Canadian Lawyer InHouse

3 canadianlawyermag.com/inhouse february 2015 www.canadianlawyermag.com/inhouse director/group publisher: karen Lorimer karen.lorimer@thomsonreuters.com editor in chief: Gail J. cohen gail.cohen@thomsonreuters.com editor: Jennifer Brown jen.brown@thomsonreuters.com copy editor: James kang art director: Steve Maver account co-ordinator: catherine Giles advertising sales representatives legal suppliers: kimberlee Pascoe tel: (416) 649-8875 e-mail: kimberlee.pascoe@thomsonreuters.com law firms: Joseph Galea e-mail: joseph.galea@thomsonreuters.com Grace So tel: (416) 609-5838 e-mail: grace.so@thomsonreuters.com Canadian Lawyer InHouse is published 6 times a year by Thomson Reuters canada Ltd., One corporate Plaza 2075 kennedy Rd., Toronto On. M1T 3V4 (416) 298-5141. 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Canadian Lawyer InHouse disclaims any warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or currency of the contents of this publication and disclaims all liability in respect of the results of any action taken or not taken in reliance upon information in this publication. publications mail agreement #40766500 iSSn 1921-9563 copyright © 2015 h.S.T. Registration #R121349799 to subscribe or change addresses call (416) 649-9585 Fax (416) 649-7870 or e-mail keith Fulford at keith.fulford@thomsonreuters.com RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESS TO: CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT One Corporate Plaza 2075 Kennedy Rd., Toronto ON. M1T 3V4 indexed in the Canadian Periodical Index by Jennifer brown Editor's Box SeNd your news aNd story ideas To jen.brown@thomsonreuters.com better structure or simply title inflation? A t a cocktail event recently, an in-house lawyer suggested an interesting topic for us to explore might be this idea of title infl ation in corporate legal departments. He felt there seemed to be quite a mash up of titles emerging from some large departments. Are the titles an attempt to appease and retain ambitious lawyers with their eye on the general counsel offi ce or are they a way for the legal department to behave like any other business unit with layers of seniority? One general counsel I recently spoke with suggested it may be a way to indicate to those out- side the department or at an external law fi rm that they are dealing with someone not necessarily at the GC level, but with a more defi ned role other than "legal" or "senior counsel." I asked some of our InHouse View participants about this (see page 16) and Mary Martin of Metrolinx indicated for her, it's not an issue of title infl ation but a refl ection of where more senior lawyers are in their career and creates a more clearly delineated structure in the department. As Martin told me: "One of the problems with in-house departments that a lot of people talk about is that they are very fl at. There is the general counsel and then there is everybody else. If the general counsel doesn't look like she or he is approaching retirement there isn't much place for anyone else to go." Last year, another GC echoed this same sentiment, noting it was a lingering concern for her as she looked at her own highly competent and ambitious legal team. How long would they be content to stay? Were they getting enough interesting work? Did they have concerns about developing their management skills? Martin, with a team of 16 lawyers, recently decided it was time to change things up — from a structure where everyone reported to her to one in which there was the equivalent of vice president, director, and manager levels in the legal department. She appointed two associate general counsel. One of them is on the commercial side and one is on the real estate side. Those are the only two lawyers who now report to her other than the associate corporate secretary. The rest report up ac- cording to title. The structure parallels the management level structure in the rest of Metrolinx. She says she "thinks it's important the rest of the organization see the lawyers for the senior professionals they are. If you are a director level person you are a pretty senior person and some- how that can be lost if you're part of one large group with no levels within it." Martin felt the change was important, too, in developing the leadership skills of those in her department. Mentoring now takes place and annual performance plans are done according to the reporting structure. Martin is quick to note that even though she has reduced her number of direct reports it doesn't mean she is completely removed from what's happening day-to-day in the department. She's cognizant of the importance of getting the balance right. In the case of Metrolinx, the issue of creating new job titles and reporting lines answered both the question of "where can I go?" for the more junior lawyers and gave more senior ones a means to "train" for a bigger role. And as legal departments are increasingly trying to show they are not "exceptions" to the business it also demonstrates they function like one. Do you agree, or disagree with this concept? Drop me a line. IH

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