The fourteenth agency in the community is the Legal Agency. It is part of the Regulatory Bureau, which also includes the IP and Audit Agencies.

The agency acts as the community’s legal advisor. It also provides legal advice and services to participants, which relate to the community. The Legal Agency has expertise both in the community’s legal provisions and in the authorities under whose jurisdiction the community falls. In this capacity, the agency guides all legal engagements between the community and external parties.

The Legal Agency serves participants and other agencies through an automated system. The system uses advanced data analytical tools to provide personalized services. For those who are unable to receive the desired help, departmental agents are at hand to help.[1] The departmental agents also recommend changes to the system, which are effected by the agency president. In some specific instances, the agency may additionally procure legal services, for expertise, or to alleviate a workload which would be impossible for the community public servants to handle (due to their restricted working hours).[2]

The Legal Agency’s roles are characterized as core (done with little or no coordination with other agencies) or coordinated, where the Legal Agency performs these functions in coordination with other agencies.

Core Responsibilities

The Legal Services Agency’s primary role is the provision of legal services and advice to participants and agencies. However, its services also include constructive engagement with these parties, such that it has a significant influence on overall strategic direction. Some of its core responsibilities include the following:

Provide legal advice and support to the community
Direct legal strategies in the community
Coordinate community security services
Engage with external parties on legal matters

Legal advice and support

The Legal Services Agency provides legal services to community agencies and participants, especially to the extent that specific matters involve the community. As indicated in the introduction, most of the agency’s roles are automated, involving participants interacting with the agency via an online system, which provides them with most of the information they need. Supplementary information and help are provided by the departmental agents.[3] As part of this support, the agency monitors other agencies and participants’ businesses to see that they comply with all legal provisions that govern the community, besides community bylaws. For instance, the community agencies must conform to laws that govern professional including health (doctors and nurses), education, and finance (banking and insurance).[4]

Direct legal strategies

The Legal Services Agency formulates and adjusts all legal strategies touching on the community as a whole. The agency comes up with mechanisms through which the community can constructively engage with government authorities as far as legal issues are concerned, including the implementation of government regulations that concern the community. The agency provides information to participants’ businesses and agencies on what they need to align with regulations. This advice is industry-specific, and is frequently updated to capture any changes. The agency performs this through its online platform, complemented by the departmental agents as necessary. The agency further provides support to all parties within the community in the implementation and observance of laws.[5] In the United States, this would include regulations on healthcare and health information management, such as HIPAA and ACA. Such regulations affect several agencies, requiring a uniform approach, which is informed by the legal issues involved.

Coordinate community security services

The Legal Services Agency coordinates the community’s security posture. The agency works with external (government) authorities to coordinate their security efforts. It also contracts and works with a security contractor to safeguard the community. The agency coordinates the hybrid security system. This system involves a security firm, which offers manpower and expertise needed to secure the community. It also includes a community-led effort, organized as a community-policing initiative, which complements the security contractor’s work. The system is therefore community-centered, and cognizant of changing trends in community policing and security challenges.[6]

Engage with external parties on legal matters

The Legal Services Department interacts with external legal authorities on issues of legal concern to the community.[7] The agent does this as part of its compliance function, whereby it has to ensure that the community operates within the prevailing legal framework. It is to be expected that initially, the community will have to harmonize its legal perspective with that of the societal environment within which it operates. The Legal Services Agency mobilizes and canvasses external legal authorities so that it can secure a more compatible legal dispensation, while also receiving advice on how the community can more easily align its operations with the law.

Coordinated Roles

The coordinated roles which the Legal Services Agency performs with other agencies are primarily its mandate, but with a degree of support from other agencies. The coordination can be characterized in three patterns, as described below:

Horizontal coordination

The Legal Services Agency performs legal advisory work for the IP Agency so that the process is within the set legal guidelines. The Legal Services Agency also provides the Audit Agency with legal advice as the Audit Agency conducts audits on community agencies.[8]

Vertical coordination

The Legal Services Agency provides legal services to other agencies in its vertical. For instance, it advises Agency 1 – the Human Relations Agency during the entry process for participants, to ensure compliance with the law. It also provides support during arbitration, which is directed by the village presidents, with legal input from the Legal Services Agency. The Legal Services Agency also relies on the Human Relations Agency’s infrastructure to formulate security strategies that are community-centered. The Legal Services Agency provides legal services to Agency 16 – the Data Management Agency, advising it how to handle data in line with existing norms and legal provisions in the area within which the community operates. The Legal Services Agency provides legal services to Agency 7 – the Capital Fund as it draws up deeds on invested funds by participants, so that the community can issue deeds that cannot be broken and are compatible with other relevant legal guidelines.

