Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Key definition

Client definition

What does Client mean? In legal practice, a client is the person or organisation for whom a lawyer or law firm acts and to whom professional duties are owed. This includes individuals, companies, partnerships and public bodies, whether instructing directly or through an agent. The term is a general professional expression rather than a statutory definition; its scope is shaped by engagement terms (the retainer) and by professional conduct rules and case law on duties of care, conflicts of interest, confidentiality and legal professional privilege. Key features include: identifying the correct client at the outset (especially for corporate clients, where the client is the entity,...

Planning and Delivering Legal Awareness Programmes in Business: A Practical Step-by-Step Guide for In-house Lawyers

Published by a LexisNexis In-house Advisor expert

Practice notes

This Practice Note

This Practice Note offers guidance and tips for in-house counsel on building programmes that embed legal awareness across the business. Enabling clients to understand the law is among the most valuable impacts in-house lawyers can deliver. Yet many intend to be proactive, only to discover that time pressures derail them. Some also worry that partial knowledge could be risky, fearing colleagues might go off piste without adequate oversight or support. It is vital that the organisation accepts that commercial teams must be legally literate. A legal awareness programme should pursue three core aims: first, to help people spot when choices or activities may carry legal consequences; second, to ensure they know when, and in what way, to approach the legal function; and third, to nurture a culture where compliance and ethics are viewed as essential to commercial performance. Developing legal awareness allows the business to:

cut exposure to legal and regulatory risk by prompting early spotting and escalation of concerns at the earliest possible stage
work more smoothly by empowering colleagues to handle low-risk issues within clear boundaries safely and appropriately
deepen its ethical culture by emphasising accountability and responsible decision-making throughout the organisation
foster trust and...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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