CCCA Magazine - Fall 2017 by CCCA Magazine

New Players Driving Value for Legal Departments Spotlight On... Improving Your Personal Bottom Line

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Reining in Budgets

Smooth Operators: Coming to a Legal Department near You

magazine Fall 2017 Automne | Vol 11, No. 3

Leading Corporate Counsel Le conseiller juridique d’entreprise – Droit devant

Patricia Towler, President & CEO, CPA Nova Scotia

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Fall 2017 Automne | Vol 11, No. 3

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In this issue… Features 16 Reining in Budgets

CANADIAN CORPORATE COUNSEL ASSOCIATION L’ASSOCIATION CANADIENNE DES CONSEILLERS(ÈRES) JURIDIQUES D’ENTREPRISES 1210 – 20 Toronto Street Toronto, ON M5C 2B8 Tel: 416-869-0522 Email: ccca@ccca-cba.org CCCA Chair / PRÉSIDENT de l’ACCJE Nick Slonosky: Chair@ccca-cba.org EXECUTIVE EDITOR / Rédactrice en chef Lynne Yryku: LYryku@ccca-cba.org ADVERTISING / PUBLICITÉ Brian Trotter: BrianTrotter@outlook.com DESIGN / CONCEPTION ARTISTIQUE Hume Media Inc. Editorial Board Olumide Adetunji Marianne Bolhuis Graeme Deuchars Sébastien Guénette Wendy King Laurie MacFarlane Sarah McKinnon Michael Rothe Yasmin Visram ISSN No. 1913-0562 Publications Mail Agreement No. 42929530 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Canadian Corporate Counsel Association 1210 – 20 Toronto Street Toronto, ON M5C 2B8

All rights reserved. Contents may not be reprinted without permission. The opinions expressed in articles are not necessarily those of the publisher. Information presented is not legal advice and should not be relied upon as a substitute for review of your specific situation with legal counsel. Every effort has been made to provide accurate information; however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. Tous droits réservés. Le contenu du magazine ne peut pas être reproduit sans autorisation. Les opinions exprimées dans les articles ne sont pas nécessairement partagées par l’éditeur. Le contenu du magazine ne constitue pas un avis juridique et vous ne devriez pas vous en servir pour évaluer votre situation particulière. Nous avons tout mis en œuvre afin de fournir des renseignements exacts. Cependant, l’éditeur n’assume aucune responsabilité en cas d’erreurs ou d’omissions.

Cost pressures are a top concern for legal departments. With economic cycles continually fluctuating, it may seem impossible to create a realistic and accurate budget. And how do you prepare and cope when the axe falls, especially when your internal budget is already lean? Learn some tactics and strategies from top in-house counsel. By Jim Middlemiss

24 New Players Driving Value for Legal Departments

We are all tasked with creating more effective, efficient legal departments. Non-law firm service providers may be part of the solution. Just as the delivery of healthcare involves more than physicians, legal services are increasingly being delivered by service professionals and paraprofessionals who leverage legal, technological and process and project management expertise. Is this model right for you? By Mark A. Cohen & Liam Brown

30 Smooth Operators: Coming to a Legal Department near You

Legal operations management is a growing trend in companies of all sizes, helping legal departments get the most out of their budgets, vendors and technology. Such professionals are focused on strategy, cost effectiveness, communications and data management. What is the benefit for your organization and how can they help you personally do your job better? By Julie Sobowale

columns

departments

5 From the Editor Effectively managing your department's finances is critical to your long-term success. Communication, proper planning and teamwork are key.

8 Legal Performance Learn from master writers how you can make budget time more effective and exciting. By Jonathan Cullen

7 From the Chair Our CCCA memberships are a strategic resource. We should all take pride in being part of such a dynamic group!

10 Practice Management As your company looks to expand internationally, what steps can you take to reduce the financial impact and headache of cross-border transactions? By Vivene Salmon

12 Profile: Patricia Towler Taking the position of CEO of CPA Nova Scotia was the perfect progression in Patti's quest for career success and personal fulfillment. By Lynne Yryku 36 Spotlight On… Improving Your Personal Bottom Line If you feel like you never have enough time, see how you can take back control. Focus on the most important things first and you will achieve your goals! By Lynne Yryku 40 CCCA News Introducing Nick Slonosky, 2017-18 CCCA Chair

39 Legal Innovation Carillion’s GC and McCarthy Tétrault’s Chief Client Officer discuss scoping, budgeting and how in-house counsel and external can work together to effectively manage budgets and projects. 43 HR Impact While planning for hypotheticals may be a hard sell, it is important for longterm success. So how do you develop a strong business case to win an adequate budget for contingencies? By Liz Bernier 44 Strategic Management Part 3 of this fourpart series on the internal controls of an anti-bribery program looks at the design of the system. By Isabelle Pierre 46 Inside Edge Delays during the procurement process are frustrating and costly. Learn some key steps to streamline your operations and stay on budget. By John L. MacLean

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{ From the Editor / Mot de la rédactrice }

Budgeting for Success

Le budget du succès

By Lynne Yryku

Par Lynne Yryku

or in-house counsel facing constant financial constraints, budget time can be difficult. How do you reduce staff costs when globalization is the buzzword of the day? How do you plan for unexpected litigation? How do you forecast external legal spend with a murky crystal ball? First and foremost, get out and talk to people, as opposed to merely crunching numbers. Communicate with senior managers and executives to determine upcoming legal support requirements. This includes talking within your own department—to take advantage of your lawyers’ areas of expertise. Janice Odegaard of Suncor Energy says, “We realized we had an enormous amount of internal expertise in our legal functions” by doing so (page 16). Her department has repatriated a lot of work and holds frequent inhouse training sessions to keep lawyers up to speed. Having clear, efficient processes in place are also crucial to prepare accurate budgets. For procurement processes, for example, “on-time [and on-budget] delivery begins at the planning stage,” says John MacLean at the Nunavut Department of Justice (page 46). You can take the guesswork out of budgeting for projects if you have put the time into streamlining and standardizing your processes for routine tasks. Finally, don’t be afraid to ask for help. One of Patricia Towler’s primary reasons for obtaining the Certified In-House Counsel – Canada (CIC.C) designation was to gain business leadership and financial knowledge (page 12). And while she can certainly deal knowledgeably with the accountants around her, the CEO of CPA Nova Scotia knows she can rely on their expertise if needed. So if the finance jargon and budgeting software is a barrier for you, enlist the help of the experts in your organization. You may also want to tap into the trend of legal operation management to help smooth operations and increase efficiencies. “In an increasingly complex legal environment, ‘legal’ resources are extremely stretched. Operations specialists who have specific skills and whose day job is operations can improve efficiency while lawyers can focus on doing the value-added strategic legal work,” says Scott Morgan of Air Canada (page 30). Remember, budgets are goals. They give you direction, with milestones to mark your progress. Review and adjust them often to keep you and your organization moving forward! ❚

udgéter peut être compliqué pour un juriste d’entreprise confronté à des contraintes financières. Comment peut-on réduire le coût du personnel quand la mondialisation est au goût du jour? Comment peut-on planifier un litige inattendu? Comment fait-on pour prévoir des dépenses juridiques imprévisibles? En premier lieu, allez au-delà des calculs : tâtez le terrain et parlez aux humains. Communiquez avec les dirigeants et les cadres supérieurs pour évaluer leurs besoins futurs de soutien juridique. Dans votre propre service, questionnez vos avocats : chacun connaît son domaine d’expertise. Comme l’a remarqué Janice Odegaard, de Suncor Energy, à la veille d’entamer des discussions : « Nous nous sommes rendu compte que nous avions une expertise énorme au sein de notre service juridique » (page 16). Son service a rapatrié beaucoup de travail et organise des séances de formation fréquentes pour que ses avocats restent informés. Une budgétisation précise exige aussi des processus clairs et efficaces, notamment pour les approvisionnements : « Le respect des échéances et du budget commence à l’étape de la planification », comme l’a expliqué John MacLean au ministère de la Justice du Nunavut (page 46). Lorsque les tâches routinières sont rationalisées et normalisées, les approximations budgétaires sont éliminées. Enfin, n’ayez pas peur de demander de l’aide. Si Patricia Towler a voulu obtenir la désignation de Juriste d’entreprise agréé – Canada (JEA.C), c’est principalement pour améliorer son leadership en affaires et en finance (page 12). Bien qu’elle soit compétente pour traiter avec les comptables qui l’entourent, la chef de la direction de CPA Nouvelle-Écosse sait qu’elle peut compter sur leur expertise en cas de besoin. Si le jargon financier et le logiciel de budgétisation vous déroutent, demandez l’aide des experts. Que diriez-vous d’exploiter la tendance de la gestion efficace de l’exploitation juridique? « Dans un environnement juridique de plus en plus complexe, les ressources ‘légales’ sont très limitées. Laissons les spécialistes des opérations ayant des compétences spécifiques s’occuper de l’efficacité des opérations. Pendant ce temps, les avocats pourront se concentrer sur le travail juridique stratégique à valeur ajoutée », explique Scott Morgan d’Air Canada (page 30). N’oubliez pas : le budget est un objectif qui indique une direction avec des jalons pour mesurer les progrès. Il doit être révisé et adapté pour permettre à l’organisation de rester en mouvement! ❚

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{ From the Chair / MOT DU PRÉSIDENT }

Together We Succeed

Ensemble nous réussissons

By Nick Slonosky, CIC.C

Par Nick Slonosky, JEA.C

ime doesn’t stand still. With the growing trend of globalization, continuing advancements in technology and increasing demand to increase productivity, it’s important for the in-house community to embrace current and future changes, promote its successes and mentor the next generation. That is what makes the CCCA so vital—and why I am so proud to be your 2017-18 Chair. As I begin my tenure, I reflect on how impressed I continue to be with the work being done by our association. I’ve witnessed how the passion and commitment of employees and volunteers across the country are making education and knowledge that meet the needs of members available to in-house counsel in Canada. We have much in common. All our organizations face similar challenges—reduce costs, adapt to evolving markets, keep up with changing regulations, integrate technology, ensure social responsibility, to name only a few. For almost 30 years, the CCCA has helped us meet such demands and embrace the opportunities that lie ahead. It gives the in-house community a home to connect with each other, develop our skills, influence important issues and direct our careers. Among many other things, I can personally attest to the high quality and value of our Business Leadership Program for In-House Counsel, Mentoring Program and National Conference—which will be held in conjunction with the In-House Counsel World Summit next year. All these and more offer unique opportunities and experiences! Indeed, our memberships provide us valuable networks, knowledge, tools and leadership skills, which help us advance no matter our role, sector, experience level or scale. Together, we have created and continue to be the in-house counsel association of choice in Canada! Our Executive Committee, volunteers and members at large contribute to our association’s goals by tirelessly giving their time to help each of us and our profession as a whole succeed. All of you are the collective engine that drives us forward to success. As Chair, I will assist in any way I can to advance and promote us all. I welcome your feedback to ensure the CCCA continues to be the national voice of in-house counsel in Canada! ❚

e temps ne ralentit pas. Avec la tendance croissante à la mondialisation, les progrès technologiques et les pressions de productivité, il devient important pour la communauté des juristes d’entreprise d’accueillir le changement, de favoriser sa réussite et d’encadrer la prochaine génération. C’est là toute la raison d’être de l’ACCJE – et c’est pour cela que je suis si fier d’être votre président en 2017-2018. En ce début de mandat, je dois dire que je suis impressionné par le travail accompli par notre association. J’ai été à même d’observer à travers le Canada à quel point la passion et l’implication des employés et des bénévoles engendrent des formations et des connaissances utiles aux membres juristes d’entreprise. Nous avons beaucoup en commun. Quelle que soit l’organisation, les défis sont les mêmes : réduire les coûts, s’adapter aux marchés et aux changements réglementaires, intégrer les technologies et assumer ses responsabilités sociales. Depuis 30 ans, l’ACCJE nous aide à relever ces défis et à saisir les occasions qui se présentent. Elle est un port d’attache qui nous permet de garder le contact, de développer nos compétences, d’avoir une influence sur les grands enjeux et d’orienter notre carrière. Je peux personnellement témoigner de la qualité et de la valeur du Programme de leadership en entreprise pour les juristes d’entreprise, du Programme de mentorat et de la Conférence nationale – qui se tiendra parallèlement au Sommet mondial des juristes d’entreprise l’an prochain. Ce sont là des expériences et des opportunités uniques à saisir! En fait, appartenir à l’Association procure les réseaux, connaissances, outils et compétences en leadership qui permettent de progresser, peu importent nos fonctions, notre secteur ou notre niveau d’expérience. Ensemble, nous formons l'association de juristes d’entreprise de choix au Canada! Les membres du Comité exécutif et de l’Association contribuent à nos objectifs en donnant inlassablement de leur temps pour assurer le succès des individus comme de la profession. Vous êtes collectivement le moteur de notre succès. Comme président, je vous aiderai de toutes les manières possibles à atteindre vos buts. Je recevrai volontiers vos commentaires pour veiller à ce que l’ACCJE continue d’être la voix des juristes d’entreprise au Canada! ❚

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{ Legal Performance }

Budget Mastery:

The 100-Book Experiment Continues By Jonathan Cullen

Budget. No six-letter word in the history of law department management has caused more torment, cajoling, strong-arming or capitulation. Despite its appearance as a seemingly simple estimate of income and expenditure for a set period of time, the law department manager often reviles it as a constraint on her team’s vision, an unrealistic set of handcuffs on a perfect plan designed to catapult this legal team beyond cost centre and drive her organization to glory.

henever I’m gripped by this budgetinduced fever, I find it useful to ground myself in reality and perspective. As I described in our spring and summer issues, I recently endeavoured to read 100 books, in part to gain such perspective. Here are the learnings I would apply to managing a budget. 1. Understand what the CEO and CFO want you to know. There’s no getting around it: you need to be able to navigate financial concepts and speak the language if you are going to successfully manage your legal budget. But that is a very limited and unambitious objective. From a broader perspective, honing these skills allows you to elevate simple legal advice to meaningful counsel based on practical financial impact. No in-house counsel can be truly effective without operating at this level. Absorbing Ram Charan’s What the CEO Wants You to Know or Josh Kaufman’s The Personal MBA are great starting points. Adam Bryant’s insights from over 200 CEO interviews described in Quick and Nimble is a window into the concerns and dreams of business leaders. Don’t neglect to leave think time to take advantage of or mitigate random events

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as described in Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s engrossing and somewhat disturbing The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. 2. Budgets are relationships. Like anything else in life, you’re more likely to get what you ask for if you have a relationship and credibility with the person from whom you’re asking. This track record is not built overnight and it’s too late to do so when you’re already in need. Demonstrate that you understand the value of the organization’s resources. Having good working relationships with members of your management team is vital, as set out in John Kotter’s Power and Influence: Beyond Formal Authority. 3. Develop a reputation as an evidencebased storyteller. Your financial underpinning in any budgeting situation must withstand deeper probing. Works like The Halo Effect and Moneyball will train you to spot biases, fallacies and weaknesses in assumptions. But even with solid underlying data and proof points, you still need to weave them into a compelling narrative. As Taleb says, “You need a story to displace a story.” Get into the

Fall 2017 Automne

rhythm of making business cases and doing so through story. Stephen Denning’s The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling or Chip and Dan Heath’s Made to Stick offer solid frameworks. In Jane Mayer’s political exposé, Dark Money, we see very effective uses of storytelling, though not for noble purpose. 4. Don’t just hire outside counsel— create value with them. For most law departments, external legal advisors eat up the lion’s share of the budget. The Pareto principle then demands that you put a significant amount of energy and time into managing this line item. While there are many different quantitative methods to address cost reduction efforts with outside counsel, do not underestimate the impact you can have on the other side of the equation: value creation. My organization leverages its scale through use of our Pfizer Legal Alliance, a group of preferred firms around the world. What is central to this concept, in addition to the cost structure, is the energy both client and firms put into developing relationships, learning the business and thinking in news ways. What underpins this is the desire for long-term relationships. I challenge them to make my problems their problems. In a more innovative structure, that is not impossible. When considering how best to deliberately design your next relationship with a law firm, try the simple structure in the classic The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: be proactive, begin with the end in mind, put first things first, think win-win, seek to understand, combine strengths and sharpen your saw. Your firm will be more engaged and suddenly the focus will no longer be solely financial.

