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19 canadianLawyErmag.com/inhousE august 2014 RBC defi nes innovation as "connecting what's possible to what's valuable to our clients, our shareholders and our employ- ees." With that in mind, the general counsel group embarked on an ambitious program to derive greater value for these stakeholder groups using Lean Six Sigma. While a recognized risk, RBC believed the formalized LSS methodology, not tra- ditionally used in law departments, could be a particularly good match with the skills of its legal talent. Following the disciplined LSS program, RBC lawyers and other legal professionals were asked to challenge their standard procedures and identify creative alternatives to eliminate low-value-adding work and to improve the effi ciency of how it delivers legal services to internal business partners and clients. RBC ultimately settled on 16 discrete projects of which 14 have been completed to date. The benefi ts include fi nancial, as well as team engagement and empowerment, which strengthen the legal department and the enterprise as a whole. Two projects that are representative of the LSS initiatives are: Structured Notes — The LSS legal team identifi ed low-value-adding activities in its current legal processes and seized the op- portunity to create a solution that eliminat- ed them. The solution involves leveraging automated documentation technology to support the legal team's ability to effi ciently deliver its services to the business partners. Annually, this process reduces external le- gal costs by over $100,000; reduces the risk of error; and liberates almost 1,000 hours of internal legal time which can be re-de- ployed. In addition, there is an expected en- hancement to the revenue stream in excess of $1 million annually. Provision Report Project — GCG mem- bers collaborated with fi nance colleagues and devised a streamlined process for re- porting funds provisioned for settlements. Annually, the revised process frees up 100 hours. More importantly, the project re- duces the risk of error and the probability of over or under provisioning. "As with most ventures in innovation there was no certainty at the outset that our efforts would be successful. However, upon conclusion we believe that we have been richly rewarded through the initiative," stat- ed David Aylward, senior business manager, law, corporate secretary, taxation at RBC. As a result of the various LSS projects implemented in 2013, GCG has been able to liberate 2,700 hours of internal time annually; save and avoid costs of just under $1 million; and enhance the revenue stream by over $1 million (this from a unit that is normally not revenue-generating). Each of the 16 individual projects had a leader and a separate team, with the total number of legal staff involved approaching 70 across all projects. The judges ultimately felt the RBC initia- tive was the clear winner for Innovation of the Year. "It's not easy to import LSS into a legal department," said Dorothy Quann, general counsel of Xerox Canada. "These projects really create WOW factor on successful implementation using LSS methodology, generating revenue of $1 million, and saving $100,000 in costs. Truly innovative!" "To make LSS work in a legal department requires a fair amount of creativity to deter- mine how best to apply the methodology in such a way that actually makes it worthwhile and RBC has demonstrated that they have successfully and innovatively introduced this methodology," said Robert Piasentin, general counsel, Sierra Systems. rBC LEVErAGES LEAn SIX SIGMA TO nET SAVInGS, EnHAnCE rEVEnUE Emily Jelich, David Aylward, Angelique Rebelo, Lucie Gauvin catEgory: Law Department Management dEpartmEnt siZE: Large company: RBC BY JENNIFER BROWN RBC defi nes innovation as "connecting what's possible to what's valuable to our clients, our shareholders and our employ- ees." With that in mind, the general counsel group embarked on an ambitious program 2014 2014 2014 • i n n o v a t i o n o f t h e y e a r •

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