
The contract is a last stage hurdle to concluding the transaction	Contract and contract processes are embedded
The contract is too long and too one sided	Contract library contains short form and long form contracts that are drafted to be mutually beneficial for all parties
The contract process is expensive (billable hour existence)	vGCO is a fixed price service, so you have price certainty, as well as access to core data and contract libraries from the commencement of the service
Contract process starts from brick one every time	vGCO precedent and templates can be leveraged as well as previous work product from prior transactions
The contract drafting process is labour intensive	vGCO allows you to save time and money by using both existing document libraries and previous work product from prior transactions
The contract drafting and negotiation process is risk adverse	vGCO provides a document library of more progressive contracts that allow for risk management to occur, moving away from extreme risk adverse positions
Contract drafting usually comes from one social perspective	vGCO content leverages global legal expertise and multiple party transactions
90% of limited resources are expended on the pre-contract process	vGCO allows the use to shift to at least a 50/50 split of time and resources on pre-contract and post-contract management issues
Legal clauses dominate relationship clauses in most contracts	vGCO document libraries have a balance of legal clauses and operational process that is readily available
The business has no contract memory	vGCO builds the business’ contract memory every day, and you leverage it every day
I don’t have an operational approach for dealing with contracts and business risk, nor global expansion	vGCO is a robust operational approach to dealing with contracts and business risk as they relate to Australia and overseas operations

Other Features

Accessible via your internet browser
Builds on the stable and growing SmartSheet® platform. Platform upgrades are covered as part of the monthly maintenance fees.
Easy to use spreadsheet-type user interface
A library of common legal templates, tips and articles updated monthly.

An example of a legal issues template:

smartsheet-jdrlegal-screenshot

vGCO Engagement Options:

Annual License and Monthly Maintenance Fees
Once-Off Fee for existing SmartSheet® users.

IP Management

Once you have secured your Intellectual Property rights you will need to properly manage your IP portfolio to get maximum leverage from your rights. jdrlegal can assist you will managing your IP assets in the following ways:

managing the IP creation process
keeping track of IP registrations and renewal dates.
negotiating and monitoing licensing deals
periodic searches of IP infringements.
domain name complaints (eg. "cybersquatting")
setting up internal systems to assist your team with IP management.
integrating IP purchased via acquisition into your organisation.

IP Registration

jdrlegal offers a full-suite of Intellectual Property services including registrations and renewals in multiple countries:

Trademarks,
Patents,
Designs,
Domain names

Due to our global reach we are able to serve you in the following jurisdictions:

United States
Australia and New Zealand
European Union

Dispute Resolution

We help you deal with commerical disputes that occur in relationships such as:

Disputes in multiple jurisdictions
Supply chain
Distributors/resellers
Franchisors/Franchisees
Staff
Intellectual Property infringements - pursuing company losses from others infringing on your IP rights.
Alternative dispute resolution and court matters

Workshops

jdrlegal conducts executive workshops for senior management teams on topics including:

licensing your IP
sourcing investment funding
how to structure an information memorandum
valuing your company
managing overseas agents/distributors
sourcing overseas manufacturers
finding offshore development teams
IP registrations
IP management

In addition, jdrlegal will be working with our alliance partners to develop your skills for business development and information management strategies.