{ Legal Performance }

5. Balance trust in your boss with fighting for your department. Your boss, by definition, has a broader perspective on where the legal department fits into the overall strategy of the organization and how its budget is viewed. Rather than seeking to explain why your department is a unique flower, try to understand her needs and viewpoint. The organization, as a whole, always comes first. A pass through Niall Ferguson’s Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World is a historical education on how to allocate resources across a fractured and diverse organization. 6. Recognize what is invaluable. Always keep true to your organization’s mission, purpose and core values. If they are just faded words on a crooked, dusty plaque on a wall next to the bathroom, it is nobody’s fault but your own. In-house counsel can and should have tremendous influence over an organization’s culture. If a particular strategy or activity is central

“

Ultimately, and counterintuitively, the restriction of a budget frees you. It sets guideposts and forces you to think more creatively. With excess comes laziness; with scarcity comes ingenuity.

to your organization’s identity or sustainability, it is your responsibility to fight for resources to drive success. Learn about the impact of losing something truly invaluable in Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of the Mona Lisa. Ultimately, and counterintuitively, the restriction of a budget frees you. It sets guideposts and forces you to think more creatively. With excess comes laziness; with scarcity comes ingenuity. It’s another test you must pass as in-house counsel, manager and leader. And it’s an important one.

”

The conscious mastery of the allocation and maximization of your organization’s precious resources can be a central element in the transformation of your legal department into a strategic partner of impact. All that from a six-letter word. ❚ Jonathan Cullen is Vice President, Legal Affairs & General Counsel at Pfizer Canada Inc. He is a member of the CCCA Executive Committee and uses six-letter words on a regular basis. Reach him at jonathan.cullen@pfizer.com.

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{ Practice Management }

Payments Management: A Cross-Border Perspective By Vivene Salmon

Small enterprises to large Fortune 100 companies are growing their businesses and boosting profits by making strategic decisions that concentrate limited resources on expanding their customer base globally. Digital payments and the rise of e-commerce are helping drive this change in both retail and corporate spheres. And accessing global markets is easier than ever thanks to sophisticated online technological platforms, marketing tools and forecasting models that lower the cost of doing cross-border business.

owever, despite significant progress, hurdles still remain for businesses in accessing global markets cost effectively, with minimal business disruption and risk. Challenges range from organizational governance to regulatory issues, budgetary concerns, technological integration and payment management, to name only a few in a lengthy list. As your company expands beyond Canada, cross-border transactions are inevitable—and frequent. What trends and issues do you need to consider? Traditional financial institutions are increasingly challenged by nimble, technological savvy players, such as Stripe, Hyperwallet Systems and PayPal, who hold the promise of making cross-border payments faster (real-time/instant), cheaper, transparent (distributed ledger technologies and smart contracts), integrated and seamless across country borders, without the burden of legacy systems, expensive physical infrastructure or other overhead. Stripe, for example, enables businesses in 25 countries to accept payments online from anywhere in the world, in over 135 different currencies, including Bitcoin. This saves on the cost of currency conver-

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sion and cuts down on financial intermediaries and human resources needed to settle transactions. Hyperwallet Systems, on the other hand, offers global local bank deposits and international wire transfers through a network of financial partners worldwide. Its payment network currently reaches over 200 countries, in more than 170 currencies. In his article, “FinTechs are Surpassing Banks on Cross-Border Payments,” Tom Groenfeldt points out that FinTechs, like TransferWise, are launching single platforms that lower the cost of doing business across borders by providing a way for businesses to internationally manage money as easily as if they were located physically in each country. He explains, “In most countries it is very hard to get a bank account if you don’t live there. TransferWise’s Borderless account does a stringent identity check to meet Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations, but it does that just once and applies the confirmed identity to accounts in multiple countries. […] Businesses can keep money in 15 different currencies and, in seconds, get local account details (i.e. unique account and routing number) for the UK, Europe, and the U.S.” 1

{ Practice Management }

The ability of these disrupters to instantly and securely verify identities online gives them a competitive advantage, mitigating risk, traceability and fraud in the business platform, especially in contrast to financial institutions, which typically have to verify identities across multiple accounts, legal entities and jurisdictions. They are viable options to clients seeking alternative payment systems to traditional financial institutions. However, Allan Tan, in his article, “2017 Challenges and Trends for Cross-Border Payments,” argues that despite the rise of the disrupters, traditional banks can— and will—survive in the global payments business. He cites Eli Shoshani, Head of Payments Business Development at Finastra (formerly D+H), who points out that many of these third party vendors and offerings could not exist without the core services that the bank itself provides. “Banks need to understand how these new innovations can enhance their own service offerings, whilst also ensuring that they keep innovating at the same time.” 2 In the same article, Samish Kumar, CEO at Transfast, adds, “Regulation can, and is, a roadblock to innovation in cross-border payment. […] The time, money, expertise and resources it takes to be able to adhere to the complex, multiple layers or regulations in both the originating and receiving markets is a tremendous challenge.” 3 Traditional financial institutions may be better positioned to cost-effectively man-

age global legal and compliance functions given their vast human resource networks. However, another disruption is coming. Capgemini, in its paper, Top 10 Trends in Payments – 2017, says there is a rise in regulatory frameworks simplifying the process of compliance and reducing global payment costs. This is supported by the rise of RegTech, a segment of FinTech, which leverages technology to ease compliance costs while increasing risk management, cost management and responsiveness to regulatory developments in the banking sector. Indeed, the demand for regulatory compliance software industry is expected to reach $118.7 billion by 2020. 4 In conclusion, as Canadian companies expand into new markets, the cross-border payment business is in a time of real transformative change. Disruptive technologies are on the rise and continually

evolving, challenging traditional systems and paving the way forward to more efficient and cost-effective global transactions. Paramount for in-house counsel and their organizations will be staying on top of key international legal, regulatory and compliance trends and issues as they evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of current and emerging global payment systems and technologies to better position themselves for continued growth. ❚ Vivene Salmon is Assistant Vice-President, Country Compliance Manager, Global Banking and Markets Compliance at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where she is responsible for managing the Global Compliance and Regulatory Change Management Programs. She is also a Certified Information Privacy Professional and acts as the designated Privacy Officer for Bank of America National Association—Canada Branch. She is on this year’s CBA Board of Directors.

1. Tom Groenfeldt, “FinTechs Are Surpassing Banks on Cross-Border Payments” Forbes (24 May 2017): https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomgroenfeldt/2017/05/24/fintechs-are-surpassing-bankson-cross-border-payments/#5c4d5e047b5d 2. Allan Tan, “2017 Challenges and Trends for Cross-Border Payments” (27 March 2017): https://www.transpay.com/blog/2017-challenges-and-trends-for-cross-border-payments 3. Ibid. 4. Capgemini, Top 10 Trends in Payments – 2017 (20 February 2017): https://www.capgemini.com/resource-file-access/resource/pdf/top_10_payments_trends_2017_0.pdf

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{ Profile }

Thrive Finding He r P l ace t o

Patricia Towler is happy. She is President & CEO of CPA Nova Scotia, a position she took on in September 2015, at the time when the three accounting designations were merging into one: Certified Professional Accountant. “It is still the early days,” she says, creating structures, hiring employees (they are now at 14) and recruiting over 100 volunteers. And it is a lot of fun. “Every day is different, not yet routine. I like change and challenges!” By Lynne Yryku

ecause it is a merger, Patti is placing special emphasis on building a new CPA culture. For instance, she held 32 town halls throughout the province this past spring. “The events let people get to know each other,” she says. “I could convey information just as easily in a newsletter but there is something special about getting people in the same room. And with a merger that was at times challenging, it’s important for CPAs to realize they are part of something bigger now and have more in common with

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professional accountants from other backgrounds than they may have thought. We’re trying to create a ‘tribe’ mentality in a good way—a sense of shared knowledge and competencies, and a shared place in the community.” “Success relies on the people on the ground,” she explains, the first to recognize the hard work of the dedicated staff, Board and members. “It is amazing to me how quickly people are looking beyond the historical and building this new organization.”

{ Profile }

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{ Profile } dent. “At first I wasn’t interested because my career was in law, not higher education management. But the more I thought about it, the more I was curious about whether I could develop any management skills. As a lawyer, you manage your own files but it is different than managing a team, motivating employees.” So she took the VP job on the condition that General Counsel was added to her title as well—“to keep up my legal skills.” Like many organizations, especially smaller ones, the College had not realized the potential benefits of having its own in-house counsel, she explains. “I was able to add a lot of value, starting with a thorough legal audit.” Her work at Regent College also earned her a Lexpert Zenith Award in 2015, recognizing her as a top Canadian lawyer in not-for-profit work.

The Path to In-House Patti is one of the many East Coasters who have returned home. Born and raised in Nova Scotia, after six years in private practice in Halifax, she went west, initially to do graduate work in applied ethics and theology at Regent College in Vancouver and later settling into private practice there. “When I came out of law school [in 1989], there was essentially one career path if you had a decent GPA,” she recalls. “It was an unspoken tradition that you went to Bay Street to be successful.” So she became a successful litigator at a prestigious firm. However, “just on cusp of partnership, I left the law firm. I could see the next 40 years but it just wasn’t my dream.” As often as not, she had wondered what it would be like to be the client in a matter rather than the counsel. In 2001, she moved in-house—a career that has really allowed her to thrive. Her first in-house position was Senior Litigation Counsel at Royal & SunAlliance, a large international insurance company. While it was an excellent learning experience, she realized the fit was not quite right—she would feel more at home in a smaller environment where one person could make a bigger difference. At this same time of transition, she had joined the Board of Governors of Regent College. In 2004, the President asked her if she was interested in being Vice Presi14

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The Next Big Move Ten years later, Patti was looking for a change again. “I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, so I took the CIC.C [Certified In-House Counsel – Canada] designation and an HR designation [Certified Human Resources Professional]. I had been doing a mix of management and law, and I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to move back toward law in an in-house leadership role or pull on the human resources thread and

I use my legal knowledge,” she remarks, acknowledging that the CIC.C designation gave her the business leadership and financial knowledge to round out her skill set and deal knowledgeably with the professional accountants around her. Of course, given her many responsibilities and small staff, she relies on outside counsel a lot. Having sat on both sides of the table, she finds the relationship much more collaborative and she enjoys being the client. She tries not to second guess decisions, trusting in the process instead: “If everyone plays their own role and does it well, everything is really going to work out.”

Full Circle “One thing that has been really, really gratifying as I come up onto 30 years of practice is how really different experiences have come together,” Patti says, explaining how litigation cases from decades ago are helping to inform her decisions now. “The older I get, the more I take pleasure in all the various strands of life experiences weaving together in unexpected ways.” Indeed, her “accidental” career path, as she calls it, is nothing of the sort. She is a smart, driven, capable lawyer constantly asking herself: “What circumstances allow me to thrive? What environment brings out the best in me? Where can I be happy and add value?”

“Just on cusp of partnership, I left the law firm. I could see the next 40 years but it just wasn’t my dream.” find a more senior management position.” Then she got a call from a recruiter looking to hire the CPA Nova Scotia CEO. A bit ironic as she comes from a family of accountants—“I chose law to get away from it!” Coming home to Halifax has been a good transition. It brings her and her 13-year-old daughter closer to their extended family, and gives her more time to pursue some of her hobbies, such as golfing (“it’s better out east!”) and kayaking (her cottage on the coast is only an hour’s drive away). She took the CEO position, with the understanding that she would also be CLO to satisfy her passion for law. “I have been pleasantly surprised how commonly

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More importantly, she has the courage to pursue the answers. She is also big on giving back to the in-house community, whether that means sharing her knowledge through the CCCA’s Mentoring Program, helping peers work through problems on an ad hoc basis, or taking on formal and informal speaking engagements. “As our roles evolve, each of us has to bring people along,” she says. “The world is a big place. There is room for every temperament, every set of skills, every dream, everyone.” ❚ Lynne Yryku is the Executive Editor of CCCA Magazine.

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Reining in

Budgets By Jim Middlemiss

endy King, Vice-President, Legal, Risk and Governance, and Corporate Secretary at Capstone Mining Corp. in Vancouver, has seen the highs and lows of economic cycles. King, who has built her in-house career in the mining and forest industries, knows firsthand what happens when commodity prices turn south—survival quickly becomes a fight of the fittest. “You feel the impact faster,” says King, whose employer is a base metals miner with a focus on copper. “It’s much more cyclical and your strategy is different depending on the resource,” she says of coping with an economic downturn. Whether it’s minerals, oil or lumber, one thing is certain when prices turn—budget cuts are the order of the day. King’s most recent brush with austerity came in 2015, when copper prices plummeted from almost US$3 per pound in May to as low as US$1.94 by early January 2016, a decline of almost 35%. To combat that effect, in 2015, King reduced her legal department budget by 15%. Then, in early 2016, Capstone further reduced corporate staffing by 22% and general and administrative expenses at head office by 25%. “As a result, everyone must do more with less resources,” she explains. “It takes a strong team culture to manage through the downturns but in my experience the team is stronger for it in the end.”

