Canadian Lawyer InHouse

3 CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/INHOUSE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 www.canadianlawyermag.com/inhouse Director/Group Publisher: Karen Lorimer karen.lorimer@thomsonreuters.com Managing Editor: Jennifer Brown jen.brown@thomsonreuters.com Copy Editor: Patricia Cancilla Art Director: Steve Maver Account Co-ordinator: Catherine Giles Sales and Business Development Sales Manager: Paul Burton paul.burton@tr.com 416-649-9928 Consultant, Strategy and Business Development: Ivan Ivanovitch ivan.ivanovitch@tr.com 416-887-4300 Business Development Consultant: Kimberlee Pascoe kimberlee.pascoe@tr.com 416-996-1739 Account Executive: Steffanie Munroe steffanie.munroe@tr.com 416-315-5879 Canadian Lawyer InHouse is published 6 times a year by Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd., One Corporate Plaza 2075 Kennedy Rd., Toronto ON. M1T 3V4 (416) 298-5141. Fax : 416-649-7870 Web: www.canadianlawyermag.com/inhouse LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/groups/3380194 Twitter: @CLInHouse Editorial advisory board: Sanjeev Dhawan, Hydro One Networks Inc.; Jonathan Lau, Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario; Fernando Garcia, CargoJet; Lynn Korbak, Toromont Industries; Julia Shin Doi, Ryerson University; Dorothy Quann, Xerox Canada; Lorne O'Reilly, Dow Chemical Canada ULC; Jolie Lin, Sierra Systems; Dean Scaletta, Manitoba Public Insurance; Robert Piasentin, Sierra Systems; Yonni Fushman, Aecon Group Inc.; Tony Linardi, Golder Associates. All rights reserved. Contents may not be reprinted without written permission. The opinions expressed in articles are not necessarily those of the publisher. Information presented is compiled from sources believed to be accurate, however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. Canadian Lawyer InHouse disclaims any warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or currency of the contents of this publication and disclaims all liability in respect of the results of any action taken or not taken in reliance upon information in this publication. Publications Mail Agreement #40766500 ISSN 1921-9563 Copyright © 2018 H.S.T. Registration #R121349799 To subscribe or change addresses Call (416) 649-9585 Fax (416) 649-7870 or e-mail Keith Fulford at keith.fulford@thomsonreuters.com RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESS TO: CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT One Corporate Plaza 2075 Kennedy Rd., Toronto ON. M1T 3V4 By Jennifer Brown Editor's Box SEND YOUR news AND story ideas TO jen.brown@thomsonreuters.com @CLInHouse @canadianlawyerinhouse In-house are creating it for themselves O n a recent visit to see Resolver Inc. general counsel Peter Nguyen, I casually asked him "what's new?" In an equally casual way, he said, "Well, we've created a workflow app that is working really well." Then he asked if I wanted to see it. Well yes, of course I did. What he showed me was a simple-looking but in - credibly smart system that has taken the craziness of his email in-box and streamlined all of those requests into a transparent system that can show people at the company exactly what is in the queue for him. (See page 38 for our story on the process and how it works.) It even includes service-level commitments from the legal department to Nguyen's business colleagues. Resolver has now started efforts to commercialize what Nguyen has created and he tells me: "We continue to have very interesting conversations with both in-house departments and law firms." Back in March, he had emailed me to say he was looking at what was on the market for in- house but also whether any law firms had implemented client workflow systems through which work is assigned and managed, allowing clients to have a dashboard to see the status on open matters. It all made a lot of sense. So often I have heard in-house counsel say how they wait to hear from external counsel on the status of a matter. Phone calls and emails often go unreturned for days. What if, Nguyen is imagining, he could do with his external firms what his internal clients do to see where the status of a matter is for them? Doesn't that make sense? Some large firms are offering improved collaboration tools with clients using project manage - ment platforms and client real-time web-based tools such as HighQ, a platform for in-house and law firms often used for virtual deal rooms and financial institutions to share sensitive information. While Nguyen investigated off-the-shelf tools, he found they were too big or complex for what he really needed. Similarly, Steven Choi, managing director of legal and administration at Flipp Corporation, was also looking for a workflow tool. He didn't create anything from scratch but rather adapted a ticketing system to fit his legal needs. Flipp uses JIRA by Atlassian as its main ticketing system. When it came time for Flipp's legal department to standardize the way it reviews legal requests, it decided to use JIRA to reduce the barrier to adoption. Combined with a Google spreadsheet that parses through data from the ticketing system, Choi was able to provide a dashboard for Key Performance Indicators without spending any additional funds on a new system. He now uses the dashboard to report to executives every month. "As a non-revenue-generating team, justifying spending on huge licensing fees is challeng - ing," he told me. These are just a couple of examples of how small in-house legal teams are finding solutions to help them get work done more efficiently and be more accountable to the business at the same time. IH

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