Should I Create FAQs for the Legal Department?

Everyone knows that no matter how detailed your SOP is, or how widely accessible it is, there will always, ALWAYS be people asking you questions on how to do stuff.

Some questions I’ve gotten this past week:

• Can I just give this document to you without a memo?
• How to keep the cost of this process down?
• Do you need this document for your records?
• What do I do with this document?
• Can I do this process without getting approval from management?

When this happens to me, I’m not really annoyed.

First, I know they’re just trying to do their jobs and second, who else to ask but Legal if it’s a legal document / process?

Third, if the SOP isn’t that great, can I really blame them?

BUT I do get miffed if I know I’ve already answered the person asking and it’s their 4376th time asking, again. (I am only human.)

So I can’t help but think… Should Legal do something new?

“Read this before asking.”

How many times have you and I looked at a SOP / document and decided, “Screw it, I will just call ABC from XYZ Department and ask. Faster what.”

There’s something about the format of SOPs that makes info-finding slower.

Especially if it’s other people’s SOPs. Only the most motivated and time-blessed individuals will attempt to sift through SOPs to find the info.

That’s why I’ve been thinking about creating a document compiling the frequently-asked questions on every existing legal process so that people can refer to it before they ask.

Benefits:

• Gives people independence. They don’t have to rely on other people to get what they need.
• Frees up Legal’s time. Those 5–10 minutes calls do add up. And they interrupt my focus too.
• Makes Legal look good. Hey, no snide looks okay. This is always on the agenda.
• Can be given to new staff for onboarding. Any fresh face can read it to catch up.

In my unresearched and unverified opinion, the reason why FAQs usually work so well is because the info is framed in a way that matches the questioner’s thoughts.

The questioner isn’t looking to know everything. They only want a specific question to be answered.

Let the FAQs begin

I’ve compiled a similar thing in my previous portfolio, so I know roughly what the FAQ document will look like:

1. Cover page
2. How to use the FAQ document
3. Table of contents
4. FAQs
5. Link to ask more questions (maybe a Google Form?)

(This will be created in .docx and saved as a PDF file. I wish I could have toggle down lists, but maybe later.)

I’m going to start with listing down and answering 4–5 questions on each process to make this new project not too overwhelming.

If there’s more than 1 answer to a question, I’m going to run it through others in Legal first.

Then I plan to upload the FAQ document to our company’s internal web portal to make it accessible.

After that, I’m going to email everyone that we usually work with (i.e. business departments) on the FAQ document and invite them to send in more questions.

And after that, I plan to update the FAQ document with new questions every month.

Yet another project that nobody told me to undertake

If I’m going to be completely honest with you, I have no business embarking on new projects, even if the projects are for the benefit of Legal.

I have two plates, one in each hand, and they are both already very full.

It would be foolish to start the FAQ now if I’m going to be taking time away from my existing (sanctioned by the boss) projects and my daily tasks.

But I just wanted to put down my thoughts somewhere so that I can get to this project in the future. I don’t want to forget this idea because I think it will be really, really good to do.

After all, knowledge management, which is a cause close to my heart, is a facet of Legal Operations too.

I’ll update on here once I could get started on the FAQ.