Outdated Practices In Subsidiary Governance

Global entity management is becoming more complex, and subsidiary governance is both costly and resource-intensive for in-house legal teams. Tighter regulation and bigger workloads have led to inefficiencies, higher costs, and greater risks. Nevertheless, fixing global entity management isn’t generally high on the legal department agenda. It is viewed as a necessary inconvenience, but according to the Intertrust Group, the formula of combining centralized administration with local expertise has outlived its usefulness. It means well paid in-house attorneys spend time overseeing repetitive administrative work while local lawyers are paid large sums for minor compliance work. They suggest centralized outsourcing using a “center of excellence,” (hopefully theirs) staffed with attorneys and certified public accountants, and backed by the latest entity management technology.