Canadian Lawyer InHouse

29 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 of the lawyers and development plans for every lawyer, paralegal, and legal assistant. "Everybody in the department is expected to look at how they want to grow and is encouraged to speak to senior leaders about that. And senior leaders are encouraged to do everything they can to facilitate that growth," she says. Telus has about 55 lawyers nationally but it doesn't let geography get in the way if someone wants to pursue a job that isn't in their home offi ce. "It actually raises an interesting issue for us," says Wood. "My team is based in Vancouver, Burnaby, Edmonton, Toronto, and Montreal. Yet we want people to consider that they could qualify for and grow into any job regardless of where they are based." For example, if a lawyer at Telus is interested in growing into a procurement role but it happens that all of the procurement lawyers are based in Vancouver, a lawyer in Montreal interested in that job would be encouraged to pursue the position. We try to be very indifferent as to location when we fi ll those roles. More often than not it's possible. So we pay a lot of attention to team building across the country and encourage people to ignore geography." Ultimately, it's up to each individual manager at Telus to make sure there is a succession plan in place for the people reporting to that manager. "We might have very junior lawyers who express interest in becoming general counsel at some point. So my job is to tell them what skills they would need to build over time to become the general counsel and then to work with them to make sure they gain those skills," says Wood. The lawyers in the team can see the planning in action. Over the last two years, two senior counsel at Telus have moved into associate general counsel roles, and two associate general counsels have moved into vice president roles. As well, two vice presidents have moved into SVP roles, including Wood. "It's in the company's interest to develop good succession plans, but more than anything it's in the interest of the lawyers working on the team that they have consistent conversations with the managers about where they want to head as their career evolves and what skills they want to acquire along the way. If you need a reason to think about succession planning it's because it's a very convenient way to get into really important discussion with team members and how they want their careers to evolve," says Wood. Cudjoe, at BMO Financial Group, has been in the legal department three years, but BMO has actively been doing succession planning in the legal, compliance, and investigative services group for more than a decade. "I think when we talk about succession planning we see it as part of what we do around having talent discussions," says Cudjoe. "It's a discussion about who is on the team, what are their strengths and what opportunities are there for them? Those opportunities could be advancement, a lateral or horizontal move, or into another part of the bank. We see succession planning not so much as anointing the next GC but rather how do we help people achieve their professional and career development within the organization? That can mean a member of the team thinking beyond another lawyer job to maybe a role in compliance that would leverage their skills. Or it could be moving into risk or some of the human resource functions. "There are lots of places in the bank that would be logical for somebody from our group to go to," says Cudjoe. "When we talk about succession planning there's the bigger piece of thinking about it as career development and the more deliberate piece around senior leadership roles of LCCG. We do have succession slates to see who can step into the role '' Everybody in the department is expected to look at how they want to grow and is encouraged to speak to senior leaders about that. And senior leaders are encouraged to do everything they can to facilitate that growth ANDREA WOOD, Telus ''

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