Canadian Lawyer InHouse

25 CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/INHOUSE JULY/AUGUST 2019 that not everybody has. I feel like in private practice I was just one of hundreds, whereas here I feel like I'm very unique. HARNICK I definitely have a lot more ownership, skin in the game. I feel like I'm part of a team with a long- term vision, as opposed to my private practice, [which] was very transactional. So, you'd have that feeling but for a very finite period of time, whereas now I'm looking down the road not just three months ahead but what do we want to become? How can our core values help us get there? How can I help perpetuate those within the organization? FORREST I think back from our private practice days, there's an instinct to when you're asking your question, OK, better go write a memo and research that in depth. That's not the expectation, in all cases, when you're in-house. The business needs to move forward, so you take a prudent risk- based approach based on what the question is and advise based on your experience. That's been a shift in the way I've advised since my private practice days. InHouse: What's your biggest victory, when you came through with great advice and maybe there were champagne and balloons? LEUNG You have to look for your victories every day, small, little things, things like when we were bought by private equity two years ago — a very large deal. For every- thing, there was at least six sets of lawyers because we had Canadian and U.S. lawyers on every call; private equity had a set, the company had a set, the founder had a set. And just little moments like when the CEO leans over, and he puts the phone call on mute, and he goes, "I don't know how you keep this all straight." Little things like that is just where my champagne and balloons come from. Because I think what we do very often is a little bit thankless. GOKHALE I feel like every day there should be champagne and balloons, because every day as we continue on in business is a vic- tory. Again, it's only since 2017, where we had our licence to sell cannabis legally in Canada. In the course of a few years, [we were] able to launch a brand, to have commercial agree - ments with the provinces coast to coast and sell within [the] domestic market [and] have strategic alliances with international partners. As well as moving from the CSE to the TSX-B, now to the TSX and man - aging that relationship with the exchange and having some victory in being able to advocate for the cannabis industry and not having some of the restrictions that would have otherwise been a requirement for can - nabis companies because it was a relatively new industry listing on the Canadian ex- changes. From a victory perspective, I feel like it's a daily occurrence that should be celebrated more. FORREST I was fortunate to be at Canada Goose when we IPO'd. Obviously, there's a lot for legal do in that process, but [at] the same time, [I] had been in the company for three years at that point. So, I also went beyond some of the pure legal aspects and helped shape the story of the company in the documents. And you know, I was really proud to do so and consider that a victory. And it was a successful IPO. And, yeah, there were balloons and champagne afterwards. JUMA You know, we've been around for a long time so, as a professional services firm — and lawyers can appreciate this — we have reams of paper. And we didn't re- ally have a records retention policy until I got there. The de facto position was keep. There's things that probably should have been in museums. So, low-hanging fruit was instituting a records retention policy and then helping the business implement it, which I think was a bigger hurdle than actually developing the policy. To have that policy in place before we moved [in April] really helped cut down the amount of paper and saved the business a ton of money and really reduced our litigation exposure. HARNICK I joined a real estate company and real estate is a pretty old and established in- dustry, but joining a company that's really old and established but takes a very forward- thinking approach and has been out ahead in terms of urban development and building neighbourhoods and being present in the ma - jor markets and cities, but particular neigh- bourhoods within those cities in Canada, has made my job super exciting. And I honestly just feel so grateful that this is where I landed and the team that I landed with. IH Rustam (Rusty) Juma Alison Harnick

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