Legal departments play a pivotal role in the quality of contracts and contracting processes within an organization. This article reflects on current developments and innovations in contracting practice and their impact on the role of legal professionals and legal departments within organizations. Based on empirical research among legal professionals and legal departments in Dutch legal practice, the article positions contracts and contracting within the legal function of an organization and discusses developments in contract management, automated contract assembly and legal design and their potential impact on the role of legal professionals and legal departments. Finally, areas for future research are identified. Throughout the article, the focus is on large commercial organizations.
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Legal management is een nieuw vakgebied, dat de praktijkvan juridische professionals vanuit een organisatiekundigperspectief benadert. Binnen organisaties heeft legalmanagement het doel de kwaliteit van de juridische functiete optimaliseren. In deze unieke uitgave schetsen experts deontwikkeling van dit nieuwe vakgebied en gaan zij in op destand van zaken van het legal management in verschillendesectoren van de Nederlandse rechtspraktijk: de centrale endecentrale overheid, het bedrijfsleven en de advocatuur.Voor iedereen die geïnteresseerd is in de organisatie vanjuridische dienstverlening en juridische processen.
Introduction: The Legal Services counters (LSC) is the first contact point for legal aid in the Netherlands. Professionals reported dealing with a client group combining problems on several dimensions, next to the legal issue. This combination (multiple problem situation, MP) seems to impair the effectiveness of the provided legal help. Methods: A face-to-face survey among 421 visitors of 4 LSC locations was administered (2019). Analyses: Statistical techniques were used to assess the occurrence of MP, the association with the numbers of contacts with the LSC, the background characteristics of clients with and without MP, and the multivariate association between stress, MP and use of the LSC. Results: 44,1% of the respondents reported MP. Those reported a higher number of contacts with the LSC in the past year. MP clients were older and had a lower education level. Financial (58%), conflictual (56%) and physical health (41%) problems were mostly reported. Stress and number of problems were related to a higher attendance to the LSC. Discussion: Legal aid services should set out systematic collaboration paths with other social services, starting off by an assessment of the problem domains, to contribute to an effective solution of those issues, including the legal one.
Uit gesprekken met bedrijven binnen de pluimveesector en maatschappelijke organisaties blijkt dat bij de ontwikkeling van pluimveeproducten de focus ligt op duurzaamheid en circulariteit. Bedrijven zijn hierbij specifiek bezig met het vervangen van uit Zuid-Amerika afkomstige soja door duurzame eiwitstromen, omdat de stellige verwachting is dat de sojaprijs gaat stijgen en dat milieubelasting van pluimveeproducten belangrijker gaat worden dan dierenwelzijn. Bovendien kunnen zonder geïmporteerde soja betere garanties worden afgegeven voor GMO-vrije veevoeders. De geconsulteerde bedrijven en organisaties geven aan dat praktijkproeven op het gebied van eiwit uit reststromen en insecten nodig zijn om stappen te zetten wat betreft het inzetten op toekomstbestendig pluimveevoer. Uit een literatuuronderzoek concludeert het consortium dat een aantal alternatieve eiwitbronnen voor diervoer interessant zijn maar nog niet altijd ver genoeg ontwikkeld zijn voor praktische toepasbaarheid op korte termijn. Uit een overzicht van CLM blijkt dat milieutechnisch én economisch vooral de peulvruchten (lupinen, erwten en veldbonen) en eiwitrijke restproducten van verscheidene teelten (o.a. aardappel- en wortelteelt) in aanmerking komen om geïmporteerde sojaschroot te vervangen. Echter, deze eiwitbronnen kunnen hoogwaardiger worden ingezet als voedingsmiddelen voor humane consumptie. Daartegenover staan de verwachte ontwikkelingen wat betreft legalisering van insecten in veevoer. Tenslotte is ook eendenkroosraffinage ver genoeg ontwikkeld om toe te gaan passen in pluimveevoer. Het praktijkgestuurd onderzoek wordt uitgevoerd door de Aeres Hogeschool in samenwerking met MKB-bedrijven die op dat onderwerp actief zijn en belang hebben bij kennisontwikkeling. Het onderzoek wordt ondersteund door expertisecentra. De belangrijkste doelstelling van het onderzoek is dat bestaande kennis wordt toegepast en nieuwe kennis wordt ontwikkeld om de nieuwe voeders te kunnen gebruiken in de primaire pluimveehouderij. Belangrijk hierbij is de praktijkproef waarin pluimveevoeders geproduceerd worden op basis van reststromen en/of insecten en gevoerd worden aan pluimvee. De effecten van deze nieuwe voeders zullen in een praktijkopstelling bepaald worden.
