Canadian Lawyer InHouse

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 24 INHOUSE W hile alternative fee arrange- ments and seeking out external law fi rms with a diverse roster of lawyers were not top of mind for most in- house counsel who participated in Canadian Lawyer's 2018 Corporate Counsel Survey, the billable-hour model and developing external counsel relationships were. And although the survey indicated legal departments kept their workweeks moderate, others say 60-hour workweeks go with the territory. Once again, risk management is the top issue facing legal departments in 2018, pre- senting a pressing issue but also an opportu- nity, says Tony Linardi, general counsel and corporate secretary at Golder Associates Ltd., a global engineering fi rm with clients in oil and gas, mining, power, infrastruc- ture and manufacturing. Corporations want all their departments to add to the bottom line, and risk manage- ment is a chance for the legal team to add value to the company, Linardi says. "Over time, where the company's either losing money or not being as profi table as they can because of risk issues, that's one thing that the legal team can actually come in and show value and add real value," he says. "At the end of the day, the company wants every department to contribute to its bot- tom line." Compliance was a close second for re- spondents. With Golder's competitors in the mining industry facing steep fi nes and some executives jailed for fraud and corrup- tion, Linardi says the company is hyper- conscious and vigilant about compliance. "From our perspective, in the engineer- ing and construction industry, compliance has become huge," he says. "More and more, the C-suite wants to make sure that the company's being compliant in all re- gards, whether it's domestic applications or foreign applications." Gary Goodwin, executive corporate secretary and counsel at Ducks Unlimited Canada, says that, depending on the risk profi le of the client, the risk may be some- thing to embrace. In-house counsel don't want anything to happen on their watch, but it is also their job to help facilitate trans- actions, he says. "I think lawyers are too focused on try- ing to get rid of the risk when it's really determined by the risk profi le of the client itself as to whether or not it's a risk they can, certainly, take on," he says. Managing risk also requires the legal de- partment be engaged with the rest of the company because legal is the quarterback for risk management, whether it happens in human resources, fi nance or it involves an insurance provider, bank or the media, says Linardi. "So, it's pretty important to make sure that there's someone that [gets] involved quickly and knows how the company han- dles risk," he says. Counter to risk management's perennial dominance in the survey, for four years, seeking out diverse law fi rms has not been a prevalent practice among in-house legal departments. Of the 212 respondents in 2018, just 11.9 per cent said they were in the habit of asking for a diverse roster of law- yers to work with, much like in 2015 and 2016, and following a high of 21 per cent in 2017. Seventy-one per cent said they do not make this ask. Respondents left comments indicating why this number has not taken off, even with diversity's increasing relevance in the legal profession. "We focus on skill and expertise. Diversity is irrelevant," said one commenter. Another said it was "a means for employers to satisfy human rights law obligations," but not a "le- gal obligation" or "business advantage." Another said it was an issue promoted among smaller boutiques but not the na- tional fi rms they used. For those who do seek out a diverse ros- ter, the fact that it's not easy to fi nd partners and practice group leaders who fi t the bill can be problematic, says Harpreet K. Sidhu. Sidhu, who is general counsel and privacy offi cer at Pethealth Inc., says that when she searches for industry-specifi c lawyers, there seems to be a lack of diversity among senior partners. "If there were more diverse part- ners, then there would be more visibility PARTNERSHIPS KEY FOR IN-HOUSE SUCCESS Canadian Lawyer's annual Corporate Counsel Survey found risk and relationship management were key concerns for in-house counsel BY AIDAN MACNAB T H E A N N U A L Presented by CORPORATE COUNSEL S U R V E Y

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