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King is not alone in her efforts to rein in costs. “Cost pressures remain a primary concern” for chief legal officers, impacting both internal budgets and external counsel fees, according to the 2016 Chief Legal Officer Survey by U.S. consulting firm Altman Weil, Inc. The survey found that 27% of law departments had decreased their internal budgets between 2015 and 2016, the highest number since 2011-2012, when almost 28% reported a decrease. Moreover, almost 41% report that their external counsel budget declined. So how do you prepare and cope when the economy turns and the budget axe falls? That’s a question we put to in-house lawyers, and here are seven factors to consider to prepare for— and manage—a budget cut.

1. Contingency planning is crucial It’s not a matter of “if ” you will experience a budget cut as much as a matter of “when,” experts say. King says general counsel cannot afford to cut on the fly. She urges having a sense of what happens if doomsday arrives. Be prepared and have a contingency plan ready. Call King overly cautious if you like, but each year she develops two budgets. There is her “Blue Sky” budget—the playbook that she hopes works out—and her “Brown Sky” budget— which covers the worst-case scenario. “I prepare both those scenarios so that I am truly prepared if the market turns and I know where to cut costs.”

2. Don’t fly alone Budget cutting is a team process. Flying solo is a sure-fire way to crash and burn, lawyers say. Sterling Miller explains, “It’s not something that general counsel can keep to themselves and try to manage without bringing in the whole team. You need to get everyone involved.” Miller would know. He spent 20 years as in-house counsel in the travel industry and went through “several” budget-cutting experiences—to the point that he had a “pretty well developed process.” Now General Counsel at Marketo, Inc., a marketing automation and engagement company in the U.S., Miller runs the blog, “10 Things You Need to Know as In-House Counsel,” which covers an interesting range of topics relevant to internal lawyers. Miller says he had his greatest success by being open and transparent with his team when it came to budget cuts. Lawyers are problem-solvers, he explains. Level with them and tell

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them, “Here’s the mission and the problem we need to solve. We need everybody’s help and everybody’s ideas.” Chances are it will generate solutions you haven’t thought about. More importantly, though, “you are going to get that camaraderie that you need as a legal department” to get through the process, he says. “The rest is just the algebra of budget analysis.” However, he stresses that if the cuts are severe and it looks like the axe will fall on jobs, you “need to get ahead of that story…you need to tell people that’s a possibility.”

3. Be creative One of the challenges with managing legal issues in a downturn is that there often isn’t much to cut when it comes to internal budgets. Many departments are already lean, and much of the work is core to the company’s operations, making it hard for legal departments to find savings “The budget is dependent on the normal cost of operations,” observes Grant Borbridge, Vice President, Legal and General Counsel at MEG Energy. The greatest fiscal challenge, he says, arises with “special items”—events such as an unexpected piece of litigation or a financing opportunity. “The big fluctuation is with these special items. When they pop up, there is nothing to be done except to do the work.” Chances are the work will be done by external counsel and in that case, he says, “we try to bid it out to make sure we are going to get a good rate.” In terms of litigation, there is a new option in Canada: litigation funding. “Litigation funding is an innovative way to advance litigation, without any upfront cost,” according to Naomi Loewith, Investment Manager and Legal Counsel at Bentham IMF, a leading funding company with 11 offices throughout the world, which opened its Toronto office in January 2016. “A litigation funder will typically pay counsel fees and disbursements, as well as any court-ordered costs. If the case is successful, the funder receives a portion of the recovery. The funding is nonrecourse, so if the case is lost, the client does not pay anything.” “It can allow counsel to advance claims that might otherwise be left on the table and secure returns for the company,” she explains. “By way of example, the company may believe that its supplier has breached their contract, but may elect not to pursue the claim because of the cost and risk of litigation. With the benefit of litigation funding, the company can eliminate this cost and risk, while recovering for the breach of contract and protecting its reputation in the industry.”

4. Good data is critical There are two key elements to most legal budgets: the internal legal spend and the external legal spend. When tackling costs, you need to understand where you currently spend your mon-

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ey, especially when it comes to external counsel, says Miller. “Which firms are you spending it with? What are you spending it on and how are you tracking it?” Miller says these important questions need to be answered before you can tackle the budget challenge. Don’t simply depend on external law firms to provide relevant data because the way they track it is probably not helpful. Sadly, the Altman Weil survey found that 73% of CLOs say their top 10 firms provided “no useful” spending analysis.

5. Pick low hanging fruit first Lawyers agree that one of the first spending items to go in relation to the internal budget is travel, which has a multiplier effect because it includes meals and accommodations. “Travel to conferences is an automatic,” says Capstone’s King. “We rely heavily on technology in downturns,” turning to Skype and video and audio conferences to put people in the same room. Borbridge adds that “we can avoid travel in some instances,” but cautions that when it comes to the training and education of lawyers, downturns are “not the time to cut in those areas.” Because it’s slower, “everyone has the time to commit to doing some training. People have the opportunity to take part in seminars.” More importantly, though, “when times are tough, people need other things to keep them interested…and to feel like their career is continuing to evolve. Cutting things that help them do that, in my view, is not the thing to do.”

6. Head counts and service offerings Salaries are one of the biggest costs when it comes to internal budgets. However, the reality is that the vast majority of corporate legal departments in Canada are relatively small, yielding limited savings. The CCCA’s 2016 In-House Counsel Compensation & Career Survey Report found that an average in-house counsel has 2.4 reports. Moreover, 44% of respondents have no direct reports, an increase from 39% since 2012. In fact, layoffs may actually hurt in the long run when it comes to service levels. In some cases, a legal department might be better off taking the knife to its external counsel budget and repatriating work in-house. Janice Odegaard, Senior Vice-President and General Counsel at Suncor Energy in Calgary, undertook a “rethink”

in 2015 about her department’s cost structure. “We have reduced the costs of providing legal services; we haven’t reduced our head count.” Her team did it by re-examining how they delivered services to “ensure we continue providing top-tier service for top-tier matters.” They looked at the “lower value end” of the scale and things that the in-house lawyer team was working on that did not really provide any additional value and could likely be better done by the business units by training the respective staff. “The real trick there is to work closely with your client group. It involves the way they think and work,” Odegaard says. “Be ready for some tension, but that’s fine. It drives good discussions about what it is we are trying to do as an organization. They need to understand what you are doing and why you are doing it.”

One area to tackle, Odegaard says, is the supply chain and the way companies buy goods and services. Given the sheer volume, Legal can’t look at everything, so Suncor is training its internal purchasing professionals on contracts and negotiations. Miller agrees that there is much to be gained by streamlining internal processes, creating limits and managing business line expectations when it comes to legal services delivery. Over time, there is legal creep and more demands are made on law departments, which aren’t necessarily worthwhile endeavours, he observes. One area he cites is trademarks. He says searches can be costly and quickly add up, but the business lines don’t pay for those searches and likely don’t understand the cost to the company for conducting one. He questions whether a company really needs to conduct 30 trademark searches or whether five will suffice. Another area to monitor is patents. “They are very expensive” to obtain and costly to maintain. He asks, “Do you really need the patent to protect the company” or is there a prestige factor at work internally with departments equating patents to success? Moreover, are you properly monetizing your patent portfolio?

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{ Feature } 7. External counsel It’s really in the area of external counsel fees where lawyers say they find the biggest impact in cost savings. The first place to start is rates. “Are you getting market rates from your law firm or are you overpaying?” Miller asks. “They aren’t easy conversations,” he adds, but he would tell his external firms “we don’t have any choice, the pressure is on us.” He says the reality is that you may end up having to move work, which is “painful” and an “administrative headache,” but in the long run benefits the bottom line. King adds that “good external counsel are very sensitive to market conditions” and will work with companies. In some cases she has negotiated fee reductions in exchange for more work. “There’s that strengthening of the relationship,” she says of the horse-trading. Suncor’s Odegaard adds there are savings to be had by bringing more work in-house. “We are handing out less work to external counsel. We found our internal lawyers can do it better and faster. They understand our corporate philosophy and risk profile. We have repatriated a lot of work and completed it with less money.” Also, don’t be afraid to tap internal experts. “We realized we had an enormous amount of internal expertise in our legal functions,” Odegaard says. The trick is capturing that and sharing the information and knowledge. Her department now holds more in-house training sessions and also taps its external legal partners to bring people up to speed in specific areas or developments of the law.

She adds that general counsel need to clampdown on rates they are paying, noting she is “not prepared to accept the treadmill” of yearly increases to the hourly rates. Miller agrees that bringing more work in-house is doable. He says there are an “amazing array” of software tools, checklists and precedents that in-house lawyers can now subscribe to in order to expand their existing knowledge and take on new matters.

While budget cutting is not pleasant and never easy, it can revitalize a legal department and bring a team together. The key is to be proactive, rather than reactive, says King. The biggest mistake she sees is that general counsel “make the tough decisions too late and they are not prepared.”

“Employees are well aware of market downturns,” she says. If you fail to act quickly, there is a “natural destabilization and fear in the organization that can fester.” When it comes tough decisions, she says, “the longer you delay them, the higher the risk.” ❚ Jim Middlemiss is a writer based in London, Ontario.

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Cost-Cutting Controls Thatxxxxxxxxx

There is no silver bullet when it comes to managing budget cuts, but in-house lawyers can learn from their colleagues what works and what doesn’t when it comes to implementing cost controls and finding efficiencies. Here is some food for thought from the 2016 Altman Weil Inc. Chief Legal Officer Survey. Based on a 10-point scale, the top cost control tactics that CLOs say produced the most value were: ■■ shifting work to in-house staff from external firms (86% scored it 5 or better); ■■ shifting in-house work to lower cost company locations (84% scored it 5 or better); and ■■ reducing the total amount of work to outside counsel (83% scored it 5 or better). The least effective were: reducing non-lawyer, in-house staff (48% scored it 5 or less); ■■ reducing in-house lawyer staff (38% scored it 5 or less); and ■■ instituting a law firm convergence program (28% scored it 5 or less). ■■

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In terms of efficiency measures, the methods that brought most value, also based on a 10-point scale, were: ■■ greater use of paralegal and other para-professionals (88% scored it 5 or more); ■■ internal restructuring and reorganizing of resources (82% scored it 5 or more); and ■■ outsourcing to non-lawyer vendors (81% scored it 5 or more). The least effective were: collection and analysis of management metrics (32% scored it 5 or less); ■■ project management training (32% score it 5 or less); and ■■ knowledge management efforts (29% scored it 5 or less). ■■

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Préparer le terrain pour un

ralentissement économique Wendy King, vice-présidente aux affaires juridiques, risque et gouvernance et secrétaire générale de la société Capstone Mining Corp. à Vancouver, a été témoin des hauts et des bas des cycles économiques. Me King, qui a bâti sa carrière de conseillère interne dans les industries minières et forestières, a une connaissance directe de ce qui arrive lorsque les prix des commodités plongent et que les affaires deviennent une question de survie.

ous sentez l’impact rapidement », dit celle dont l’employeur se spécialise dans l’extraction des métaux de base, en particulier du cuivre. « C’est beaucoup plus cyclique et notre stratégie diffère selon le type de ressource », ajoute-t-elle en parlant de la manière de gérer un ralentissement économique. Que ce soient des minéraux, du pétrole ou du bois, une chose est sûre lorsque les prix piquent du nez : les compressions budgétaires s’invitent à l’ordre du jour. La dernière période d’austérité vécue par la vice-présidente remonte à 2015, lorsque les prix du cuivre ont chuté de près de 3 dollars américains la livre à $1,94, une diminution de près de 35 %. Elle a alors dû couper le budget de son département juridique de 15 %. Puis, au début 2016, l’entreprise a réduit la taille de sa main-d’œuvre par près de 22 % et les dépenses générales et administratives de son siège social de 25 %. « Le résultat est que tout le monde doit faire plus avec moins de ressource, explique-t-elle. Ça prend une bonne culture d’équipe pour passer à travers ces ralentissements, mais selon mon expérience, l’équipe en ressort plus forte. » Selon un sondage de 2016 mené par la firme de consultants américains Altman Weil auprès de chefs des affaires juridiques (2016 Chief Legal Officer Survey), 27 % des départements juridiques ont diminué leurs budgets internes entre 2015 et 2016, le niveau le plus élevé depuis 2011-2012. De plus, 41 % font état d’une diminution de leur budget pour embaucher des firmes externes. Comment se préparer et garder la tête hors de l’eau lorsque l’économie ralentit? Nous avons posé la question à des conseillers juridiques d’entreprise; voici sept façons de préparer le terrain.

1. La planification d’urgence est cruciale Me King note que la question n’est pas si, mais plutôt quand vous serez confrontés à la nécessité de faire des compressions budgétaires. Elle estime que les conseillers juridiques internes ne peuvent se permettre d’improviser, et les invite à avoir une idée de ce qui arrivera si le pire se concrétise. Soyez prêts et ayez un plan d’urgence prêt à être déployé. Chaque année, elle prépare elle-même deux budgets : celui du « Ciel bleu », selon le scénario optimiste qu’elle espère voir se concrétiser – et son budget du « Ciel brun », qui couvre le scénario catastrophe. « Je prépare ces deux scénarios afin d’être pleinement préparée si un ralentissement du marché survient et je sais alors où couper des coûts. »

2. Ne faites pas cavalier seul Contrôler les coûts est un travail d’équipe et tenter de le faire seul est un bon moyen d’aboutir à un échec. Comme le dit Sterling Miller : « Ce n’est pas quelque chose que les conseillers juridiques internes peuvent garder pour eux-mêmes et essayer de gérer sans impliquer toute l’équipe ». Me Miller en sait quelque chose : il a travaillé pendant 20 ans comme conseiller juridique interne dans l’industrie du voyage et traversé plusieurs phases de compressions – au point où il avait en main un « processus assez bien rodé ». Aujourd’hui chef des opérations juridiques chez Marketo inc., une entreprise d’automatisation et

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Les compressions budgétaires ne sont pas agréables et jamais faciles, mais elles peuvent revitaliser un département juridique et resserrer les liens à l’interne. La clé est d’être proactif.

d’engagement aux États-Unis, il rédige le blogue 10 Things You Need to Know As an In-House Counsel, qui couvre une série de sujets intéressants pour les conseillers internes. Me Miller dit avoir eu le plus de succès en étant ouvert et transparent avec son équipe quand est venu le temps de faire des coupes. Les avocats trouvent des solutions à des problèmes, fait-il remarquer. Dites-leur franchement : « Voici la mission et le problème que nous devons résoudre. Nous avons besoin de l’aide et des idées de tout le monde ». L’exercice risque fort bien de générer des solutions auxquelles vous n’aviez pas pensé. Plus important encore est le fait que « vous allez avoir cette camaraderie dont vous avez besoin en tant que département juridique », dit-il.