Single-Use Plastics (SUPs) are at the centre of European Union Agenda aiming at reducing the plastic soup with the EU Directive 2019/904. SUPs reduction is pivotal also in the Dutch Government Agenda for the transition to a Circular Economy by 2050. Worldwide the data on SUPs use and disposal are impressive: humans use around 1.2 million plastic bottles per minute; approximately 91% of plastic is not recycled (www.earthday.org/fact-sheet-single-use-plastics/). While centralised processes of waste collection, disposal, and recycling strive to cope with such intense use of SUPs, the opportunities and constraints of establishing a networked grid of facilities enacting processes of SUPs collection and recycling with the active involvement of local community has remained unexplored. The hospitality sector is characterised by a widespread capillary network of small hospitality firms nested in neighbourhoods and rural communities. Our research group works with small hospitality firms, different stakeholders, and other research groups to prompt the transition of the hospitality sector towards a Circular Economy embracing not only the environmental and economic dimensions but also the social dimension. Hence, this project explores the knowledge and network needed to build an innovative pilot allowing to close the plastic loop within a hospitality facility by combining a 3D printing process with social inclusiveness. This will mean generating key technical and legal knowledge as well as a network of strategic experts and stakeholders to be involved in an innovative pilot setting a 3D printing process in a hospitality facility and establishing an active involvement of the local community. Such active involvement of the local inhabitants will be explored as SUPs collectors and end-users of upcycled plastics items realised with the 3D printer, as well as through opportunities of vocational training and job opportunities for citizens distant from the job market.
Collaborative networks for sustainability are emerging rapidly to address urgent societal challenges. By bringing together organizations with different knowledge bases, resources and capabilities, collaborative networks enhance information exchange, knowledge sharing and learning opportunities to address these complex problems that cannot be solved by organizations individually. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the apparel sector, where examples of collaborative networks for sustainability are plenty, for example Sustainable Apparel Coalition, Zero Discharge Hazardous Chemicals, and the Fair Wear Foundation. Companies like C&A and H&M but also smaller players join these networks to take their social responsibility. Collaborative networks are unlike traditional forms of organizations; they are loosely structured collectives of different, often competing organizations, with dynamic membership and usually lack legal status. However, they do not emerge or organize on their own; they need network orchestrators who manage the network in terms of activities and participants. But network orchestrators face many challenges. They have to balance the interests of diverse companies and deal with tensions that often arise between them, like sharing their innovative knowledge. Orchestrators also have to “sell” the value of the network to potential new participants, who make decisions about which networks to join based on the benefits they expect to get from participating. Network orchestrators often do not know the best way to maintain engagement, commitment and enthusiasm or how to ensure knowledge and resource sharing, especially when competitors are involved. Furthermore, collaborative networks receive funding from grants or subsidies, creating financial uncertainty about its continuity. Raising financing from the private sector is difficult and network orchestrators compete more and more for resources. When networks dissolve or dysfunction (due to a lack of value creation and capture for participants, a lack of financing or a non-functioning business model), the collective value that has been created and accrued over time may be lost. This is problematic given that industrial transformations towards sustainability take many years and durable organizational forms are required to ensure ongoing support for this change. Network orchestration is a new profession. There are no guidelines, handbooks or good practices for how to perform this role, nor is there professional education or a professional association that represents network orchestrators. This is urgently needed as network orchestrators struggle with their role in governing networks so that they create and capture value for participants and ultimately ensure better network performance and survival. This project aims to foster the professionalization of the network orchestrator role by: (a) generating knowledge, developing and testing collaborative network governance models, facilitation tools and collaborative business modeling tools to enable network orchestrators to improve the performance of collaborative networks in terms of collective value creation (network level) and private value capture (network participant level) (b) organizing platform activities for network orchestrators to exchange ideas, best practices and learn from each other, thereby facilitating the formation of a professional identity, standards and community of network orchestrators.
