Legal news and trends for Canadian in-house counsel and c-suite executives
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/50875
LAW DEPARTMENT MANAGEMENT In-house lawyers have grown in importance as they perform more work inside and have been given a broader range of responsibilities. By Michael Rappaport BRING IT Gone are the days when in-house counsel only managed exter- nal counsel. As companies emerge from the recession, the role of in-house counsel has expanded. Not only are corporate counsel doing more legal work in-house, they are also actively engaged on the business side. Just ask Emily Jelich. She's the vice president and associate general coun- sel at the Royal Bank of Canada. She says the RBC law group always tries to tackle legal work in-house before refer- ring work to external counsel. At RBC, the in-house legal department even handles the preparatory and strategic work for most litigation. Headquartered in Toronto, RBC IN-HOUSE is Canada's largest financial institu- tion with more than 80,000 employ- ees worldwide. Its in-house legal team boasts 155 lawyers, an increase of 15 in the past five years. "As the company has grown, RBC has seen the value of having lawyers in-house, who have a detailed knowledge of the company and can offer more proactive, strategic advice," Jelich says. About eight years ago, the RBC law group implemented a set of demand management practices that have reduced external legal expenses by 20 per cent annually. The plan to bring more work in-house wasn't just about cutting costs. Originally, the impetus for this initiative was to be able to bet- ter track legal expenses and increase efficiency and effectiveness, says Jelich, who has worked in-house at RBC for the past 16 years. "Demonstrating value can be chal- lenging for legal departments. We don't have the same simple metrics of other business groups like sales," Jelich explains. By instituting demand management guidelines, the RBC law group can select from a wide spectrum of legal service providers — such as in-house counsel, external counsel and legal process outsourcers — to put together the right mix to achieve the best outcomes. In determining whether to insource legal work or send it outside, the RBC INHOUSE AUGUST 2011 • 33