3. Soyez créatifs L’un des défis dans le cadre d’un ralentissement économique est que bien souvent, il n’y a pas beaucoup de place pour couper des coûts dans les budgets des départements juridiques. Plusieurs départements sont déjà allégés, et beaucoup du travail qui y est accompli va au cœur même des opérations de la compagnie. Selon Grant Borbridge, vice-président aux affaires juridiques et avocat général de MEG Energy, les plus grands défis peuvent alors émaner des événements inattendus, comme un litige ou une opportunité financière. « Lorsqu’ils surviennent, on ne peut que faire le travail », dit-il. Souvent, le travail sera accompli par des conseillers externes et dans ce cas, « nous essayons de le soumettre à un appel d’offres pour obtenir un bon taux », précise l’avocat. En termes de litiges, une nouvelle option émerge au Canada : le financement de litige par des tiers. « Le financement de litige est un moyen innovateur de faire avancer un recours sans avoir à débourser de l’argent à l’avance », explique Naomi Loewith, gestionnaire des investissements et avocate-conseil au sein de Bentham IMF, une entreprise de financement avec 11 bureaux à travers le monde et qui a un bureau à Toronto en janvier 2016. « Un bailleur de fonds dans le domaine du litige couvre en général les frais d’avocats et les déboursés, de même que tous les frais ordonnés par la cour. Si [le client] a gain de cause, le bailleur de fonds reçoit une portion des montants obtenus. [Mais] s’il perd, le client n’a rien à débourser. » « Ça peut permettre aux conseillers juridiques de présenter des réclamations qui seraient autrement mises de côté », explique Me Loewith. « Par exemple, la compagnie pourrait croire que l’un de ses fournisseurs n’a pas respecté un contrat, mais pourrait décider de ne pas intenter un recours à cause des coûts et des risques associés aux litiges. Avec le financement de litiges, la compagnie peut

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éliminer ces coûts et ces risques, tout en récupérant les sommes perdues […] et en protégeant sa réputation dans l’industrie. »

4. Ayez de bonnes données en main Il y a deux éléments clés dans la plupart des budgets juridiques : les dépenses internes et les dépenses externes. Pour bien contrôler vos coûts, vous devez comprendre où vous dépensez actuellement votre argent, estime Me Miller, en particulier en ce qui concerne les conseillers externes. « Auprès de quelles firmes dépensezvous [votre argent]? Sur quoi le dépensez-vous et en suivez-vous la trace? » Selon lui, vous devez répondre à ces questions avant de vous attaquer au défi du budget. Ne vous fiez pas seulement aux firmes externes pour vous fournir les données pertinentes, parce que la manière dont ils cumulent ces informations n’est pas toujours utile. Le sondage d’Altman Weil a indiqué que selon 73 % des chefs des opérations juridiques, leurs 10 firmes les plus populaires ne leur fournissaient aucune analyse utile des dépenses.

5. Ciblez d’abord les objectifs les plus faciles Les juristes sont d’accord pour dire que les frais de déplacement sont parmi les premières dépenses à être coupées lors de compressions. « Les voyages pour des conférences sont un automatisme », indique Wendy King de Capstone. « Nous nous en remettons beaucoup à la technologie lors de ralentissements », comme Skype ou des vidéoconférences. Grant Borbridge ajoute que « nous pouvons éviter les voyages dans certaines circonstances », mais il met en garde contre des compressions trop importantes dans la formation et l’éducation : les ralentissements « ne sont pas le bon moment pour couper dans ces activités », dit-il. Parce que le rythme est plus lent, « tout le monde a le temps de participer à des formations », note le vice-président de MEG Energy. « Quand les temps sont durs, les gens ont besoin d’autres choses pour rester stimulés et sentir que leur carrière continue à évoluer. »

6. Analysez la main d’œuvre et de l’offre de service Les salaires sont parmi les dépenses les plus élevées dans les budgets internes, bien qu’en réalité, la grande majorité des départements juridiques au Canada sont de taille plutôt réduite, ce qui limite les économies potentielles.

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En fait, des mises à pied peuvent nuire à la qualité des services offerts. Dans certains cas, le département serait mieux avisé de couper dans ses dépenses de conseillers externes. Janice Odegaard, vice-présidente et avocate générale à Suncor Energy à Calgary, a mené une réflexion en 2015 sur la structure de coûts de son département. « Nous avons réduit les coûts de fournir des services juridiques; nous avons réduit le nombre d’employés », dit-elle. Son équipe y est arrivée en examinant comment elle fournissait des services pour « s’assurer de continuer à fournir des services de premier plan pour des questions de premier plan ». Ils ont par contre examiné les tâches à moindre valeur ajoutée qui pourraient être confiées à la division commerciale en formant certains employés. L’un de ces secteurs est la chaîne d’approvisionnement. Compte tenu du volume élevé, le département juridique ne peut analyser chaque transaction, donc Suncor donne à ses employés chargés des approvisionnements des formations dans le domaine des contrats et des négociations.

7. Conseillers externes C’est dans la sphère des conseillers juridiques externes que les avocats disent trouver le plus d’opportunités de couper des coûts. Les taux sont les premiers éléments à considérer. « Obtenez-vous les taux du marché de votre cabinet d’avocats, ou payez-vous trop cher? », demande Sterling Miller de Marketo. Ce ne sont pas des conversations faciles, convient-il, mais « nous n’avons pas le choix, c’est nous qui subissons la pression ». Wendy King estime que « les bons conseillers juridiques externes sont très sensibles aux conditions du marché » et travailleront avec les compagnies pour trouver des solutions. Me Odegaard ajoute qu’il y a des économies à réaliser en rapatriant plus de travail à l’interne. « Nous donnons moins de travail aux conseillers externes. Nous avons réalisé que nos conseillers juridiques à l’interne peuvent le faire mieux et plus rapidement. Ils comprennent la philosophie de l’entreprise. » Elle renchérit en disant que les dirigeants de départements juridiques doivent mettre la pédale douce sur les taux, notant qu’elle n’est « pas prête à accepter la valse » des augmentations annuelles des taux horaires. Les compressions budgétaires ne sont pas agréables et jamais faciles, mais elles peuvent revitaliser un département juridique et resserrer les liens à l’interne. La clé est d’être proactif, insiste Me King. La plus grande erreur qu’elle voit chez des dirigeants de

départements est de prendre des décisions trop tard et de ne pas être préparé. « Les employés sont très au fait des ralentissements économiques », dit-elle. Si vous n’agissez pas assez rapidement, il y a une « déstabilisation naturelle et de la peur qui peut se répandre au sein de l’organisation ». Quand vient le temps de prendre des décisions difficiles, « plus vous attendez, plus le risque est élevé ». ❚

fonctionnent

Des mesures qui xxxxxxxxx

Il n’y a pas de recette magique quand vient le temps de gérer des compressions budgétaires, mais les conseillers juridiques internes peuvent apprendre de leurs collègues sur ce qui fonctionne ou fonctionne moins pour contrôler les coûts et augmenter les rendements. Voici quelques conseils tirés du rapport de 2016 de la firme Altman Weil. Selon les chefs des opérations juridiques, les tactiques de contrôle des coûts qui ont produit les meilleurs résultats sont (sur une échelle de 1 à 10) : ■■

Rapatrier à l’interne du travail confié à des firmes externes (86 % des répondants lui ont accordé cinq points ou plus);

■■

Transférer du travail interne vers des centres de main-d’œuvre à meilleur marché (84 % lui ont accordé cinq points ou plus).

Les moins efficaces étaient : ■■

Réduire le nombre d’employés qui ne sont pas des avocats (48 % ont donné à cette option cinq points ou moins);

■■

Réduire le nombre d’employés qui sont des avocats (38 % lui ont accordé cinq points ou moins).

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N ew P laye r s

Driving Value F O R L egal D epa r tments By Mark A. Cohen & Liam Brown

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We are living in an age when consumers demand “better, faster, cheaper.” This takes some adjustment for providers—especially if they are lawyers. After all, law school taught them to be risk averse, correct and exhaustive in creating the best product possible—no matter its value to outcome.

awyers are about precedent—stare decisis—not innovation. They are trained to identify issues (read: problems), not create solutions. And they have historically played the role of client defender, not business partner. Their law school training was reinforced upon entry to practice. That was legal culture. But it’s changing thanks to consumers. Legal consumers and a handful of managed legal service providers have separated legal practice—core tasks that require differentiated legal expertise and skills—from the delivery of legal services—the business of law and the integration of practice and delivery. Corporate legal departments have grown in size, importance, responsibility, compensation and impact on legal delivery. This has occurred for several reasons, notably the fallout from the global financial crisis of 2007, globalization and the growing complexity and regulatory challenges of multinational businesses, and breathtaking advances in technology. Legal delivery—the business of law—has become a three-legged stool supported by legal expertise, technology and process. Most law firms have lagged in technology and process integration, failing to seize the opportunity to get out in front of a changing delivery model and a new set of consumer expectations. In response to law firm stasis, several in-house departments and legal service providers have become the standard bearers for the delivery of legal services—the business of law. According to ALM Intelligence’s recent “General Counsel Up-at-Night” report, 73% of legal work is performed in-house, 2% outsourced to legal providers (non-law firms), and the balance by firms. Corporate legal departments, once legal buyers, are now also its principal providers. Law firms have ceded market share to in-house departments and to tech and process-enabled service providers. The 2% service provider share would be substantially

“

higher if corporate legal operations (“legal ops”) work and services were included. Legal delivery is morphing from labour-intensive legal practice delivered exclusively by lawyers/law firms to a tech- and process-enabled model that combines legal, technological, and process and project management expertise. Law is not simply about lawyers anymore. Technologists, process experts, and other service professionals and paraprofessionals, assisted by technology, leverage legal expertise. Law is tracking the medical profession’s decades-ago metamorphosis from “medical practice” to the delivery of healthcare services. The business of law is leveraging differentiated legal expertise and skills the same way that healthcare delivery has leveraged differentiated physician skill sets, leaving others to conduct and deliver the “business” of the profession. It is against this rapidly changing backdrop that corporate counsel are challenged to identify ways to contain spend, mitigate risk, take on ever-increasing responsibility, manage a legal supply chain, defend the enterprise and simultaneously advance its business agenda within established risk parameters and the bounds of the law, and proactively identify—and defuse—problems before they result in legal exposure. This is not what they learned at law school or during practice. How do they meet these challenges?

Unprecedented Challenge—and Opportunity In-house legal departments operate in an environment of unprecedented challenge and opportunity. The challenges are to do more with less and keep pace with the rapacious growth, geographical imprint and complexity of the enterprise. They also contend with budget pressure even as their portfolios expand in size and complexity. But that’s only part of the story.

Law is tracking the medical profession’s decades-ago metamorphosis from “medical practice” to the delivery of healthcare services.

”

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“

Law firms, long the default provider, remain go-to sources for that narrow band of highvalue, so-called “bet the company” litigation, transactional or regulatory matters that are price insensitive and require specialized skills. But for everything else—approximately 85% of total legal spend—legal consumers have viable options that previously did not exist.

”

In-house counsel are expected to serve a dual role: they are defenders of the company as well as business partners advancing its interests. These at times conflicting roles have created a divergence between in-house and law firm lawyers, placing corporate counsel in the vanguard of the profession. They must identify ways to mitigate an increasing array of risks while curbing spend and promoting efficiency. At the same time, they must become integrated with their business clients and actively pursue corporate opportunities. This means that in-house counsel play offense and defense. It is the essence of the corporate legal challenge. The opportunity is that corporate legal departments now operate in a buyer’s market, affording them sourcing strategies that were unavailable when law firms had a virtual monopoly on the delivery of legal services. These options include teaming up with non-law firm legal service providers to:

specific corpus. This reduced the number of relevant documents from 100,000 to approximately 11,000. Next, Elevate lawyers familiar with these types of contracts and the relevant foreign languages ran training cycles of contract batches, improving the AI tool’s ability to identify and pull out specific clauses in those contracts to over 90% accuracy. Finally, the contracts were categorized and efficiently routed for resolution with the counterparties: either to Elevate lawyers for the high volume of non-business critical contracts or to outside counsel and Baxter lawyers for the smaller number of customer or business-critical contracts. This integrated approach, combining process design, legal technology and legal services, saved Baxter more than US$500,000 over traditional methods. Even more importantly, using a legal service provider enabled the customer’s legal department to meet the de-merger timetable.

●● Design improved processes and workflows.

Conclusion

●● Apply legal technology.

The practice of law—core tasks that require specialized legal expertise, training and skills—is shrinking, and the delivery of legal services—the business of providing integrated legal services—is expanding rapidly. This distinction informs a critically important decision for general counsel specifically and legal consumers generally: engaging the right resource for the right task. Law firms, long the default provider, remain go-to sources for that narrow band of high-value, so-called “bet the company” litigation, transactional or regulatory matters that are price insensitive and require specialized skills. But for everything else—approximately 85% of total legal spend—legal consumers have viable options that previously did not exist. Those choices, notably non-law firm legal service providers, are cost-effective, tech- and process-savvy, and expert in integrated legal delivery. These new players have emerged in response to a marketplace need for integrated legal delivery expertise. They are a powerful resource that legal departments should consider when they distinguish between legal practice and legal delivery functions. They will give general counsel an edge in achieving more with less in their challenging new roles. ❚

●● Assign work to people with the right expertise, experience and cost. Legal service providers work with corporate legal departments—and law firms—to deliver business impact by streamlining the business of law. These new players offer holistic, integrated, multi-disciplinary managed services to legal ops and the business of legal delivery to enable legal departments to meet and exceed their goals. Their contributions extend well beyond budget control—the predictable outcome of a process that legal departments seek. They also identify the optimal processes, resources (people and technologies) and providers (the legal supply chain) to perform discrete matters and portfolios in an efficient, process- and metric-driven, secure, and customer- and business-aligned fashion.

Baxter Case Study When the legal department at Baxter, a healthcare product and service provider, needed to review up to 100,000 contracts in multiple countries as part of its separation into two companies in 2015, they turned to a legal service provider, Elevate, to work with the in-house Baxter legal team and outside counsel, Baker McKenzie. Elevate designed a workflow and process to split the contracts into categories—customer contracts, strategic contracts and everything else—and develop different business and legal resolution paths for each category. This process avoided the exponentially higher cost of outside counsel manually reviewing and categorizing each contract while substantially compressing delivery time and promoting accuracy. An AI review technology was then used to analyze and identify relevant contracts from this

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Mark A. Cohen is a global thought leader in the legal industry focused on legal delivery and education. He is a Distinguished Lecturer in Law at Georgetown, a regular contributor to Forbes and a sought-after keynote speaker. He is CEO of LegalMosaic ( .legalmosaic.com), a legal business consultancy, and Chairman of the Board of Advisors and Chief Strategy Officer at Elevate. Liam Brown is Founder and Executive Chairman of Elevate Services (elevateservices.com), where he helps general counsel and law firm leaders design and implement strategies to improve effectiveness and efficiency. Elevate has won numerous awards and honours, most recently ranking #53 on the 2016 Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies list. Liam is also a frequent speaker at legal conferences, author of articles about trends in the legal sector, active investor in emerging legal technologies and executive coach for founders of start-ups.

