Canadian Lawyer InHouse

august 2014 18 INHOUSE i n many ways, by virtue of necessity, in-house counsel have always needed to be more innovative than their private practice peers. Whether they are working solo or in a large department, the nature of in-house life is the constant demand to do more with less and fi nd ways to be increasingly more involved in working with the business units while at the same time controlling costs. That kind of thinking and action requires a certain entrepreneurial spirit — one that is interested in changing the way things are done to make way for new work that demands greater attention. But so often in-house counsel and the efforts of their teams go unnoticed. Our motivation last year to launch Innovatio — an in- house awards program that would highlight the innovative work of legal departments and their legal service provider partners — was largely due to a desire to bring to light the kind of game-changing work taking place in-house. When the nominations started coming in I was consistently impressed — whether from a small or large department — by the projects being put forward but also by the level of interest we received. As Jane Fedoretz, one of our judges, noted after reviewing some of the nominations: "I was struck by the fact in-house lawyers take signifi cant steps to add value and be creative (when given the opportunity) relative to the companies they work for. All of the candidates demonstrated a keen interest in making things better by taking initiative with these projects and should be commended for their integrity and obvious leadership." She noted that in-house lawyers often "lead from behind" by recognizing gaps in business processes and then take on extra work to remediate the gaps, but often don't receive credit for their transformational leadership. That, Jane told me, is why the awards are so important. We hope you agree. The following pages tell the stories of the winners as chosen by our panel of general counsel judges from across the country. Please read their profi les and perhaps they will serve as inspiration for your own projects in the year ahead. We hope it will also inspire you to consider putting forward a nomination for Innovatio later this fall. I look forward to hearing from you! By Jennifer Brown Introducing: LEADERS IN INNOVATION saNDRa stRaNgEMORE

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