[Informal Poll] Do we want legal representation/advice for “the whole DAO?”

Is MakerDAO interested in having legal representation for the DAO as a whole? Currently, CUs take on legal advisors to suit their own needs, but there is no legal expert for MakerDAO to turn to should “MakerDAO the organization” face a love letter from a regulatory agency, or simply have day-to-day questions.

After informally consulting with a variety of legal experts both within and external to the DAO, it seems that there are workarounds to the DAO not being an entity (though they are administratively burdensome for the attorneys involved). Assuming the gymnastics can be done correctly, does MakerDAO want an external “general counsel” or formal legal advisor?

I see two main benefits:

1. This provides someone MakerDAO can ask mundane questions of that are not already covered by a core unit’s legal advisors (like to what extent the Deco Protocol proposal involves non-exempt securities or how we can structure a product in a way to minimize objections from regulators in major jurisdictions).
2. This provides someone ready to begin responses to regulatory letters that often have timelines attached to them, without us having to locate and onboard legal advice under duress.

I see one main downside:

1. Cost. Good representation does not come cheaply (we would not want Twitter-warrior lawyers).

Cost is also likely to be lumpy, as our needs for billable hours will rise and fall with our legal needs. It may be that even a top-tier practice will not need much of our money, simply because we don’t have many questions and no one is coming after us. It may also be that we incur very large expenses – though that seems likely to be in the middle of an existential crisis, in which case it is not an expense we can realistically avoid.

Additional thoughts and comments welcome in the thread below.

Given that this would not be a replacement for CUs retaining their own legal experts as appropriate for their jurisdictions and operations, and also given that there are high-quality practices that come highly recommended that are prepared to work for MakerDAO, do we want a legal advisor for the DAO as an organization?

This poll is intended to be a temperature check on whether to pursue a layer of legal representation for the whole DAO. CUs already attend to their own legal matters with representation specific to that CU, and this is not intended to supplant that.