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29 CANAdIANLAwyERMAG.COM/INhOUSE october 2014 D F Full service. D F Great people. D F Excellent advice. After more than 40 years in business, why do our clients keep coming back? It's because our lawyers offer high quality advice for opportunites and challenges in all facets of business. It's also because we know that when it comes to business, a more personal touch goes a long way. Looking for great advice from lawyers who understand you and your business? Look no further. Proud to be recognized, once again, as a top 10 Ontario regional firm by Canadian Lawyer magazine. 416 863 1188 | www.torkinmanes.com BANKING & INSOLVENCY • BUSINESS LAW • COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE • CONSTRUC TION • CORPORATE FINANCE • FAMILY LAW HEALTH LAW • INSURANCE DEFENCE • LABOUR & EMPLOYMENT • LITIGATION • MEDICAL MALPRAC TICE • NOT- FOR- PROFIT & CHARITIES • PROFESSIONAL DISCIPLINE & LIABILIT Y • TAX • TECHNOLOGY, PRIVACY & DATA MANAGEMENT • TRUSTS & ESTATES ntitled-4 1 14-08-27 3:21 PM 32 lawyers, organized as a mini law fi rm by lines of business. Dicker came from SNC- Lavalin and has been using private sector experience to streamline processes. She was hired by IO president and CEO Bert Clark, who created the offi ce of the general coun- sel at Infrastructure Ontario 18 months ago. Prior to that, legal services were "very seg- regated" in that the lawyers resided inside the respective divisions and not centrally managed. For example, if there was some- one responsible for real estate law they lived in the real estate department. Now all of the lawyers and law clerks are centrally man- aged to ensure consistency in service deliv- ery. "I have put a business slant onto legal services and I think that is a big role of the GC," says Dicker. "I'm focusing on deliver- ing legal services with our business in mind and coming up with business solutions. I'm interested in satisfying our shareholder, which is the province, but at the same time I personally am very focused on the industry at large," she says. "For example, in the gen- eral contractor's world — what they would like to see in our legal agreements. No one has listened to them before. Are we trans- ferring too much risk? Are we maintaining too much risk? These are the big things I am delving into because there has been noise but no one has focused on it." When it comes to infrastructure and transportation there are various aspects of law in each and every one of them, and in order to do these mega projects there is real estate work to be done. "For example there are easements and right of ways that have to be acquired before a hospital, road or transit system gets constructed," she says. The Eglinton light rail project, for example, crosses many property owners' lands affect- ing shopkeepers. We're spending a lot of time with legal teams and external counsel on procurement and construction matters," she says. When it comes to securing outside legal advice, IO has procurement guidelines on who can be awarded a contract. "The way we operate is we have a legal vendor of re- cord and in order to get on our vendor of re- cord it's an RFP process where you have to show all your qualifi cations — anyone can respond to our VOR but have to meet the necessary requirements — so transactional work would likely go to a national fi rm with a lot of horsepower versus environmental, human resources, labour, and employment where I have a mix from a three person law fi rm up to the national law fi rms," she says. "If it has to go out to procurement, we would draw from our vendor of record list and then seek competitive responses for the purposes of awarding the ultimate work into using fi xed fee structure or ceiling price so for our transaction work." Quality of life and a stable political en- vironment help make Toronto the fourth most attractive place in the world in which to live and work, according to a new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers. But traffi c congestion is one factor that pushed To- ronto down from its third-place position in 2012. Over the course of the next 20 years, three million more people will join the daily commute in the Greater Toronto and Ham- ilton Area. About half of the GTHA popu- lation lives and works outside of the City of Toronto. Building transit is a critical part of most attractive place in the world in which

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