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D e nouveaux joueu r s

ajoutent de la valeur L

Nous vivons à une époque où les consommateurs demandent « mieux, plus vite et moins cher ». Cette réalité requiert certains ajustements de la part des fournisseurs – en particulier les juristes. Après tout, les facultés de droit leur ont appris à se méfier du risque et à être corrects et rigoureux pour offrir le meilleur service possible, peu importe la valeur du produit final.

es avocats se soucient du précédent et non pas de l’innovation. Ils sont formés pour identifier des enjeux (comprendre : des problèmes) et non pas de créer des solutions. Et historiquement, ils ont joué un rôle de défenseur de leur client, et non pas de partenaire d’affaires. Mais cette situation est en train de changer, grâce aux consommateurs. Les consommateurs de droit et une poignée de fournisseurs de services juridiques ont provoqué une division au sein de la pratique du droit : les tâches essentielles qui nécessitent des compétences et aptitudes juridiques précises en droit, et le fait d’offrir ces services – le côté administratif et commercial de la pratique elle-même. Les départements juridiques ont pris de l’importance tant au niveau de leur taille qu’à l’égard de leurs responsabilités et de leur impact sur la prestation de services juridiques. Cela s’est produit pour plusieurs raisons, dont la crise financière de 2007, la mondialisation, la complexité croissante et les défis réglementaires des multinationales; et les avancées époustouflantes des technologies. La prestation de services juridiques – le commerce du droit – peut maintenant être soutenue par l’expertise juridique, la technologie et les procédés. Or, la plupart des cabinets ont pris du retard quant à l’intégration des technologies et des procédés, ratant l’occasion de prendre les devants à l’égard de cette évolution des besoins des consommateurs. En réponse à la paralysie ambiante des cabinets, plusieurs départements juridiques internes et des fournisseurs de services juridiques sont devenus les porte-étendard de la prestation de services juridiques. Selon le récent rapport General Counsel Up-at-Night de la firme ALM Intelligence, 73 % du travail juridique est effectué à l’interne, 2 % est soustraité à des fournisseurs de services (pas des cabinets juridiques) et le reste est envoyé à des cabinets juridiques externes. Les départements

juridiques internes, autrefois des acheteurs de services, sont maintenant les principaux fournisseurs. Les cabinets externes ont donc cédé des parts de marché aux contentieux et à des fournisseurs de services de la sphère des processus et des technologies. La prestation de services juridiques passe ainsi d’une pratique exclusivement réservée aux avocats et aux cabinets à un modèle qui nécessite une main-d’œuvre moins nombreuse et combine des expertises juridiques, technologiques et administratives. Le droit n’est plus seulement une question d’avocats. Et c’est dans ce contexte de changements rapides que les conseillers juridiques internes se font demander de trouver des moyens de contenir les coûts, mitiger les risques, accepter des responsabilités de plus en plus grandes, gérer la chaîne d’approvisionnement juridique et défendre l’entreprise tout en faisant progresser ses priorités commerciales et en évitant les problèmes avant qu’ils dégénèrent en poursuites. Ce n’est pas ce que les juristes ont appris sur les bancs d’école ni dans leurs années de pratique. Comment relever ces défis?

Des défis – et occasions – sans précédent Les conseillers juridiques internes sont donc aujourd’hui placés devant des défis importants, mais aussi des occasions sans précédent. Les défis consistent à en faire plus avec moins et de suivre le rythme de la croissance de l’empreinte géographique et de la complexité de l’entreprise. Ils doivent aussi jouer un double rôle : ils sont les défenseurs de la compagnie tout en devant faire progresser ses intérêts commerciaux. Ces rôles parfois conflictuels ont creusé l’écart entre ces conseillers internes et leurs confrères des firmes externes, plaçant les conseillers internes à l’avant-garde des changements de la profession.

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L’occasion qui se présente aux départements juridiques est donc celle d’évoluer dans un marché d’acheteurs qui leur permet d’adopter des stratégies qui n’étaient pas disponibles lorsque les cabinets externes avaient le monopole des services juridiques. Ces options incluent de travailler avec des firmes externes qui ne sont pas des fournisseurs de services juridiques à proprement parler, mais qui peuvent :

●● Améliorer les processus et le déroulement des opérations; ●● Veiller à l’adoption de technologies juridiques;

Les cabinets d’avocats demeurent les sources premières pour la (mince) portion de travail à valeur ajoutée. Mais pour tout le reste, soit environ 85 % des dépenses juridiques, les consommateurs de services juridiques disposent d’options viables qui n’existaient pas auparavant.

●● Assigner des tâches à des gens avec des expertises, une expérience et des coûts appropriés. Ces nouveaux joueurs offrent des services holistiques, intégrés et multidisciplinaires pour permettre aux départements juridiques d’atteindre et excéder leurs objectifs. Leurs contributions s’étendent bien au-delà des contrôles budgétaires; ils identifient également les procédés optimaux, les ressources (main-d’œuvre et technologie) et les fournisseurs (la chaîne d’approvisionnement des services juridiques) adaptés à leurs besoins.

les contrats ont été catégorisés et dirigés efficacement vers les avocats d’Elevate pour les contrats plus routiniers ou vers ceux de Baxter ou à l’externe pour les documents plus importants ou litigieux. Cette approche intégrée, qui combine l’élaboration de procédés, la technologie et les services juridiques a permis à Baxter d’économiser plus de 500 000 dollars américains. Encore plus important, elle a permis aux conseillers juridiques internes de respecter leur échéancier.

L’exemple de Baxter

Conclusion

Lorsque le département juridique de Baxter, un fournisseur de produits et de services de santé, a dû revoir près de 100 000 contrats dans plusieurs pays dans le cadre de sa division en deux compagnies en 2015, ils se sont tournés vers un fournisseur de services juridiques, Elevate, pour travailler avec les conseillers juridiques internes et les conseillers externes de la firme Baker McKenzie. Elevate a conçu un procédé pour diviser les contrats en catégories – contrats de consommateurs, contrats stratégiques et tout le reste – et développé diverses avenues pour chaque catégorie. Ce procédé a permis d’éviter les coûts substantiellement plus élevés d’avoir des conseillers externes qui passent en revue chaque contrat de manière individuelle et d’accélérer l’opération tout en assurant une plus grande précision. Une technologie de révision basée sur l’intelligence artificielle (IA) a ensuite été utilisée pour analyser et identifier les contrats pertinents. Cela a permis d’en réduire le nombre à 11 000. Finalement,

La pratique du droit – les tâches essentielles qui requièrent une expertise juridique, une formation et des compétences – rétrécit, tandis que la prestation de services juridiques – la pratique commerciale de fournir des services juridiques intégrés – augmente rapidement. Il s’agit d’une distinction importante afin de guider les décisions auxquelles sont confrontés les conseillers juridiques internes en particulier, et les consommateurs en général : avoir recours aux ressources appropriées pour accomplir leur travail. Les cabinets d’avocats demeurent les sources premières pour la (mince) portion de travail à valeur ajoutée. Mais pour tout le reste, soit environ 85 % des dépenses juridiques, les consommateurs de services juridiques disposent d’options viables qui n’existaient pas auparavant. Ces options accordent un avantage aux conseillers juridiques internes pour faire plus avec moins dans le cadre de leurs responsabilités de plus en plus exigeantes. ❚

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››››› › › › ››

BEYOND BORDERS AU-DELÀ DES FRONTIÈRES

›››› › › ››

Business and Law in the Global Village Droit et commerce dans le village planétaire

2018 CCCA NATIONAL CONFERENCE AND ICW WORLD SUMMIT APRIL 29 - MAY 1, 2018 TORONTO

CONFÉRENCE NATIONALE DE L’ACCJE ET SOMMET MONDIAL DES JURISTES D’ENTREPRISE 2018 29 AVRIL AU 1 MAI 2018 TORONTO

Visit www.ccca-accje.org/2018conference for details. Consultez www.ccca-accje.org/conference2018 pour en savoir plus.

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Smooth

Operators

Coming to a Legal Department near You

By Julie Sobowale

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Monica Gallant is in the business of fixing problems. When she faced implementing new policies to comply with the Canadian Anti-Spam

Legislation

(CASL),

Gallant

saw a greater opportunity. Her business instincts and keen eye led her to start a legal operations team at Shopify. “I’m a fixer,” says Gallant. “Solving complex problems is something that gets me excited.”

The Role of Legal Operators Legal operation specialists are leading the way for the future. This burgeoning management field is uniquely set up to tackle the ever-growing challenges facing in-house counsel. Legal operation managers are the change agents organizations need to create cost-effective, efficient and innovative legal departments. In many ways legal operations, or legal ops for short, is a culmination of the rapid changes happening in the legal profession within the last decade. According to the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC), legal operators serve in multi-disciplinary roles and have 12 core competencies: strategic planning, financial management, vendor management, data analytics, technology support, alternative support models, knowledge management, professional development and team building in legal departments, communications, governance and records management, litigation support, and cross-functional alignment. Legal departments are facing shrinking budgets and more pressure to keep costs from outside counsel down while working to incorporate new technology for greater efficiency. The position is slowly growing in Canada. Scott Morgan left his position as Chief Operating Officer at Norton Rose to head up the new legal operations department at Air Canada.

“Long gone are the days when they were expected to give professional legal advice and no more,” says Morgan, Director of Legal Operations, law branch at Air Canada. “Legal departments are making ever-increasing contributions and are growing in stature and size within corporations, but in an increasingly complex legal environment, ‘legal’ resources are extremely stretched. Operations specialists who have specific skills and whose day job is operations can improve efficiency while lawyers can focus on doing the value-added strategic legal work.” Legal operators take care of the day-to-day duties of running the legal department. Most legal ops specialists are in senior management positions reporting to general counsel or running a team alongside the traditional legal department. “Dedicated specialist resources help develop and, most importantly, keep the focus and implement the legal department strategic plan,” says Morgan. “This is done by improving systems and processes, new technology solutions, financial and HR management, financial rigour to engaging outside counsel services and the operational minutiae that lawyers sometimes treat as a distraction from their day jobs of providing legal services. Possibly most important is a strong knowledge of and the ability to manage technology. This is where the largest gains in productivity will be made.”

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{ Feature } the 12 core competencies of legal operators ●●

Strategic planning

●●

Financial management

●●

Vendor management

●●

Data analytics

●●

Technology support

●●

Alternative support models

●●

Knowledge management

●●

Professional development and team building in legal departments

●●

Communications

●●

Governance and records management

●●

Litigation support

●●

Cross-functional alignment

What makes legal ops so valuable is the ability to have staff focused on the business of law. Legal ops managers keep track of the latest trends and look for ways to incorporate new processes into departments. “We embrace the entire ecosystem,” says Brenton. “If we don’t include everyone, you get solutions that other people don’t want. You need to include tech and other vendors, LPOs, regulators, in-house counsel, law firms and law schools. We are dedicated to changing the industry by making sure all the players understand that the rest of the ecosystem expects more and expects the best. We’ll never get to a highly efficient free market where supply meets demand perfectly without a lot of work and collaboration. We are working hard to bring order to what has been a certain amount of chaos.”

Legal Ops in Your Organization

Different associations are popping up to help legal operations. For instance, in 2016, Connie Brenton along with other legal operations managers in Silicon Valley, founded the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC). “I started calling the few legal ops/Chief of Staff leads in the Bay Area to see about sharing some benchmarking information,” says Brenton, Chief of Staff/Director of Legal Operations at NetApp, Inc. and CEO of CLOC. “From the outset, we were a close, sharing and collaborative group. The role was new and just starting to catch on back when I started CLOC.” The Consortium is growing rapidly. After hosting their first Institute in 2016, more than 1,000 people showed up for this year’s event. Currently the organization has 650 members from 17 countries, including Canada. “We call our conference an ‘Institute’ because the goal of the event is to provide educational sessions,” says Brenton. “We don’t do panels. Institute sessions are designed to be focused, in depth and grad school like in depth and quality. We try to hit that mark. At the end of the day, CLOC is one of the only groups providing comprehensive training for legal ops professionals and those looking to run their legal departments like a business. We all want to have our legal departments running efficiently.”

If you’re convinced that a legal operations specialist is what you need, the next phase is to create a position or team in your organization. This was the question facing Monica Gallant in 2016. After switching roles from Regulatory Lead to Legal Operations Manager, she began to gather the data to see what gaps exist in the organization that the legal operations team could tackle. Going through a data analysis will help define not only potential cost savings but also how the legal department can add more value to your organization. "I’m one of those people who loves to understand how things work,” says Gallant. “Only by being naturally curious, taking time to research and ensuring we truly grasp the inner workings of a process can we then take steps to create effective and sustainable change for the organization.” After figuring out what you need, you’ll need to find the right person for the job. Typically legal operations specialists have a financial background and experience in change management. Legal ops managers like Gallant, who has a background in working in financial services, don’t necessarily need to be lawyers. “It depends on the nature of the business,” says Gallant. “We’ve had several lawyers apply to work on the legal operations team at Shopify because they’re interested in business operations. This role requires people who thrive on change and who can think strategically. You also need to be someone who is a networker, as developing and maintaining strong relationships is critical to success in this role.”

“Long gone are the days [in-house counsel] they were expected to give professional legal advice and no more. Legal departments are making ever-increasing contributions and are growing in stature and size within corporations, but in an increasing complex legal environment." Scott Morgan, Director of Legal Operations, Air Canada

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“Many people start by trying to solve some of the most difficult challenges like implementing knowledge management or contract management. Don’t start with that. Start with quick successes where you can have savings that are put into tech and commit to investing... That way the legal work becomes a business enabler.” CONNIE BENTON, Chief of Staff/Director of Legal Operations at NetApp, Inc. & Chairman of the Board at CLOC.

