Canadian Lawyer InHouse

the individual and they will be in my office but they are basically delegated to that department area as a prime counsel and a portion of their salary is sent to my budget each year. That way we do partner financially in addition to just on the files themselves, and it's worked for me in two cases. I would never have been able to get people who had a certain specialty without that model to fall back on. from somewhere else. General counsel is becoming more of a specialty than it would have been 15 years ago. LEWIS: I have always looked at our legal team as a mini law firm with partners. The issue for us always is getting a deep knowledge of the institution because universities are complicated. Having that deep knowledge I think is an advantage to anyone that wants to move forward. By the same token it's also an organization where getting along with the senior team and the individuals on the team is important. I have a wonderful team and I have confidence in all of them. I have no doubt if I got hit by the Queen Street streetcar the legal function of the university would run smoothly. I don't know exactly how the future will shape out at York University, but I know that we have good people to do the work. MEHES: I have not had a lot of trouble making a business case because we first demonstrate the added value that the legal function brings and the financial results are demonstratively better with every lawyer that we have hired for a variety of reasons. We either have mitigated significant risk or brought new product to market that we otherwise would not have been able to sell — it makes the business case relatively simple. I am one of those believers that a legal function is not just a cost centre. So when you are in that mindset and the business sees that, you really have a much easier time making that allimportant business case. INHOUSE: Do you hire and mentor with succession planning in mind? ALLGOOD: I think we have grown in the in-house bar and have become much more sophisticated. When succession happens with me I hope my successor does come from the group at RBC. I have a senior team of five vice presidents who report up to me, and I am actively mentoring all of them, and I think all of them are potential candidates for my succession. I think with all due modesty we have serious candidates in-house. When I first went in-house in the late 1990s there was a rollover of general counsel at the five big banks over of a period of two years and they were all senior partners from law firms. When that rollover happens again I will be surprised if any of those positions are filled with senior partners. It will be internal or an outside person with general counsel experience Eighth Annual InHouse/ACC General Counsel Roundtable Visit Canadianlawyermag.com/inhouse to see our video coverage of these topics: Succession planning, online July 29 Making the business case to add personnel in-house, online August 5 External counsel and in-house working together, online August 12 Regulatory and compliance issues, online August 19 Sponsored by: www.weirfoulds.com w w w. c a n a d i a n law y er m a g . c o m / i n h o u s e ntitled-10 1 august 2013 • 21 13-07-03 1:47 PM

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