Canadian Lawyer InHouse

21 canadianlaWyermag.com/inhouse june 2014 university as a whole. We started this about a year ago. People always did it in an informal way, but we're putting more process to it now. mclean: We've had a fairly rigorous en- terprise risk management process in place for about 10 years, and the legal depart- ment does play a role in enterprise risk as an adviser, and they lend expertise to many risks in addition to the ones you tradition- ally think about. But as most in-house law- yers do, you have to wear multiple hats, so I facilitate the enterprise risk management process in my role as a businessperson, and often we'll rely on people in other departments and sometimes bring in, on a periodic basis, a consul- tant to help facilitate the process to ensure we're objectively looking at the risks that are posed to our strategic objectives. Sometimes people in specifi c industries, if they haven't given some thought as to looking at this from the balcony rather than down on the fl oor, they tend to focus on areas of risk rather than risk to your ability to succeed on your stra- tegic plan. croFT: I think business is all about risk. Accepting risk is an inherent part of doing business or you won't be in business very long. That is something I think many law- yers come in-house with some understand- ing of, that's why many lawyers choose to be in-house because they recognize that is where they can add value. But in many cases it requires training and a bit of a mind shift when they do come in house to understand that your job is not to avoid risk, it's to really help the company manage it, which are very different things. The in-house departments really add the most value when they look at all of the busi- ness risks, and they help manage them in a variety of fronts. What we really need to do to add value is to help to identify the op- portunities to mitigate the risk. harding: I do believe that, as lawyers, we have been trained to view problems from many different facets. This was really brought home to me when I was asked to participate in a "blue sky" session on a prod- uct launch that had no legal implications. They were telling me: "You ask really good questions." It's not just a legal risk/liability risk — it's just our whole mindset. We can give very holistic advice and knowledge to situations but ultimately, risk must be owned by the business units doing it. BorBridge: We're cur- rently going through a review of our risk management and we expect to deliver it, as an executive team, in a couple of months. But one of the important questions that was asked during that process is, Where should risk management sit? Should they be in the fi nance department? Should they be in the legal department? Where should it be? My answer to that question was they should not be in any department by the business units doing it. We're cur- rently going through a review of our risk management and we expect to deliver it, as an executive team, in a couple of months. But one of the important questions that was asked during that process is, Where should risk management sit? Should Dedication, knowledge and creativity. Henein Hutchison draws its power from experience and its talent from a team of rising stars. The firm's associate ranks include three clerks of the Supreme Court of Canada and one clerk of the Court of Appeal for Ontario. Experience and depth. More experience. More defence. | www.hhllp.ca E N O U G H TA L E N T TO F I L L A R O O M . Untitled-3 1 14-04-30 12:44 PM strategic objectives. Sometimes people in

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