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understand what the drivers of legal spend are, and can set a blueprint for expansion in other geographic areas. Some in-house counsel reject benchmarking as an inexact science that can hurt productivity. Edward Paulis, vice president and associate general counsel with Zurich North America Group, says if not done properly, benchmarking can consume a great deal of resources with- out providing the desired data or any useful insights. "Figure out in advance what you need to know and what insights you are looking for and educate yourself first," he says. Arsenault argues all about evolving legal services. "I still think the practice of law is an art and I have a hard time distilling down to numbers, but this is where we are at." IH VIEW 2014 Brought to you by Canada's leading CLOs explore their challenges for the year ahead Read it in print or online at www.canadianlawyermag.com/inhouse Live on January 27th vol.8 • issue 5 • 10.13 INHOUSE vol.8 • issue 2 • 04.13 TION OF LAW AT THE INTERSEC LAW FIRM GROUND IN-HOUSE >> INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT CONS AND LAW DEPARTMENT MANAGEMENT THE PROS 2 TA'S BILL OF ALBER ASSESSING RISK IN-HOUSE THE BRACING FOR s are in the trenche nies mitigate CATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT # 40766500 Legal departments DOING BUSINESS WITH INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT BASEL III: THE 'GOLDEN ERA' FOR LAWYERS CHINA PENSION B TIME BOM 40766500 >> & BUSINESS RTMENT LAW DEPA NT MANAGEME ON BOOTS REEMENT # in the business are providing value both from a legal and business perspective." Telus scrapped the idea of time sheet reporting and moved to a "value added report" produced on a semi-annual basis. The idea is lawyers who work on strategic files report on the matter and its progress and the report is presented by the general counsel to the senior leadership. Each department in legal services has its own scorecard and it feeds up to the general counsel's scorecard. They track metrics from their business unit client survey results. They ask internal clients about the service they received and that is fed into the scorecard for continuous improvement. "If you go in on a dollar and cents basis thinking you're going to justify internal cost versus external cost you're probably going down the wrong road because you're looking at legal as overhead," says Cyr. "That hasn't been our focus — our focus has been how are we adding value to the organization over and above what external counsel can do and that comes from knowledge of the organization and familiarity of the business with Telus." Benchmarking may sound like a practice more suited to a large legal department but it can also work when you're an army of one or five according to Ian Barber, vice president and associate general counsel with Bankers Financial Corp., who works with a team of five. "Showing how much the same work would have cost if done externally, and the efficiency of being close to the business, is one simple thing to do," said Barber. "Some of the things to look at is total spend, not just inside but externally. What is the cost per lawyer hour? You generally know how many hours you worked and your salary. Generally it's about $180/ hour. To the extent you can come in under $180 you have an argument you're doing a great job on efficiency." The ability for forecast also becomes greater once there is established data for comparison. "With large numbers the curve starts to smooth out and you can see where employment litigation is picking up or where contract disputes are cropping up," he said. It also sets a baseline internally with which to measure future performance, Fred Headon, counsel, assistant general Canada Air >> >> CANADIAN LAWYER INHOUSE AT THE INTERSECTION OF LAW & BUSINESS Chinese-Canadian relations have become big business for both countries and deals are evolving www.ca na dia nl awy e r m a g . c o m / i n h o1u s e InHouseViewBlakes_Lexpert_Dec_12.indd december 2013/january 2014 • 41 AM 13-11-25 8:53

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