Legal Audit in Kenya

Legal audit in Kenya

A legal audit is a comprehensive review of a company’s legal standing, designed to ensure compliance with applicable laws while identifying potential business opportunities. At Silvana & Associates Advocates, we conduct legal audits for various entities, including companies, individual enterprises, partnerships, and corporations. Our objective is to review strategic plans and objectives, examine key documents, and analyze both current and projected legal needs.

Why Conduct a Legal Audit?

A legal audit serves as the foundation for establishing a continuous legal compliance and prevention program. This ensures that your business’s goals, structure, and operations align with the latest developments in business and corporate law. It also helps identify legal issues arising from changes in strategies or objectives and allows your team to plan for the legal tasks required to address these issues proactively.

Key Areas Covered in a Legal Audit

When conducting a legal audit, we focus on several critical areas that influence the operational and strategic aspects of the business. These include:

1. Entity Structure: Review the choice and structure of the business entity, ensuring alignment with legal requirements.
2. Board Decisions: Examine recent acts by the board of directors and assess documentation supporting those decisions.
3. Intellectual Property Protection: Review intellectual property assets and protection strategies.
4. Distribution & Marketing Methods: Analyze compliance with relevant laws governing distribution and marketing activities.
5. Litigation: Identify pending or threatened litigation.
6. Estate Planning: Evaluate estate planning strategies and asset protection mechanisms.
7. Insurance Coverage: Assess the adequacy of insurance policies and their coverage.
8. Employment Practices: Review hiring and firing practices, employment agreements, and compliance with employment laws.
9. Securities Compliance: Ensure compliance with applicable securities laws.
10. Antitrust Regulations: Review adherence to antitrust and related trade regulations.
11. Environmental Law: Evaluate compliance with environmental laws, including product liability.
12. Data Protection
13. Emerging areas such as ESG Compliance.

Specialized Legal Audits

At Silvana & Associates Advocates, we provide specialized legal audits focusing on areas such as:

• Litigation: Identifying unknown or pending disputes, and advising on strategies for minimizing legal risks.
• Labour and Employment Law: Reviewing employment contracts and workplace practices.
• Intellectual Property (IP) Audits: Identifying unregistered IP and assessing IP protection mechanisms.
• Environmental and Regulatory Compliance: Ensuring your business complies with all relevant environmental and regulatory laws.
• Corporate Governance: Reviewing your corporate structure, bylaws, and board governance practices.

Legal Audit Services We Offer

1. Contract Review

We thoroughly review your organization’s contractual agreements to ensure compliance with existing laws. These agreements may include employment contracts, supply agreements, service contracts, partnership agreements, and franchise or acquisition agreements. We evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of these contracts, identify conflicts of interest, advise on performance, and recommend necessary amendments to mitigate risks.

2. Intellectual Property (IP) Protection

Our legal audit also assesses your organization’s intellectual property assets, such as copyrights, trademarks, patents, and industrial designs. We advise on the appropriate registration and protection frameworks to safeguard your IP assets from infringement and misuse.

3. Dispute Resolution

We review any ongoing or past judicial and arbitral disputes, identify potential areas of conflict, and provide advice on preventing future disputes. In addition, we recommend appropriate dispute resolution systems and assess whether your current framework aligns with legal requirements.

4. Statutory Compliance

We evaluate your company’s compliance with mandatory regulations such as NSSF, NHIF, and tax laws. Additionally, we advise on obtaining relevant licenses, adhering to environmental laws, and complying with competition and antitrust regulations. For businesses with specific compliance needs, such as occupational safety certificates or insurance policies, we ensure that all legal obligations are met.

5. Company Secretarial Audit

Our company secretarial audit includes reviewing the company’s Memorandum and Articles of Association, verifying compliance with the Companies Act, and assessing debentures, charges, and mortgages registered in the organization’s name.

Legal Audit Checklist

To assist you in preparing for a legal audit, here’s a checklist of key areas to review:

• Corporate Structure: Is your business entity correctly structured?
• Board Minutes: Are recent board decisions properly documented?
• Contracts: Are employment, partnership, and other business agreements compliant with current laws?
• Intellectual Property: Are your IP assets registered and protected?
• Disputes: Are there any unresolved disputes or potential areas of conflict?
• Compliance: Are you compliant with NSSF, NHIF, tax laws, and any other regulatory requirements?
• Licenses & Certificates: Do you hold all necessary occupational safety and business licenses?
• Insurance: Is your current insurance coverage adequate and compliant with industry standards?
• Sales Practices: Are your sales and collection practices legally sound?

Would you like to conduct a legal audit in Kenya?

If you’re interested in conducting a legal audit for your company, reach out to us at info@swkadvocates.com to schedule a consultation.