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Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/1547060
44 www.canadianlawyermag.com IN-HOUSE PROFILES FEATURE Best of InHouse interviews Our sister publication, Lexpert, profiles in-house counsel regularly online at lexpert.ca/news/in-house-lawyer. Below is a selection of profiles featured by Lexpert this year PUBLIC-SECTOR IN-HOUSE WORK MEANS OWNING OUTCOMES, NOT WRITING MEMOS Public-sector in-house roles force lawyers to stop hiding behind memos and start helping decision-makers move. That is the view of Dorothy Wong, vice president, legal and corporate services at ICBC, who argues that legal advice matters only when it fits into the messy, time-pressured reality of how organizations actually operate. Wong began her career articling at Lang Michener, which later became McMillan LLP, where the full-service grind built technical muscle. But it also kept her away from the real-life consequences of the deals she helped close. Once the documents were signed, she found herself wondering what would happen after the transaction and why the organization had decided to pursue a particular path in the first place. That curiosity led her to an in-house opportunity at the Vancouver Airport Authority. At the airport, she watched executives weigh legal risk against serving the community, financial constraints, and customer impact. Legal advice, she realized, is only one input in a larger decision-making matrix. Promoted to director of legal services, she moved from being responsible for her own files to being accountable for how the legal team served the organization. "It was this legal management role that I didn't think about before when I went in-house," she says. "And it's now the trajectory that I am on." By the time the ICBC opportunity came about, Wong was already drawn to the public-sector model. ICBC provides mandatory basic auto insurance for every driver in the province and delivers driver licensing, provincial identity cards, and a road safety mandate that touches nearly every resident. She pushes her team to get out from behind their desks and spend time with internal clients. Wong is candid that leadership is not a natural extension of private-practice success. "You have to go into it with some humility," she says. "It's a totally different skill set." DOROTHY WONG Company: ICBC Title: Vice president, legal and corporate services INHOUSE INTERVIEWS FEATURE