Canadian Lawyer InHouse

www.canadianlawyermag.com/inhouse 5 What legal issues are you navigating this year? We are in a major growth mode, so we are navigating all of the typical issues that you would have through acquisitions or through construction and development. We operate in Australia, Canada, in the US, so we're managing different jurisdictions. We're also really trying to navigate successfully through the policy dynamics relating to carbon and climate change, and we're also looking at the reliability and effectiveness of the underlying electricity grids that we have. How did the pandemic crisis impact the legal team? The shift to virtual trials and remote discovery and prep was challenging, but on the positive side, it really gave us access on a more cost-efficient basis to a global network of experts because it minimized travel time. We talk a lot about psychological safety at TransAlta, and that has been a focus because certain individuals struggled with minimal interaction with others or trying to manage children at home. What is your approach to working with other departments? All our portfolios are very inter-linked, so my department works cross-functionally. We approach everything with an integrative view so that everybody is very well integrated into other departments within the business. I think success gets challenged if we identify ourselves in any way as separate and distinct from the TransAlta team, so we avoid silos. That's critical in how we work. It's very much the culture that we have here. How is your team helping to advance female lawyers? As a female lawyer and a leader, I feel very strongly that it's very much my obligation to play an active role in helping women along on their journey in the professional world. We launched an initiative called Power Her, which allows female junior lawyers from the firms to work with us for six months. They are completely integrated into our team, they spend a lot of time with me and other senior members of our team and they come to cross-functional meetings. We take it very seriously so that when the individual leaves, they feel that they grew a lot as a business person, as a lawyer and as a strong female executive. What are your key areas of focus for 2022? At TransAlta, we have five values: sustainability, safety, integrity, respect and innovation. My number one goal is to ensure that those values are entrenched in everything we do. As a leader within the company, my next priority is to ensure that I am a helper and an enabler for our growth team, which is a critical pillar of our strategy. I also want to continue to position and accelerate our movement as a climate change leader. Q&A Supporting key values at TransAlta Company: TransAlta Corporation Years in the industry: 20 Size of legal team: 35 Portfolio: Legal, commercial, sustainability, policy, government relations, stakeholder engagement, indigenous affairs, regulatory and market policy, corporate secretarial, governance and trading compliance Kerry O'Reilly Wilks Executive vice president, legal, commercial and external affairs and funding to support the career aspirations of Black lawyers and to help increase diversity and inclusion in the field of law across the country. Members of CABL will have access to meaningful one-on-one and group coaching, networking, advice for sponsorship and career growth, and tailored financial planning and wealth management support from TD. These efforts aim to help close the opportunity gap for Black Canadian lawyers and foster a more equitable Canadian legal industry. New Quebec privacy legislation impacts businesses The Act to Modernize Legislative Provisions respecting the Protection of Personal Information received royal assent after its adoption by the National Assembly of Quebec. The Act represents a significant reform of the current privacy regime in Quebec, with changes aimed at improving transparency, enhancing consent requirements and increasing data confidentiality. Its enforcement will be spread out over three years and affect both the private and public sector businesses operating in Quebec. The Act introduces amendments that will change the way organizations do business. Legal tech in demand More than half of all legal departments are interested in buying legal software during the next 12 months, with the majority looking for better contract management solutions, according to the findings of a new report. The Association of Corporate Counsel's and Exterro's 2021 Legal Technology Report for In-House indicates that 77 per cent of legal departments wish to leverage tech for better contract management, 40 per cent for better data privacy and 25 per cent for improved litigation activities. The survey examined responses from 250 in-house counsel and legal operations professionals from 18 countries.

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