Canadian Lawyer InHouse

33 canadianlawyermag.com/inhouse february 2015 L aw D e p a r t m e n t M a n a g e m e n t a better way to work law departments are growing wise to techniques to help them save time, money, and their own sanity. by STefaN duboWSki eLLen PekiLiS WaS STUck. As the general counsel of CSA Group, a standards development and testing organization, she and her crew of six employees faced a growing stack of new, complicated legal work — the result of her employer's shift to growth by acquisition. But management was unwilling to add legal staff. Instead, CSA was spending on research labs, test equipment, and other revenue generators. The law department needed help. "We had this overwhelming mountain of work," says Pekilis, currently executive director of Energy Exchange, a division of Pollution Probe. Recalling her 18 years at CSA, she describes a situation many in-house lawyers would recognize: "You have a limited number of hours. You have to fi gure out where you're going to invest the time you have." In-house lawyers aren't the only ones to face a relentless challenge to "do more with less." Businesses across all facets of the Canadian economy use technologies, process-improvement systems, and other tools to boost productivity and reduce costs. Among legal departments, those efforts include building skills to meet new business requirements, strengthening relationships with external counsel, and investigating the most effi cient ways to work, all with an eye toward doing more with less — without burning people out. skillset shift Here's what Pekilis and her team at CSA did. The company's new acquisition strategy required the legal department to change its focus. "We had to start building capability in terms of both multiple-jurisdiction acquisitions and post-acquisition integration. It was a whole new skillset," Pekilis says. She and her team had to move fast. CSA was growing rapidly, acquiring staff and locations in an effort to win a larger share of the test and certifi cation market. Germany, China, U.S.: the lawyers had to stickhandle purchases, help bring employees on board, and ensure the business followed regulations for privacy, intellectual property, and occupational health in every new jurisdiction. Knowing the executives wouldn't hire additional law staff, Pekilis and her colleagues had three potential solutions: assign specifi c work to internal legal team members; hire outside counsel; or train non-legal staff to take on certain tasks. The answer would involve all three strategies, plus plenty of assessment and planning.

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