Risk Management and Governance Certification Course

The course does not require a risk management background and promotes an easily accessible approach to risk decision making. It is suitable for both in-house lawyers and those who manage risk in private practice.

For over thirty years in both private practice and in-house, Ian has been involved in major projects and transactions that carried significant consequences for his clients and organisations. He has been a General Counsel and Company Secretary as well as a senior manager and lawyer at companies such as BT, BP and Thomson Reuters.

He has taught lawyers and others legal risk management for a number of years. His approach is practical, but also looks at risk as more than managing by algorithms and checklists. His humane approach encompasses culture, ethics and human behaviour has given numerous delegates a deeper insight into this vital and fascinating subject.

Ian is the author of Butterworth’s In-House Lawyers Handbook.

• Explain how lawyers can approach risk decision making in an uncertain world
• Understand how the appetite of clients for risk differs between clients, how that appetite is derived and expressed.
• Look at the different types of risks including those that are beyond control and also focus on legal risk so that delegates may identify the relevant risks when advising or working on transactions.
• Understand tools that are available to lawyers to help their clients manage or mitigate risks (contract clauses, due diligence, litigation tactics etc.).
• Provide a risk-based decision-making framework to help the lawyers guide clients through the legal risk decision making process.

Delegates will get course notes, a copy of the course slides and a personal risk decision making framework.

1. Sign up for the certified course in Risk Management and Governance
2. Attend five short seminars (9 hrs verified CPD)
3. Attend three tutorials (3 hrs verified CPD)
4. Online submission of assignment (2 hr verified CPD)
5. Certification in Risk Management and Governance awarded with use of our marque

Optional online private study consolidation package (4 hr private study CPD).

Webinar 1: Risk - Operating in an Uncertain World
The session will look at our uncertain world, our perceptions of the world and how we approach that world in our role as lawyers. Delegates will consider the different categories of risk and be introduced to the key terminology that we will be using throughout the course (risk, legal risk, incidence, impact, controls, mitigations etc.)

Webinar 2: Risky Decisions
As risk management is about making good risk decisions, we will look at how risk management imports the concepts of risk appetite and risk attitude and what they mean. We will also look at why risk decisions go wrong, the influence of biases on decision making and what it means for risk management. Special focus will be given to thinking about decision making and governance and compliance strategies.

Webinar 3: Organisational resilience, understanding harm, and how these can help us build better, useable risk frameworks
Covid-19 is the latest risk event that has caused organisations to question the robustness of their plans. In this session, we look at an alternative approach to managing risk by focusing on organisational resilience. We will look at harm, our stakeholders, and the outcomes that they expect when dealing with our organisations.

Webinar 4: Creating a Risk Management Framework
In this session, we will look at how we draw together the factors considered in the first three sessions and how we can use them to build robust, proportionate, and relevant risk management framework within our organisations. We use ISO31000 as an example of a framework to manage risk for our organisations.

Webinar 5: Crisis Management and How to Have a Good Crisis
Using a fictional case study, the session will unfold a crisis and look at possible responses at each stage. Delegates will actively participate by assuming the roles of non-lawyers to understand how legal advice both might help and hinder crisis management. The aim of the session is to highlight the complexity of risk decision making under the pressure of uncertainty and how the complexities affect the design of governance and compliance risk management frameworks.

Tutorial 1
Tutorial one will take place between sessions one and two. It will reflect on session one, drawing on delegates own experiences of risks situations. In particular, they will be invited to think about behavioural biases that may have been in play and how those affected the handling of the risk situation.

Tutorial 2
Tutorial two will take place between sessions two and three.  It will reflect on sessions one and two, focussing on the legal controls and mitigations that delegates can use in their organisation, how they monitor them, how they measure success and what lessons they can draw from their own experiences.

Tutorial 3
Tutorial three will take place between sessions four and five.

Please note you will be required to complete around 1 hour of preparation ahead of each tutorial. 

The assignment will reflect back on the content covered throughout the course. It will be distributed during the course and due to be submitted online at the end of the course.

Gain 4 extra hours of private study materials to enhance and consolidate your knowledge in the context of your own organisation.

Materials will be provided by the course tutor.