Canadian Lawyer InHouse

21 canadianLawyErmag.com/inhousE august 2014 Cisco Systems Inc. has always been about collabo- ration — it's the basis of what the company does and so it seeks out, and works with, partners who support its business values. In 2012, Cisco Canada was confronted with a familiar challenge — staffi ng its in-house legal team beyond the complement of three lawyers in Canada serving. With more than 250 lawyers globally, the team in Canada can obtain help inter- nally and externally but needed additional support day-to-day in-house. The challenge was to develop a long-term sus- tainable relationship with a group of experienced lawyers who were willing to work on an embedded basis inside the business. Julia Hickey was the principal lawyer at Cisco who conceived of, and initiated, the new approach for legal services in Canada. "We wanted to build a stable bench for overfl ow support and additional support for maternity leaves and other types of coverage," says Hickey, Cisco's general counsel and director of legal services based in Herndon, Va. "We were looking to fi nd other types of resources to help augment our team." Cost was also an issue. Enter Conduit Law Professional Corp. Hickey says Conduit took the time to understand the business strategies and goals of Cisco. "The team they proposed to us had Bay Street experience but also understood the in-house experience and had worked in depart- ments similar to ours," she says. Their fees are based on a fi xed monthy fee for one of the lawyers who is embedded in the Cisco department in Toronto. The other lawyer provides a fl exible number of hours per week with a set number of hours per month. The solution put in place was to have Beth Anderson and Rajiv Arya at Cisco. Both have big fi rm and in-house experience, focused exclusively on the needs of global technology solution provid- ers. Cisco enjoys a broad range of services from the Conduit team but all services are delivered via a fl at monthly fee. Cisco continues to engage traditional law fi rms for other work. In terms of cost savings Cisco has calculated that it is enjoying a discount of two-thirds from the market rate of Bay Street lawyers of a "similar vintage and pedigree." Julia Hickey was the principal lawyer at Cisco who conceived of, and initiated, the new approach for legal services in Canada. CISCO BrInGS EXTErnAL rESOUrCES In-HOUSE BY JENNIFER BROWN STANDING: Simmi Chacko, Cisco, Sean Caragata, Cisco, Claudia Cavacece, Cisco, Rajiv Arya, Conduit, working for Cisco team, Peter Carayiannis, Conduit – president & founder, Julia Hickey (on monitor) SEATED: Beth Anderson, Conduit – working for Cisco, Lynn Silkauskas, Cisco, Constance Crosby, Cisco Canada lead catEgory: Working with External Counsel dEpartmEnt siZE: Large company: CISCO Systems Inc. saNDRa stRaNgEMORE

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