The most widely read magazine for Canadian lawyers
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/1507414
32 www.canadianlawyermag.com FEATURE GC PROFILE BRINGING A PERSONAL PASSION TO THE JOB Accomplished legal department leader Rustam Juma is living the dream in his new role at Volkswagen RUSTY JUMA has spent his entire in-house career with professional services firms; he's also been a car aficionado all his life. So, his current job as general counsel and corporate secretary to Volkswagen Group Canada Inc. and Audi Canada is a dream come true. "I'm 42 years old and had a bit of a mid- life crisis that made me wonder whether I'm going to be pigeonholed in professional services for the rest of my career," he says. "I also wanted to do something that resonates with my personal interests, so when the VW job came up, I remember thinking how cool it would be to act as general counsel for an automotive firm." Called in 2008, Juma first worked at Fraser Milner Casgrain's (now Dentons Canada LLP) oil and gas group, then joined now-defunct Heenan Blaikie LLP's mining and securities practice in Toronto. When Heenan collapsed, Juma moved in-house. In 2013, he joined Deloitte's legal department and, in 2016, became the first in-house lawyer and GC at Toronto-based Eckler Ltd., Canada's largest privately owned actuarial consulting firm. He capped his career there last June when he was cited for mid-market excellence at the Canadian General Counsel Awards. "The CGCA award was the pinnacle of my career because it signalled that my peers and colleagues recognized my contributions," he says. "And no doubt it had a fair bit to do with my landing the job at VW." Juma believes his pragmatic approach to practice went a long way towards him winning the award. "People don't want pages of legal analysis and a memo every time. They want actionable, quality advice and availability that allows you to talk to them, get their trust, and build relationships – which is the most important thing." As it turns out, a career in-house may have been inevitable. "I'm the first lawyer in my family, and my only concept of lawyering was in-house," he says. "I went to the University of Waterloo before law school and worked with various companies as a student, including the legal department at Bell. At that point, I decided that in-house was where I wanted to practise." However, his years at law school at the University of Western Ontario introduced him to private practice. "But my end goal was always in-house," he said. "As a transactional lawyer in private practice, I only got to see a deal from a certain perspective; in-house, I'm involved from concepts to cash, from the birth of an idea to its revenue-generating potential and form." Moving from an actuarial consultancy and a long career in professional services to the knock-on world of car manufacturing may "People don't want pages of legal analysis and a memo every time. They want actionable, quality advice and availability that allows you to talk to them, get their trust, and build relationships"