Canadian Lawyer InHouse

31 CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/INHOUSE MAY 2015 L a w D e p a r t m e n t M a n a g e m e n t immediately if necessary in one to three years, and we have slates that run out to fi ve years plus. That helps us crystalize our thinking a bit, but we're having discussions around talent at all levels of the organization throughout the year." "It's not that we ask people to sit at their desks and hope for the best — you have to be engaged, you have to ask for what you need, seek opportunities, and then it's a manager's responsibility to help develop somebody so they're ready for that next opportunity," says Cudjoe. "That's what can be very different from a law fi rm where I'm not certain that development piece happens. It's about developing leadership skills and P&L accountability — different than what you would be expected to develop as a lawyer." And whether you're part of a one- or 100-lawyer team succession planning can happen. "It's more complicated, with 100 people but it's looking to see what are your skill sets and how do you grow those out," says Cudjoe. "I think it can happen in a smaller place — sometimes workloads don't permit and career development feels like a nice to have as opposed to a must have. I'm not always certain lawyers are as proactive about that." She points out: "It can be different in a place like this. The variety of different roles and functions — the sky is kind of the limit. One of the challenges we've experienced is to translate what it means to be a lawyer — we're not just about stopping things from happening — we're creative and strong communicators and have the ability to execute. The best lawyers and those who can transition into other roles clearly demonstrate that or can articulate that in terms of what they can bring to the table." There's also the question as to whether senior management push the legal department for succession planning the same way it would other business units. "Arguably, this would be the case if more GCs were seen as being strategic and innovative leaders in their line of business rather than just senior functional stewards in some little understood and necessarily evil functional area who are largely interchangeable with others in the profession either from within or outside," says Milstone. He says the opposite of this is that an increasing number of corporate counsel don't necessarily have the top job on their career bucket list for a number of reasons — not the least of which is that it does come under more scrutiny akin to other business unit leaders that is often assessed in hard numbers which can be intimidating to anyone used to achieving riskless success by simply putting in lots of hours and being responsive to clients. It can be different in a place like this. The variety of different roles and functions — the sky is kind of the limit. BINDU CUDJOE, BMO Financial Group '' '' Because business issues are legal issues. So if you want to get ahead in business, get the degree that gets you there faster. ONE YEAR – PART - TIME – NO THESIS FOR L AWYERS AND NON - LAWYERS law.utoronto.ca/ExecutiveLLM GPLLM Global Professional Master of Laws [Get a Master of Laws] Untitled-3 1 2015-03-02 9:02 AM

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