Canadian Lawyer InHouse

41 CANADiANLAWyERMAG.CoM/iNhousE april 2014 L aw D e p a r t m e n t M a n a g e m e n t someone's performance in the selling of a widget. There are so many variables outside of that person's control. If you put some- thing in place that is too rigid it may not be taking into account how they really per- formed on a particular task." External counsel cost management is also a big factor for the team. If a lawyer in the law division does a little extra work inter- nally or if they decide certain things don't need to go external it can positively affect the bottom line. "We are trying to drive down our exter- nal counsel cost spend and we have an ar- rangement that is such that if we use counsel from a smaller office of a major firm our fee structure is based upon that. We're incen- tivizing everyone to explore that smaller centre to try and drive down costs. Other- wise, if you don't incentivize people to do it people tend to go to the usual suspects to get that work done," says Hilbers. He spends a lot of time looking at the actual cost of doing business. "It's much cheaper to do the work internally. We've actually driven down our budget and by doing that we've reduced the reliance on external counsel." So how do new people react to being eval- uated in this way? "They struggle a bit," he admits. "We have this long conversation and we meet with everybody before they set their goals and try and talk about what they want to do. I think it's a bit of a culture shock for some. "I always tell people that something with a dollar bottom-line impact to the business is a goal I'm very interested in — like ef- ficiency projects — so we're trying to drive those behaviours to make us more efficient." Bruce Power Law has also pushed its compensation model out to some of its ex- ternal firms — they too have variable com- pensation tied to meeting similar factors. For example, firms are compensated on how they perform on the company's client satis- faction survey. "It allows us to open the conversation and for a more fulsome conversation to talk about issues our clients are having, ability to meet budget, the efficiency piece — it's a good time to have that conversation at the same time you're handing over a cheque for hopefully 100 per cent of the bonus or a portion of the bonus," he says. While the monthly budget for hours Bruce Power procures from external coun- sel is on the decline they offer a trade-off on price for a variable bonus. "I tried to canvas and survey my internal lawyers about performance from external counsel and it sort of worked but it didn't get me the bang for the buck I was looking for, but this has definitely elevated the con- versation," he says. Hilbers continues to analyze the best way to get work done in the law division. He recently hired a litigation lawyer with significant project management skills. "We continue to grow in areas we are weak and we think there is significant value in adding people," he says. IH Experience Counts. Referrals respected and appreciated. Employment and Labour Lawyers Shields O'Donnell MacKillop LLP 416.304.6400 65 Queen Street W, Suite 1800, Toronto, Ontario Canada M5H 2M5 Shields_IH_Apr_11.indd 1 3/1/11 10:04:56 AM

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