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During the course of its operations the University often requires legal advice
in terms of its own operations or to respond to claims made against it.
Legal advice is expensive and care is needed in briefing
external solicitors to ensure the advice that is given is
pertinent and relevant to the University's needs. In many
cases matters can be resolved without the need to consult
legal advisers.
The Legal Services Office is your first
point of contact when you believe you may need to seek legal
advice. The steps are:-
- discuss the matter with one of the contact staff below who in
consultation with the Manager Legal Services will assist
in determining whether external legal advice is needed.
- if it is agreed that legal advice is needed,
you should provide a summary of the issue outlining the
background, specific problem and the issues the advice
should address.
- this information will assist in selecting an appropriate legal firm from ECU's panel of
preferred firms and who is acceptable to you and engage
the firm to provide the advice.
- you may be asked to provide any relevant
documents for forwarding to the legal adviser.
- your name will be given as a contact person
(with your consent) and the legal adviser may contact
you to seek further information or discuss any issues.
- written advice will be provided to you
and a copy to Legal Services.
Legal advice is confidential and must not
be forwarded to outside parties without express approval
of the legal firm that provided it.
The account may be forwarded to you to confirm
that the work invoiced was completed, then
payment may be arranged from the ECU legal budget. Payment for legal advice
in relation to commercial activities may be sought from the budget
of the project concerned.
You are encouraged to provide any comments
on the quality of the advice provided, including relevance,
timeliness etc, to Legal Services who may use your feedback in
periodic assessments of the panel of preferred firms.
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