Canadian Lawyer InHouse

3 CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/INHOUSE SEPTEMBER 2017 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 Business Development Consultant: Ivan Ivanovitch ivan.ivanovitch@tr.com 416-887-4300 Client Development Manager: Grace So grace.so@tr.com 416-903-4473 Account Manager: 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, Nissan Canada; Joe Bradford, Bradford Professional Corp; Dorothy Quann, Xerox Canada. 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 © 2017 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 How do you measure innovation? I n all the conversations I have with our in-house judges, with leaders in law fi rms and other service providers who are touting innovation in law, about how we determine what is innovative for our annual Innovatio Awards it seems everyone is looking for that unicorn of a project or individual who is doing things no one has seen before. Innovation means different things to different people. For some it must involve technology, for others it's about process change or reducing costs. For others cost is not the number one factor, it's about delivering legal services better or reducing risk for the organization. Trust me, in many of the conference calls with our Innovatio judges when reviewing nominations, I hear this from them: "I just didn't fi nd that innovative factor." As Lorne O'Reilly, senior counsel of Dow Chemical, defi ned it in the call when we determined the Toronto Distict School Board as the winner in the category of Law Department Management, small departments (see page 18) and our overall winner of Innovation of the Year: "How did the legal department create something new that assisted its customer in such a way that there is true tangible results being realized, and they are seen as leaders, and there were reduced costs and a positive outcome?" That's a tall order, but in the case of TDSB, it met that criteria. O'Reilly also emphasizes: "Who brought the best value to their organization?" The TDSB is often, as all of the judges of this category pointed out, in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons but acting general counsel Leola Pon and her group are quietly doing tough work in their very public-facing corner of the world. "This is where I found innovative activity," said O'Reilly. "It was innovative activity done by the legal department to create a better interaction with their customers. And in driving value, they sought to make sure the business realized the greatest efforts from what they were doing, reducing arbitration dates, getting effi ciencies. That is so diffi cult in that sort of organization when you think of bureaucracy at an organization such as this." Innovatio judge Lynn Korbak agreed. "This is what we see in the private sector being translated into public sector on the client focus. That's what stood out for me. The pilot project for expedited arbitration was very signifi cant because they're doing it on a risk-based approach and the sharing of knowledge management piece is a big step," she said. Dorothy Quann, general counsel at Xerox, was also impressed with the way the TDSB focused on the grievance process and knowledge management. "What I liked is they are focusing on delivery of legal services and under a push for service excellence." I think at the end of the day, all legal departments probably fi nd themselves in this "push for excellence," but it's how they go about it that makes what they do innovative. Pon worked directly with her opposing union counsel to fi gure out how to tackle their biggest cost burden. As for the other winners this year, many of the in-house teams tackled old processes applying use of data and real-time applications to improve risk mitigation. How you defi ne innovation I think depends on the challenges that lie before you and what you decide to do to improve not only how the legal department functions but how it benefi ts the business. IH

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