Diagonal coordination

The Legal Services Agency provides legal services to Agency 11 – the Bylaws Agency so that the bylaws and public policy formulated to guide the community are in alignment with external societal law. This is the only way through which bylaws can have legal force, even within the community. The Legal Services Agency also liaises with Agency 3 – the Leasing Agency during the drafting of agreements between the Leasing Agency and participants for leasing of property. The Legal Services Agency liaises with Agency 6 – the Health Agency, providing advice to participants offering health-related services on legal aspects of handling patients and their information.

Conclusion

The Legal Services Agency acts as the community’s legal advisor. It formulates a coherent legal strategy that the community needs to harmonize its existence within a society in which different perspectives on the economy and politics are the norm. Since the legal framework is a product of these perspectives, the agency fulfills the role of aligning community operations with the framework, while also actively engaging the lawmakers, and enforces, so that the community’s considerations can be accommodated. Above all, the community aspires to have its approach to society and economics as the dominant system. It strives to operate within the set laws while impressing upon those beyond the community the advantages of the community system. The Legal Services Agency is instrumental in this endeavor.

[1] The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the provision of legal services is growing. AI tools are used to offer additional insight and analytics, due diligence and research. This saves time that professionals can ill-afford. AI is also used to automate creative services, such as writing. The Legal Services Agency will use these automated services to reduce the time that agency presidents and departmental agents need to spend serving the agency (Rayo, E. “AI in Law and Legal Practice – A Comprehensive View of 35 Current Applications.” Emerj – AI Research and Insight (2019): published online)

[2] Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) has caught on the legal profession, where firms today outsource most of their non-essential duties. The obvious benefit is cost cutting, especially where the services are outsourced to regions with lower business operating costs. Outsourcing also affords the organization the time necessary to handle ore important strategic issues. The Legal Services Agency will mostly be concerned with strategic planning, leaving those duties that cannot be automated to the outsourced professionals (Patterson, L. “Outsourcing of Legal Services: A Brief Survey of the Practice and the Minimal Impact of Protectionist Legislation.” Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business 7.2 (2008): 177-204).

[3] Legal advisors provide their clients with the sort of legal objectivity needed to make sound decisions and strategies. The agency advises agencies and participants through general information. However, departmental assistants, as part of their remit to the Legal Services Agency, may interact more directly with participants to provide more direct legal support and advice (Heller, Jan Christian, Joseph E. Murphy and Mark E. Meaney. Guide to Professional Development in Compliance. Gaithersburg: Aspen Publications, 2001. Print).

[4] In modern organizations, legal departments work with other departments to ensure that the organization complies with legal provisions applicable to its operations. In other instances, legal personnel are embedded within the departments, though they operate in concert with the main legal department. In the community, the Legal Services Agency will conduct overall monitoring of compliance, while departmental agencies work directly with participants and agencies (Jacob, K., Schindler, D., and Strathausen, R. Liquid Legal: Transforming Legal into a Business Savvy, Information Enabled, and Performance Driven Industry. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2017).

[5] Legal strategies are mainly geared towards ensuring that the community’s operations are compatible and in compliance with the prevailing legal framework. This is informed by the need to ensure that such laws do not serve as an impediment to the community’s interests and that the community can instead use them to its advantage (Bird, Robert C. and David Orozco. “Finding the Right Corporate Legal Strategy.” Sloan Management Review (2-14): online publication. Electronic).

[6] Community-centered security aims to put people at the center of security objectives. As such, the people have a say in what the strategies and engagements with security forces. In the community, the interaction between the security providers and the community will be managed by the Legal Services Agency (NAP. Proactive Policing: Effects on Crime and Communities. Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2018. Electronic).

[7] Various legal statutes and dispensations exist, which will affect the community. For instance, HIPAA guidelines, which govern how health information is transferred and used, will have major implications for the community. The agency will extensively work with relevant authorities to align community practice with the said guidelines (Governatori, Guido. A Methodological Framework for Aligning Business Processes and Regulatory Compliance. Academic. St Lucia: the University of Queensland, n.d. Electronic).

[8] Auditors are expected to detect financial malpractice and issues with controls, where any exist. Failure to do this may attract legal penalties, while weakening their position as financial watchdogs. The Legal Services Agency will provide the Audit Agency with the legal expertise required to avoid these pitfalls as they conduct internal and external audits in the community (Burton, F., T. Wilks and F. Zimbleman. “How Auditor Legal Liability Influences the Detection and Frequency of Fraudulent Financial Reporting.” Current Issues in Accounting 7.2 (2013): 9-15).