Trust is the backbone for successful legal ops teams. In order to implement changes, organizations need legal ops specialists who collaborate with others and work in interdisciplinary teams. Before hiring an ops specialist, general counsel should consider whether lawyers and staff are ready for change. “Lawyers are skeptical and show a high resistance to change,” says Brenton. “We have people who are filling out spreadsheets to complete contract extraction efforts and they are doing it on low risk contracts. We can bring in less experienced talent to do that type of work. To do that, you take that work off someone’s plate and they have a fear of losing their job. To do this job, you need to have a clear vision, thick skin and wear multiple hats all at the same time.” The only way for change to be effective is to have legal operators reporting to senior management. According to the 2017 legal operations survey written by the U.S.-based law firm Blickstein Group, 59% of legal department operators report to directly to general counsel.

isn’t a mistake. If you do it well, it looks so easy it’s thankless. But if it doesn’t go well, you’re blamed for it. It’s challenging but also very rewarding.” In order to win support across the organization, start with small initiatives. Brenton suggests going for small changes that have a big impact in return on investment. This requires having metrics and benchmarking to track your success. “Many people start by trying to solve some of the most difficult challenges like implementing knowledge management or contract management,” says Brenton. “Don’t start with that. Start with quick successes where you can have savings that are put into tech and commit to investing. A high ROI is using electronic signatures for all contracts across the entire enterprise. Something that’s most foundational is e-billing. You can also do automatic NDAs that are self-serve and can be signed on a plane using e-signature. That way the legal work becomes a business enabler.” Legal operations is a nice alternative role to the traditional in-

“If you thrive on change and like a fast-paced environment, you’ll like this kind of work. There are lots of opportunities for growth There’s so much to do and there’s always the next challenge.” Monica Gallant, Legal Operations Manager, Shopify

“You need to be in a lead role and be able to multi-task,” says Brenton. “You can’t make dramatic or even important basic changes when you don’t have legal ops leaders reporting directly to the GC. The role must be prominent and equal in title to the rest of the GC’s staff because you’re doing change management. They have to report to the GC or have gravitas or it won’t work. ” Technology is a playing a big role in the legal ops field. As legal departments look to incorporate alternative fee arrangements, e-billing, and document and contract review, legal operations specialists work on implementing new technology into organizations. They also bear the responsibility of planning and execution, which is important given the limited time and resources of in-house counsel. “This job is wide and deep,” says Brenton. “When you’re affecting change, there are people who don’t want to do things any differently than they did a decade ago; they don’t want to work harder in the short run to make things easier in the near term. Moreover, when we do make changes, mistakes will be made. There’s never a tech rollout where there

house counsel position. Lawyers looking to make the switch will need to brush up on their financial skills, be able to collaborate across multiple departments and have a keen interest in technology. “The number one shift in the legal industry is collaboration and law firms are getting interested,” says Brenton. “There’s a real movement with outside and inside counsel to work together for more efficiencies and what language you speak with each one is important. You need to communicate well and listen. Tech works in different environments and we don’t want to be a silo when creating solutions.” The best way to get involved is to jump in. Even if you don’t have the budget to hire dedicated staff for legal ops, you can create teams to implement different initiatives. “I would say go for it,” says Gallant. “If you thrive on change and like a fast-paced environment, you’ll like this kind of work. There are lots of opportunities for growth. There’s so much to do and there’s always the next challenge.” ❚ Julie Sobowale is a writer and journalist based in Halifax.

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Opérations

juridiques de nouveaux spécialistes frappent à la porte

es spécialistes des opérations Monica Gallant gagne sa vie en réglant time M. Morgan. « C’est fait en juridiques pavent la voie vers améliorant les systèmes et les des problèmes. Lorsqu’elle a dû adopter de procédés, par de nouvelles solul’avenir. Le domaine de gestion en émergence est uniquement positionné tions technologiques, de la gesnouvelles politiques pour se conformer à tion financière et des ressources pour s’attaquer aux défis uniques auxquels sont confrontés les conseillers la Loi canadienne anti-pourriel (LCAP), elle humaines, une rigueur financière juridiques internes. Ces gestionnaires dans le recours aux conseillers a vu une occasion intéressante. Son sens externes et la minutie opéraincarnent le changement dont les organisations ont besoin pour créer des tionnelle que les avocats voient des affaires l’a menée à créer une équipe départements juridiques rentables, efparfois comme une distraction ficaces et innovants. de leur travail quotidien de fournir d’opérations juridiques chez Shopify. À plusieurs égards, le secteur est des services juridiques. Possiblele reflet des changements rapides qui ont touché la profession jument le plus important est une connaissance solide des technologies ridique au cours de la dernière décennie. Selon le Corporate Legal et une capacité de les gérer. C’est là que les plus grands gains de Operations Consortium (CLOC), les gestionnaires des opérations productivité peuvent être faits. » juridiques œuvrent dans des rôles multidisciplinaires et ont 12 Différentes associations voient le jour pour épauler le secteur en compétences de base, dont la planification stratégique, la gestion émergence. Par exemple, en 2016, Connie Brenton, avec d’autres financière, l’analyse de données et le soutien technologique. Les gestionnaires des opérations dans Silicon Valley, a fondé le CLOC. départements juridiques doivent composer avec des budgets qui di« J’ai commencé en contactant quelques spécialistes des opéraminuent et une pression accrue pour limiter les dépenses associées tions juridiques et chefs des opérations que je connaissais dans la aux firmes externes, tout en incorporant à leur travail des outils isrégion de la baie de San Francisco pour examiner la possibilité de sus des nouvelles technologies. partager certaines informations de base », dit Mme Brenton, chef des Lentement, la fonction se répand au Canada. Scott Morgan a quitopérations et directrice des opérations juridiques chez NetApp inc et té sa position de chef de l’exploitation chez Norton Rose pour diriger PDG du CLOC. « Dès le départ, nous étions un groupe très proche le nouveau département des opérations juridiques chez Air Canada. qui partageait et collaborait. Le rôle était nouveau et commençait à « L’époque où [les conseillers juridiques internes] ne devaient s’en peine à se répandre lorsque j’ai démarré le CLOC. » tenir qu’à uniquement fournir des conseils juridiques est révolue », dit Le Consortium a rapidement pris de l’expansion. Après avoir été ce directeur des opérations juridiques chez Air Canada. « Les départel’hôte de leur premier Institut en 2016, près de 1000 personnes se ments juridiques apportent une contribution qui prend constamment sont présentées à l’événement de cette année. L’organisation compte de l’ampleur et prennent eux-mêmes de l’ampleur en terme de taille maintenant 560 membres à travers 17 pays, incluant le Canada. et de leur importance au sein d’une entreprise, et le tout, dans un « On appelle nos conférences un Institut parce que l’objectif est environnement juridique de plus en plus complexe – les ressources de fournir des sessions de formation, elle explique. On ne fait pas de ‘légales’ sont très limitées. Laissons les spécialistes des opérations panels. Les sessions sont destinées à être ciblées et en profondeur, ayant des compétences spécifiques s’occuper de l’efficacité des comme des études supérieures. C’est le seuil que nous essayons opérations. Pendant ce temps, les avocats pourront se concentrer d’atteindre. En fin de compte, le CLOC est l’un des seuls groupes qui sur le travail juridique stratégique à valeur ajoutée. » offrent une formation entièrement destinée aux professionnels des Ces gestionnaires peuvent se charger du travail quotidien de gesopérations juridiques et à ceux qui souhaitent gérer leur département tion du département. La plupart des spécialistes des opérations jujuridique comme une entreprise. » ridiques sont des gestionnaires expérimentés qui se rapportent au chef Ce qui donne autant de valeur aux opérations juridiques est la des opérations juridiques ou qui gèrent leur propre équipe en parallèle. capacité d’avoir des employés qui se concentrent sur le volet admi« Des spécialistes concentrés sur ces tâches aident à dévelopnistratif de la pratique du droit. Les gestionnaires des opérations juper et, plus important encore, gardent l’accent et aident à mettre ridiques restent à l’affût des dernières tendances et considèrent les en œuvre les plans stratégiques des départements juridiques », esmoyens de les incorporer dans les départements.

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« On couvre l’ensemble de l’écosystème », dit Mme Brenton. « Si on n’inclut pas tout le monde, on aura des solutions dont certains ne veulent pas. Vous devez inclure les technologies et d’autres vendeurs. […] Nous sommes déterminés à changer l’industrie en nous assurant que les joueurs comprennent que le reste de l’écosystème s’attend à plus et à mieux. Nous n’allons jamais parvenir à créer un libre marché hautement efficace où l’offre répond à la demande parfaitement sans beaucoup de travail et de collaboration. Nous travaillons fort pour ramener de l’ordre dans ce qui a été un certain niveau de chaos. »

Si vous aimez le changement et les environnements qui ont un rythme rapide, vous aimerez ce genre de travail. Il y a beaucoup d’occasions de croître. Il y a tellement de choses à faire et il y a toujours un prochain défi qui vous attend.

Les opérations juridiques dans votre organisation Si vous êtes convaincu qu’un spécialiste des opérations juridiques est ce dont vous avez besoin, la prochaine étape est de créer une position ou une équipe au sein de votre organisation. C’était la question à laquelle Monica Gallant a été confrontée en 2016. Après être passée de chargée de la réglementation à gestionnaire des opérations juridiques, elle a commencé à accumuler des données pour voir s’il existait dans l’entreprise des besoins qu’elle devrait combler. Mener une telle analyse aide non seulement à identifier des économies potentielles, mais aussi à déterminer des manières dont le département juridique peut augmenter la valeur de votre organisation. « Je suis l’une de ces personnes qui adorent comprendre comment les choses fonctionnent », dit Mme Gallant. Ce n’est qu’en étant naturellement curieux, en prenant le temps de faire des recherches et en s’assurant de réellement comprendre le fonctionnement d’un processus qu’on peut commencer à créer un changement efficace et durable au sein de l’organisation. » Le seul moyen pour que ce changement soit efficace est de faire en sorte que le spécialiste des opérations juridiques relève directement de la haute direction. Selon un sondage de 2017 sur les opérations juridiques publié par la firme américaine Blickstein Group, 59 % des départements juridiques se rapportent directement à l’avocat général. La technologie joue aussi un rôle important dans ce domaine. Alors que les départements juridiques cherchent des moyens d’incorporer de nouvelles options de facturation, de documentation ou de révision de contrats, les spécialistes des opérations juridiques œuvrent à incorporer dans les opérations courantes des nouvelles technologies qui facilitent de telles transitions. Ils se chargent aussi de la planifi-

cation et de la mise en œuvre, un apport bienvenu compte tenu du temps limité dont disposent les conseillers juridiques internes. Les opérations juridiques sont une belle alternative au rôle traditionnel de conseiller juridique interne. Les juristes qui souhaitent s’impliquer dans le domaine devraient rafraîchir leurs connaissances financières, être capables de collaborer avec divers départements et avoir un intérêt marqué pour la technologie. « Le changement numéro un dans l’industrie juridique est la collaboration et les firmes juridiques commencent à s’y intéresser », dit Connie Brenton. « Il y a un réel mouvement chez les conseillers internes et externes pour travailler ensemble afin d’identifier des économies à faire, et la manière dont vous vous parlez est importante. Vous devez bien communiquer et écouter. La technologie œuvre au sein de divers environnements et nous ne voulons pas travailler en silos quand vient le temps de trouver des solutions. » La meilleure manière de s’impliquer est de faire le saut. Même si vous n’avez pas le budget pour embaucher des employés dédiés exclusivement aux opérations juridiques, vous pouvez mettre sur pied une équipe multidisciplinaire qui met en œuvre diverses initiatives. « Je dirais : allez-y », lance Monica Gallant. « Si vous aimez le changement et les environnements qui ont un rythme rapide, vous aimerez ce genre de travail. Il y a beaucoup d’occasions de croître. Il y a tellement de choses à faire et il y a toujours un prochain défi qui vous attend. » ❚

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{ Spotlight on… }

ImprovING Your Personal Bottom Line By Lynne Yryku

In-house counsel are expected to be on point at all times. But some days are filled with so many different demands and tasks that it can be difficult to set—let alone accomplish—our priorities. The office, with all of its emails, meetings, paperwork and more, can distract us and increase our stress levels. That is the bad news. The good news is that we are in control of how we react each situation—and what we can do to turn them into opportunities to succeed!

possible to delay checking it every morning, limit it to a certain amount of time, turn your alerts off and put your smartphone in your bag when trying to focus. Also, if you tend to be copied on a lot of emails that do not generally require action from you, create a filter that automatically files these messages to a folder you can review at the end of the day.

Now that you have organized your day, what about your life? Goals are critical to your overall success. They are what give you direction and take you forward. It is important to develop your career—and life—plan early, and set milestones to achieve it. Review it often to ensure it continues to fit you and the lifestyle you want. Because your goals are personal, based on your interests, values and skills, defining them minimizes the distractions. For any particular task, ask yourself, “Does this help me fulfill my goals?” If not, eliminate or outsource it by training others in your department or other business units.* With a clear, overarching purpose in mind, you will be able to prioritize and focus, even on the most menial things, as they are helping you get there. In addition, goals help you set your professional development plan. To add the greatest value as in-house counsel, it’s important to constantly acquire new skills, whether that means learning more about an area of the law, how to run the business, a new technology or how to manage relationships. These things take time and mental energy, but lack of knowledge or experience will stop you in your tracks.

ime is one of the most precious commodities we have. As the saying goes, time is money. Efficiency and productivity are key to success. Learning how to manage time-consuming tasks to improve focus and productivity was a universal need among lawyers according to the qualitative research done for CBA Re-Think. So what can you do to increase this skill set and improve your personal bottom line?

Begin with a plan and prioritize Whether you do it the night before or first thing in the morning, make a list of goals and tasks you want to accomplish that day. Include everything, even your plans to eat a healthy lunch and workout. The clearer your plan or list, the easier it is to overcome distractions and procrastination, and focus on what you have to do. Once you have everything written down, apply the Pareto Principle. Also known as the 80/20 rule, it says that 20% of the items on your list are worth more than the other 80% put together. While it does not mean you can ignore the 80%, it is a quick, effective way to prioritize what

you should focus on when you have limited time and energy. The most valuable tasks—the ones that can make a real difference to your company, your career and yourself—are usually the hardest or most complex ones. Your list may not shrink dramatically in the interim by completing them, but they will bring the great results in your overall performance. Now you are ready to block out your time. Schedule your day to work on your tasks, starting with the highest priority. In most cases, we overestimate the time it takes to get something done. Control your schedule by allotting a certain amount of time to a task and tap into your competitive side—race against the clock to finish it. As much as possible, put your priorities first. Focus only on the thing you need to get done and ignore other demands, like email and voicemail. Indeed, email can be a big distraction and can completely derail your best laid plans. A recent study from the University of Chicago found that merely having your smartphone nearby reduces your ability to handle functions like remembering and processing information. While it is not

Harness the power of goal setting

*If this is not possible, find ways to make it more manageable and enjoyable. Also, remember that you are never going to get it all done, and that is okay.

