Working Group on Legal Opinions Foundation

What it reported doing in 2024

Seminars - wglo conducts seminars on questions relating to third party legal opinion practice and related areas. Attendance is ordinarily about 125. Members are entitled to designate one attendee for each seminar. Wglo's membership includes law firms, bar associations and others interested in legal opinion practice in business law, real estate, municipal bond, international, tax and other areas from across the country. As a result, the wglo seminars provide a proper setting to debate significant issues involving legal opinion practice.education about legal opinion practice is central to wglo's mission. There are no national educational programs for legal opinion practice, although specialized programs are presented from time to time by bar associations, law firms and others. Our programs have included, in 2024, an opinion risk seminar that covered the following topics: (1) the opinion claim, settlements and insurance management; (2) structure and responsibilities of opinion committee; (3) ethics and opinion claim risks; (4) internal education and opinion practice resources; (5) opinion practice issues with multi-offices, cross-border matters and merged law firms; (6) working with other firms on opinion matters; (7) identifying and coping with high-risk opinions; (8) recipient counsel responsibilities and client guidelines; (9) Delaware opinions by non-Delaware lawyers; and (10) opinion review, opinion forms and internal guidelines and their litigation significance. During the year ended june 30, 2025, the board of directors determined to conduct another opinion risk seminar in the spring of 2026 and commenced planning for that program.joint committee with aba/bls - wglo is concerned with broadening the consensus that exists about legal opinion customary practice. In that regard, wglo has been engaged in a joint project with the legal opinions committee of the business law section of the american bar association. That project has produced a statement of opinion practices and related core opinion principles which has been approved by many bar associations and other lawyer groups. Wglo and the american bar association are continuing this partnership and are studying potentially expanding the statement of opinion practices to address additional topics.wglo as incubator - wglo attendees are leaders of legal opinion practice nationally. In parts of the semi-annual seminar programs, attendees meet to discuss issues of common interest in smaller groups. These groups sometimes decide to take additional steps to help the legal opinion community deal with a specific problem or approach. Wglo fosters these groups since the steps they take, which may include publishing, increase and strengthen opinion understanding and the opinion literature. In addition wglo, in conjunction with its seminar program, has sponsored programs and sessions that have resulted in a series of articles prepared by seminar attendees. At least one other group of wglo attendees is working on a specific project regarding local counsel opinion practice.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: Limited
• Program expense ratio: Limited
• Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: Limited
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: Limited
• Major donor itemization: Limited
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 4 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 57
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Fail
  • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
  • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Missing
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 40.2%; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 6.86; rating input score 84; 84th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: Limited
• Revenue growth: 1% per year; rating input score 100; 29th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 10.1% per year; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings