Canadian Lawyer InHouse

overhead, as a cost centre," says Porter. "We'd like to highlight the instances or a-ha moments where we're advancing Telus corporate strategy, so we've been asking team members to capture items of value-add and then we've prepared a mid-year report." So far, the scorecard approach has been well received; the legal team appreciates the simplicity of a single page that captures their main objectives. And the SMART approach keeps them objective. "We stay away from the subjective," says Porter. Not all legal departments have taken such a formalized approach, but still recognize the need to set goals and objectives. Overwaitea Food Group, for example, doesn't have a formal business plan in place for its legal department and takes more of an informal approach. "If there was a one-size-fits-all, everybody would be doing it," says Donald Eng, general counsel with Overwaitea Food Group. "We don't want to be too structured." For him, it's more about being flexible to accommodate the company's needs. "That being said, it's not like we're running amuck like chickens with our heads cut off," he says. "Although we don't have a formal business plan in place, we do have goals and targets, 40 • F eb r u a ry 2013 Instead of putting fires out we try to give strategic advice throughout the whole process. DEAN READMAN, Port Metro Vancouver (and) our key objective is to ensure we know what our organization is doing on a day-to-day and long-term basis." This means getting involved as early as possible in any business dealings — and at the highest possible level. "We always try to get our fingers in the mix as early as we can so we can offer guidance on a legal perspective," says Eng. But this does involve a change of mindset — one that isn't going to change overnight. In most cases, people only go to the legal department if they need legal advice. So, for in-house counsel, changing that mindset means being proactive — from attending meetings to having ad hoc discussions to listening into the proverbial grapevine. "We don't want to put out the fires, we want to be there in advance and hopefully avoid fires," says Eng. The legal team can also serve as a bridge between departments to ensure INHOUSE there's proper alignment with companywide contract terms and overall corporate goals so "when you sit down with a particular department, you're not just looking at it in a vacuum," he says. His legal team is proactive in going to the business units and asking them what their needs are, and then providing specialized seminars on topics of interest ranging from software licensing to privacy. The team also does lunchand-learn seminars that are open to the entire company. Once people see the business value of the legal department they start turning to legal at the beginning of the process, rather than when something goes wrong. "Let them see the value you can add to whatever it is you're doing. If they don't see value, they're not going to call you," says Eng. For Port Metro Vancouver, a quasi-government organization, having

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