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Create task list

Prioritize

Celebrate your results! As you evaluate your progress toward your goals, recognize how far you have come. While it may seem like the changes are only small—or the completed “To Do” lists short—they really will bring big results. Celebrating your accomplishments and milestones along the way keeps you motivated to achieve more. With a mindset of achieving results, you will find ways to become more efficient and increase your productivity to reach new heights. You will feel more powerful and competent, knowing you are the master of your own success. ❚ Lynne Yryku is the Executive Editor of CCCA Magazine.

Block out schedule

Get things done

Evaluate against your goals

Celebrate your successes!

Free Resources If you want to learn more about skills like prioritizing, setting goals and developing a success mindset, you need to look no further than your public library—and you don’t even have to set foot inside it! You can download the free Hoopla app, which allows you to borrow audiobooks and more. (About 1,000 libraries offer Hoopla.) Here are some recommendations: ■■

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The Now Habit at Work: Perform Optimally, Maintain Focus, and Ignite Motivation in Yourself and Others by Neil Fiore Think and Grow Rich: This Book Could be Worth a Million Dollars to You by Napoleon Hill The 80/20 Manager: The Secret to Working Less and Achieving More by Richard Koch

■■

Goals! How to Get Everything You Want—Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible by Brian Tracy

For career help, there are several options through the CCCA. For instance, members can participate in the Mentoring Program or a free coaching session. See www.ccca-accje.org/Membership/ Career-Management to get started.

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{ PLEINS FEUX SUR … }

Améliorez votre bilan personnel

n attend des juristes d’entreprise qu’ils soient toujours dans le coup. Mais certains jours, l’éventail des tâches à accomplir est tellement vaste qu’il devient compliqué d’établir ses priorités, sans parler de les respecter. Au bureau, les courriels, les réunions et les documents qui s’accumulent détournent notre attention et font grimper notre niveau de stress. Ça, c’est la mauvaise nouvelle. La bonne nouvelle, c’est que nous pouvons contrôler notre façon de réagir – et transformer chaque situation en opportunité de réussite! Le temps est une ressource précieuse. Comme on dit, c’est de l’argent. L'efficacité et la productivité sont essentielles au succès. Et d’après les résultats de l’étude qualitative menée dans le cadre de Repensons l’ABC, les avocats auraient tous besoin d’apprendre à mieux gérer les tâches chronovores pour être plus efficaces et productifs. Alors, comment faire pour perfectionner cette compétence et améliorer son bilan personnel?

Une fois cela fait, bloquez du temps. Prévoyez-en pour accomplir vos tâches, en commençant par la priorité la plus élevée. La plupart du temps, on surestime le temps nécessaire. Contrôlez votre horaire en allouant un certain temps à une tâche et en mettant votre côté compétitif au service d’une course contre la montre. Autant que possible, faites passer vos priorités en premier. Concentrez-vous sur les tâches à faire et omettez le reste, comme le courrier électronique et les messages téléphoniques.

Établissez un plan et des priorités

En effet, le courrier électronique est une grande distraction qui peut saboter les meilleurs plans. Bien qu'il soit impossible de ne pas faire un suivi le matin, limitez le temps consacré à cette tâche et désactivez les alertes sur votre téléphone. En outre, si l’on vous met en copie conforme dans toutes sortes de courriels qui n’exigent pas d’action de votre part, créez un filtre pour que tout ce courrier soit automatiquement déposé dans un dossier que vous pourrez dépouiller à la fin de la journée.

Que ce soit la veille ou tôt le matin, dressez la liste des tâches que vous souhaitez accomplir ce jour-là. Notez tout, même l’intention de manger un repas sain et de faire de l’exercice. Plus le plan est clair et plus les distractions et la procrastination sont faciles à combattre, d’où une plus grande concentration sur la tâche à accomplir. Une fois votre liste dressée, appliquez le principe de Pareto, qu’on appelle aussi la règle des 80/20. D’après ce principe, 80 % des résultats sont obtenus par 20 % du travail. Ce n’est pas une invitation à laisser tomber les 80 % de travail restants! Cependant, c’est un bon moyen d’établir les priorités lorsque le temps et l’énergie sont limités. Les tâches les plus payantes – celles qui peuvent faire une vraie différence pour votre entreprise, votre carrière et vous-même – sont généralement les plus difficiles ou les plus complexes. La longueur de votre liste ne diminuera peut-être pas beaucoup, mais votre rendement global s’améliorera nettement.

au minimum. Posez-vous cette question : « Cette tâche m’aide-t-elle à atteindre mes objectifs? » Si ce n’est pas le cas, éliminezla ou formez quelqu’un pour s’en occuper.* Quand la finalité est claire, c’est plus facile d’établir ses priorités et de se concentrer, et ce, même sur les tâches de deuxième ordre, car elles permettent d’avancer vers l’objectif. En outre, les objectifs vous aideront à planifier votre développement professionnel. Pour acquérir de la valeur en tant que juriste d’entreprise, il faut constamment perfectionner

Dresser la liste des tâches

Établir les priorités

Bloquer du temps

Exploitez la puissance des objectifs Maintenant que votre journée est organisée, qu’en est-il de votre vie? Pour réussir, il faut des objectifs qui indiquent la direction à suivre et qui motivent. Il est important de commencer tôt à planifier sa carrière – et sa vie – en se fixant des jalons. Revoyez souvent vos plans pour vous assurer qu’ils correspondent toujours à vos besoins et au style de vie que vous souhaitez. En définissant vos objectifs, qui sont le reflet de vos intérêts, de vos valeurs et de vos compétences, vous réduirez les distractions

Accomplir les tâches

Évaluer l’avancement vers l’objectif

ses compétences et en acquérir de nouvelles, que ce soit dans un domaine du droit, en gestion des affaires, en nouvelles technologies ou en développement des relations. C’est vrai que cela prend du temps et de l'énergie mentale, mais c’est mieux que d’être bloqué par un manque de connaissances ou d'expérience.

Célébrez vos résultats! Lorsque vous évaluerez votre progression vers l’atteinte de vos objectifs, voyez objectivement tout le chemin que vous avez parcouru. Même si les changements semblent mineurs, et même si la liste des tâches terminées paraît courte, les résultats seront grands. En célébrant vos réalisations et l’atteinte de vos jalons, vous conserverez votre motivation et votre envie d’aller encore plus loin. En mobilisant votre esprit vers l’atteinte des résultats, vous trouverez des moyens d’être plus efficace et de faire grimper votre productivité à de nouveaux sommets. Vous vous sentirez puissant et compétent, sachant que vous êtes le maître de votre réussite. ❚

*Si ce n’est pas possible, trouvez un moyen de mieux gérer la situation. Rappelez-vous : vous ne réussirez jamais à tout faire, et c’est correct.

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Célébrer les réussites!

{ Legal Innovation }

The Business of Budgets! Budgets can be a real pain point with seemingly rigid confines, but in truth they are a powerful tool for in-house counsel. They are a window to performance and profitability, and can help legal departments stay on track and measure results.

firms that recognize the value of project management and collaboration to successful outcomes.

FK: Carillion has several internal resourcing options, one of which includes Carillion Advice Services (our own managed service provider). External counsel has a much higher price tag than our own internal resources, so large savings can be made by using our internal resource where appropriate. Our external counsel support us in identifying how we can best use our resources to ensure that external counsel is focused on the matters that add the most value. In addition, if there are numerous people working on a matter, we have worked with external counsel to devise solutions to manage that resource, so that the work is properly coordinated and nothing is duplicated or falls through the cracks. We have developed some great resourcing solutions together.

arillion Canada’s SVP of Legal, Fleur Kitchingman, joins McCarthy Tétrault Chief Client and Innovation Officer, Judith McKay, to make the case for good budget management between in-house and external counsel.

Q: On that note, how important is collaboration and early communication when managing a project that has gone off scope? How can law firms work with their clients to manage scope and resolve or avoid scope creep?

Q: Many business problems have unforeseen, and often costly, legal pitfalls incurred when solving an issue. How important is it to budget management to initially establish the project scope?

FK: In complex matters, there will be unexpected twists and turns along the way. Appreciating that from the very outset of a project is critical, and having an honest, open conversation with external counsel about the assumptions made within the budget, inclusions and exclusions and how any scope changes will be managed and priced is vital. Then, when a scope change does occur—and it will—all parties can identify it early on and will already have agreed upon an approach to manage the change.

FK: Great opportunities are lost at the start of a project when we throw all hands to the deck in the excitement and frenzy of solving a business problem without regard for the need to properly plan, scope and budget. We may all work ridiculously hard and achieve great results, but no business is ever going to thank us when a surprisingly large invoice lands from external counsel that no one was expecting! Properly scoping out a project and budgeting is absolutely essential. An enormous amount of time and money can be saved by asking and answering some simple questions at the outset: What is the business objective? What’s our strategy for achieving that objective? What is the scope of work? And what is the most efficient and cost effective way of resourcing the work? JM: As lawyers we have a high sense of urgency and are so transactionally oriented that it takes discipline to actually buckle down and plan the matter before executing. A good scoping and budgeting exercise not only ensures that the project runs more efficiently and meets business goals, but also is a forum to brainstorm together on strategic options and creative solutions as well as identify and mitigate key risks early on.

JM: Having a “no surprises” approach to budget management as the matter progresses is crucial. Law firms need to have the proper tools and resources in place to deliver the early warnings that Fleur alludes to. First, they should have a dedicated project management team to monitor the budgeted versus actual fees and update the lead lawyers. Second, they should make it part of the process for the project managers to find out what is happening with the file beyond the budget tracking information and build that into a status report that the client receives at regular intervals. Third, having a regular project check-in call with the team to discuss the status of the project and the most recent status report provides a great opportunity to assess whether there have been any changes to scope or assumptions, and if so, what the project team’s plan should be going forward to respond to those changes. It’s important for clients to select law

Q: How does resource management play a role in budget management? What is the law firm’s role in this aspect?

JM: Fleur makes a great point: law firms should be able to take a 360 view on the provision of legal services to help clients drive value and innovation wherever possible. Truly understanding the client’s business objectives and risk tolerance is required to ensure that the law firm is not over-lawyering the matter and is delegating work to the appropriate legal resources. In addition, taking a creative, collaborative approach allows for both customized staffing models and seamless operations as an extension of the client’s team. FK: External counsel are crucial partners to the process of budget management and the importance of building solid trusted advisor relationships with external counsel to allow very open dialogue to take place on budgets is paramount. Budget management is hard work for everyone involved, but achieving a large saving or discovering a more efficient way to deal with a business problem, can actually make the business of budgets very rewarding! ❚

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{ CCCA News }

Meet Nick Slonosky “ You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” – Zig Ziglar, motivational speaker

he CCCA’s new Chair, Nick Slonosky, knows the value of helping others. He has seen firsthand the incredible impact volunteers—himself included—have in the communities they work in his entire career. For the CCCA/CBA community, to name only a few, he has participated on the CCCA’s Executive, Advocacy, Certification and Professional Development Committees and in its Mentorship Program; the Manitoba Bar Association Council and the MBA CCCA Section; and various CBA working groups. In the wider community, he has volunteered at the Legal Help Centre of Winnipeg’s drop-in clinic, in the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Law’s negotiation course as a judge, and in his workplace’s many initiatives, such participating in WE Day and United Way Days of Caring as well as serving meals to those less fortunate. He sees importance of saying “yes” to any request for help. It is not for the accolades (of which there are many). Nick says, “It is important to me and is a part of who I am. I consider myself extremely fortunate, and volunteering is my way of giving back and helps me stay grounded.” Born, raised and educated in Manitoba, Nick lives up to the province’s reputation for friendliness and generosity. This

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makes him a good fit at Investors Group, with its long heritage of community involvement, which he joined in 2007. He is Director and Legal Counsel in the Legal Department. Based in Winnipeg, his current practice focuses on information technology transactions of all sorts for Investors Group and its affiliates, which are all members of the Power Financial Corporation group of companies. Previous to that, he worked in the communications sector for almost 30 years. He calls himself “very fortunate” to have worked in-house his entire career. “It is not just variety of interesting work but also learning about the complexity and ever-changing challenges facing business. We must find creative solutions to meet business needs as well as work collaboratively with other business professionals to contribute toward achieving our organization’s goals every day.” Nick’s life is also strongly shaped by family. He and his wife, Liz, have been together for 30 years and are proud parents to a son (now 25) and a daughter (21), both at university. They know that sometimes the real work begins when you get home! He also has his extended “family” of colleagues and friends, both in-house and private practice. With this “unique and great

{ CCCA News }

“

I consider myself extremely fortunate, and volunteering is my way of giving back and helps me stay grounded.

community,” he always knows someone he can call on for advice or a favour, turning any challenge into an opportunity. Through his work with his peers at the CCCA/CBA, he has learned about many critical issues on a variety of subjects to which he would not otherwise have been exposed. For instance, of his participation on the CBA’s Legislation & Law Reform Committee for the past two years, he says, “That opportunity was an education and experience that truly broadened my understanding and thinking on the many complications affecting the administration of justice and the rights of Canadians for nearly every topical legal and social issue, as well the important role that the CBA plays.” As CCCA Chair, Nick is looking forward to representing “our fabulous in-house community.” Working with the “incredibly talented” Executive Committee and staff, his goal is for all members to receive the tools, services and knowledge they need to become the very best they can be within their organizations and communities—“so that they will do as I do: smile with excitement whenever they receive an email from or hear about the CCCA!” He knows this experience will only add to his continued personal and professional growth. He says, “Everyone is

”

a collection of their experiences. The more experiences we have, whether they be within an organization or within the community, meeting other people, giving back or helping others with the skills and knowledge we possess, helps everyone involved. And diversity of experiences always enhances understanding, awareness, respect for issues and others. Through that everyone benefits.” ❚

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{ Nouvelles de l’ACCJE }

Faites connaissance avec Nick Slonosky « Vous pouvez obtenir tout ce que vous voulez dans la vie, à condition d’aider suffisamment les autres à obtenir ce qu’ils veulent. » – Zig Ziglar, conférencier motivateur

e nouveau président de l’ACCJE, Nick Slonosky, connaît la valeur de l’entraide. Pendant sa carrière, il a été à même de constater l’énorme impact du bénévolat. Entre autres, il a participé aux comités de direction, de représentation, d’accréditation et du perfectionnement professionnel et au programme de mentorat de l’ACCJE; le conseil de l’Association du barreau du Manitoba et la section de l’ACCJE de l’ABM; ainsi qu’à divers groupes de travail de l’ABC. Dans la communauté en général, il a contribué à la clinique d’aide juridique de Winnipeg, au cours de négociation de la Faculté de droit de l’Université du Manitoba et à diverses de son lieu de travail, notamment la participation au WE Day, aux journées Centraide et au service de repas aux moins fortunés. Il sait qu’il est important de répondre « oui » aux demandes d’aide. Il ne fait pas cela pour qu’on le complimente (ce qui se produit souvent). « C’est important à mes yeux et cela fait partie de moi. Je me considère privilégié et le bénévolat est ma façon de redonner au suivant. Cela m’aide aussi à garder les pieds sur terre. » Né, élevé et éduqué au Manitoba, Nick se montre à la hauteur de la réputation d’hospitalité et de générosité de sa province, d’où ses atomes crochus avec le Groupe Investors, une société qui a une longue tradition d’implication sociale et dont il a rejoint les rangs en 2007 en tant que directeur et

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conseiller du service juridique. Rattaché au bureau de Winnipeg, sa pratique est axée sur les transactions impliquant tout l’éventail des technologies informatiques. Ses clients sont le Groupe Investors et ses affiliés, lesquels sont tous membres de la Corporation financière Power. Avant cela, il a œuvré dans le secteur des communications pendant presque 30 ans. Il se dit privilégié d’avoir travaillé toute sa carrière comme juriste d’entreprise : « Outre son côté intéressant, ce travail constitue un apprentissage constant pour relever des défis toujours plus complexes et trouver des solutions créatives qui répondent aux besoins commerciaux, en collaborant avec d’autres professionnels et en contribuant chaque jour aux objectifs de l’organisation. » La vie familiale occupe aussi une grande place dans la vie de Nick. En couple depuis 30 ans, lui et sa femme Liz sont les fiers parents d’un fils de 25 ans et d’une fille de 21 ans, tous deux à l’université. Et ils savent que parfois, c’est lorsqu’on rentre à la maison que le vrai travail commence! Nick a aussi une « famille élargie » de collègues et d’amis, tant en entreprise qu’en pratique privée. Dans cette « communauté unique et formidable », il peut toujours compter sur des conseils ou un service pour transformer un défi en opportunité. En travaillant avec ses pairs de l’ACCJE/ ABC, il a acquis des connaissances essen-

Fall 2017 Automne

tielles sur un éventail de sujets qu’il n’aurait pas eu l’occasion d’étudier autrement. Depuis deux ans, par exemple, en participant au Comité de la législation et de la réforme du droit de l’ABC : « J’ai acquis des connaissances et une expérience qui ont vraiment élargi ma compréhension des complications qui affectent l’administration de la justice et les droits des Canadiens sous à peu près tous les aspects juridiques et sociaux, tout en prenant la mesure de l’important rôle joué par l’ABC. » Comme président de l’ACCJE, Nick s’attachera à représenter la « fabuleuse communauté des juristes d’entreprise ». En collaboration avec les membres du comité de direction et du personnel, son but est de procurer aux membres tous les outils, services et connaissances dont ils ont besoin pour exceller au sein des organisations et de la communauté – « afin que le simple fait de voir ou d’entendre ‘ACCJE’ suscite leur enthousiasme! » Nick sait que cette expérience sera un acquis pour sa croissance personnelle et professionnelle : « Nous sommes la somme de nos expériences. Plus nous en accumulons, que ce soit dans une organisation ou la communauté, et plus nous utilisons nos connaissances et compétences pour redonner au suivant, plus nous aidons les gens. La diversité des expériences favorise toujours la compréhension, la prise de conscience, le respect des autres et de leurs problématiques. Tout le monde y gagne. » ❚

{ HR Impact }

The Cost of Contingency:

Preparing for crisis carries a cost— but it’s cheaper than the alternative By Liz Bernier

In any organization, proposing budget items is a challenging task in a climate of competing priorities and lean operating expenses. Even expenditures that seem inevitable to the business function or department proposing them may face rigorous scrutiny from higher-ups. To stay competitive, adaptive and nimble, companies are more concerned than ever before with keeping excess costs contained.

hen it’s difficult to account for eventualities in the budget, how much more challenging has it become to plan for the hypotheticals? While every organization is different, as a general trend, Legal and HR likely need to present a strong business case to win an adequate budget for contingencies. So how do you build a business case for scenarios that may never come to pass? How can you justify keeping a law firm, PR or crisis communications team, or HR consultancy on retainer, when you may never once need their services? In a word? Numbers. For HR, at least, translating business needs into financial terms is something of a learning curve, but it’s certainly a worthwhile one. Picture this: the industry undergoes a severe, unexpected downturn, necessitating mass layoffs—and requiring external HR and legal help to prepare severance packages, handle the exit process, deal with media messaging and internal communications, and assist with outplacement services. Or perhaps the company runs into a highprofile crisis—food contamination, sexual harassment allegations, a plane crash

and an industrial accident being just a few among the many recent examples we’ve seen in the media—and you need a PR firm, legal advice, independent investigators, and a swift overhaul of policies and procedures. All of these things will carry significant costs—but those costs will be much easier to bear if the organization has a well thought-out contingency budget in place. Failing to plan financially for a rainy day—or potentially reputation-ending crisis—has added costs above and beyond the bottom line. An organization left wrong-footed in a crisis is much more prone to making mistakes or mishandling an already delicate situation, and as we’ve learned, in the social media age reputation is everything. An organization that makes a mess of a crisis situation has a lot more at stake than employee turnover, a financial hit or a few bad media stories. A severely damaged reputation puts at risk your “social license” to operate—that intangible factor that can suddenly become painfully palpable in the form of dried-up business and a dwindling bottom line.

So when making the business case to build in extra padding in the contingency budget, don’t just present hypotheticals. Nail down some less-than-hypothetical numbers. What was the estimated financial impact to Maple Leaf Foods during the 2008 listeriosis outbreak? What might the expenses have looked like at the CBC when the Jian Ghomeshi sexual harassment scandal broke if 5 or 10 or 15 employees turned over and a flagship program was left leaderless for weeks? It’s also not a bad idea to calculate a little further. Assuming the company is not adequately funded and prepared, how much would it cost to face a 30% drop in your stock or a 40% decline in revenue? How much would it cost if 20 employees turn over overnight? Planning for and mitigating risk isn’t just about media training or policies and procedures. Budgeting is an essential piece of the puzzle—and it’s a piece that’s no longer the sole purview of Finance. Legal and HR need to have a solid understanding of the potential costs to make a strong business case to guard against risk. ❚ Liz Bernier is a Canadian business journalist and the managing editor of HR Professional magazine. She is a communications specialist with the Human Resources Professionals Association.

C anadian C o rporate C o u nsel A ssociation

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{ Strategic Management }

The Elusive Anti-Bribery Compliance Internal Controls: Part 3 By Isabelle Pierre

This four-part series explores how in-house counsel can design and implement effective anti-bribery controls without significantly expanding resources. This third part focuses on the design of an anti-bribery internal controls system.

here are two types of internal antibribery controls: preventative and detective. Preventative controls, as the name suggests, prevent violations of anti-bribery legislation from occurring, while detective controls detect violations of company policy or the law and allow counsel to assess on a routine basis the efficacy of the preventative controls, and correct and improve them as necessary, thus allowing the compliance program to evolve with the business. The design of a good compliance program starts with a self-assessment of the risk associated with an organization’s activities, followed by the design of required preventative controls.

1. Self-Assessment A self-assessment allows counsel to draw a comprehensive inventory of all of the company’s activities that may pose some risk under anti-bribery legislation. Good self-assessment questionnaires are available online from a variety of forprofit and not-for-profit organizations. Alternatively, a questionnaire can be created using lists of corruption red flags, also found online, and a list of possible activities involving interactions with government officials by or on behalf of the organization. Ideally, the questionnaire should be answered in collaboration with the business’s employees to help reduce any blind spots the legal department may have. Consideration should be given to in-

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terviewing employees from various levels across the organization, at management, middle management and working levels, to ensure that not only routine transactions and activities are captured but also activities that are outside of existing processes and handled on an exception basis. The completed assessment should provide counsel a good understanding of how company assets and resources are accessed. The questionnaire should be revised and re-administered annually to ensure the program adequately covers new activities that the organization may have undertaken. Where possible, the questionnaire should be administered to different employees each time to get a variety of perspectives on the work performed by the organization to identify if anything was missed during previous years’ selfassessments. To help prioritize the design and implementation effort, as well as help with the design of the preventative controls, activities identified during the self-assessment exercise should be ranked by the level of risk they pose. Most anti-bribery compliance systems feature a two-tier (high risk and low risk) or a three-part (high, medium and low) classification system. Activities that pose a risk under antibribery legislation often involve dealing with or in countries where corruption is more prevalent. Transparency International offers its online Corruption Perceptions Index for free to support the assess-

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ment of the risk of corruption in various jurisdictions. Organizations can use the index to rank the countries they do business with or have dealings in by the corruption risk they pose. The output of this self-assessment exercise should enable counsel to identify the preventative controls required to mitigate their organization’s bribery risks.

2. Identification of Required Preventative Controls As a first step, based on the results of the self-assessment, the activities or behaviours that should be prohibited, should be subject to a vetting process or do not require any form of control should be identified. Prohibitions should be recorded in the company policies, and training should be provided to ensure employees are familiar with them and they are enforced. Common prohibitions include payment of bribes or other facilitation payments, payments to commercial intermediaries in off-shore accounts, payments for work not performed, creation or use of slush funds, alteration of books and records, concealing activities, and circumventing the application of policies. Vetting is an individual risk assessment of specific activities or transactions. It can be as simple as a standard automated due diligence on an entity or as resource intensive as a legal opinion from outside counsel specialized in anti-bribery compliance on very complex transactions. It can include a tailored assessment of risks of corruption, a competitive procurement process to purchase high-risk goods or services, a price check to ensure that prices are not inflated, an assessment of a contractor’s ability to perform work,

{ Strategic Management }

a physical inspection of a contractor’s premises and equipment, or due diligence on a request for payment by a third party in an account outside of its jurisdiction. The level of control and vetting imposed on permissible activities should be based on not only the risk of corruption involved in each activity but also the frequency of the activity and the complexity of the risk analysis associated with the activity. Because it is difficult for organizations to perform processes associated with activities occurring infrequently efficiently and reliably, consideration should be given to centralizing the vetting of infrequent activities and assigning it to specialized resources. Similarly, the vetting of activities requiring deeper or more complex analysis should rest with more experienced, more specialized resources. Routine or lower risk activities can often be delegated to working-level employees.

“

Activities subject to vetting typically include gift giving, provision of hospitality and transportation, political contributions, charitable donations and sponsorship, hiring of employees with ties to the government or government officials, retention of commercial intermediaries and consultant, retention of custom brokers and freight forwarders, acquisition of permits, exports and imports, lobbying, and selection of high risk suppliers. A single type of activity can require different levels of vetting, depending on the risk it presents. For instance, a proposed modest charitable contribution by a company to a reputable and well established charitable organization not affiliated with government officials, based in a country where the company has an establishment and to whom the company has made payments in the past may require a simple due diligence. By contrast,

a donation to a charitable organization to whom the company has never given before, in a country with a high corruption index where the company is pursuing business may require a review by the Legal Department. The output of this activity should be a detailed list of activities, classified by risk level, with a description of the associated vetting. This list is the backbone of the internal controls program. The final instalment of this four-part series will review how to implement these internal controls effectively and how to design the detective controls that will allow counsel to measure the health and efficacy of your compliance program. ❚ Isabelle Pierre is Deputy General Counsel at General Dynamics Land Systems. She is currently on maternity leave.

The design of a good compliance program starts with a self-assessment of the risk associated with an organization’s activities, followed by the design of required preventative controls.

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{ Inside Edge }

On Time and on Budget By John L. MacLean, CIC.C

Kugaaruk, Nunavut, lost its only school to fire on February 28, 2017. Because replacing a school in a remote arctic community takes at least three years, the Government of Nunavut launched two procurement processes: the first for portable classrooms to be shipped on the annual sealift and the second for a designbuild contractor to build a permanent school.

his is one of the tougher projects I’ve worked on in seven years with the Government of Nunavut, as there really is no room for error. One week’s delay could mean that we miss the one sealift boat heading to Kugaaruk this year. If we miss the boat, the materials won’t get there in time for the short construction season. While every delay costs money, there are other more significant costs: students will continue to go without their school, and the community without a vital hub for activities. Although some things (in my case, weather and ice conditions) are beyond your control, most delays during the procurement process are preventable. When I meet with my clients at the beginning of a project, I tell them an on-time and onbudget procurement process begins with three things:

1. Write Clear, Complete Specifications Unclear or poorly written specifications ultimately create more work for the evaluation panel. Responding to questions and clarifying the proposal documents by written addenda take time. In some cases, the entire process may even have to be cancelled and restarted. If a contract is awarded based on unclear specifications, there’s a good chance unsuccessful proponents will challenge the entire process in court.

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Purchasers have a duty to disclose all material aspects of the contract. In simple language, tell bidders what they need to know. Sometimes you may need to retain a subject matter expert to help write your specifications. When you’re writing your specifications or terms of reference, always keep the end users in mind. In an open, fair and transparent procurement process, bidders know exactly what’s expected of them. Put the mandatory requirements front and centre. Provide bidders with the information they’ll need to prepare a quality submission. Make the document user friendly by, for example, numbering the pages and paragraphs. This step takes a lot of time but it’s worth it. It’s much easier for bidders to respond to a well-crafted RFP or tender. It’s also much easier—and faster—for you to evaluate well-written bids.

2. Be Organized On-time delivery begins at the planning stage. Map out all the critical stages of the project from beginning to end, including any necessary regulatory approvals. Make sure people critical to the project are there when you need them. Allow extra time if you’re using a new procurement method. Sometimes, business as usual won’t work. With the Kugaaruk contracts, we

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used a restricted invitational tender for the portable classrooms. In the designbuild RFP, we inserted cut-off dates for things such as questions and answers and translation requests because we couldn’t extend the submission deadlines.

3. Develop (and Refine) Templates We’ve worked with our purchasing department to develop a suite of procurement templates and standard contracts for just about everything we purchase. This ensures we have consistent procurement practices and we comply with our regulations and trade agreements. It also means procurement officers only have to seek legal review if they’re changing the template. With templates, it’s easier to respond to emergencies because a lot of the work is already completed. We were able to meet the tight timelines for the Kugaaruk contracts because the same team who wrote our first design-build RFP re-assembled to revise and refine it for the Kugaaruk project. In some cases, we retain external legal counsel to assist us with templates. This allows us to leverage the expert advice over multiple procurement processes. All three steps involve a lot of work by the purchasing, legal, finance and client departments. However, it pays dividends in both quality and outcomes. Better procurement documents result in better proposals, which generally mean better end results. Bad contracts seldom finish on time or on budget. ❚ John L. MacLean, CIC.C, is Legal Counsel with the Nunavut Department of Justice in Iqaluit. He is a graduate of the CCCA’s Business Leadership Program for In-House Counsel.

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