Black Gold Petroleum Company is engaged in all phases of exploring, refining, and marketing of oil and petrochemical products. To ensure full compliance with all applicable laws, the company has a legal department staffed by lawyers who have expertise in a variety of legal areas. The top management of Black Gold wants to motivate all operating managers to seek legal counsel from the in-house lawyers whenever necessary to avoid violation of any laws during the course of its operations.
Currently, users of the legal department are allocated cost at a $400 standard hourly rate based on actual usage. The chief financial officer has suggested that department managers would make more use of the legal department's services, and thus avoid potential legal pitfalls, if services were provided free of cost to their departments.
Required
Comment on the proposal of the chief financial officer. Do you have any alternative suggestion(s)?