Introducing Legal Coaching: A Framework for Legally Intelligent Decision-Making in Risk-Sensitive Organisations

Abstract

Over the past two decades, coaching research has largely focused on leadership development and managerial performance. However, the integration of legal dimensions into coaching practice remains largely unexplored. This paper introduces the concept of ‘Legal Coaching’ as a novel interdisciplinary approach at the intersection of coaching psychology, preventive law, and corporate governance.

This paper presents a conceptual framework and does not report empirical findings; the vignettes included are practice-informed illustrations designed to demonstrate the applicability of the framework, not to validate it empirically. Drawing on abductive reasoning and cross-disciplinary synthesis, it establishes a foundational Legal Coaching Framework (LCF) and introduces the L-COACH operational model, designed to develop managers’ legal risk literacy and support informed decision-making. The model is intended to help managers (a) identify early warning signals of legal risk, (b) interpret these cues within complex organisational contexts  , and ( c ) determine the appropriate timing for escalation to legal specialists, consistent with principles of internalised legal reasoning.

By engaging with legal awareness and metacognitive processes, this paper argues that Legal Coaching represents a relevant intervention for supporting proactive legal risk management and responsible governance in risk-sensitive organisations. This work contributes to an emerging area of inquiry by connecting coaching literature with legal risk management and proposing a research agenda for future empirical investigation.