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MANAGING PARTNER Canadian law firm, South American style M BY GAIL J . COHEN acleod Dixon LLP hasn't expanded in an ordinary way, choosing "chal- lenging" areas of the world such as Russia, Kazakhstan, and Venezuela to open new offices. After 11 years, the firm's Caracas, Venezuela office has become the second-largest law firm in that country. Managing partner Elisabeth Eljuri talks to Canadian Lawyer about running the largest South American outpost of a Canadian firm. ELISABETH ELJURI Q Tell me how you got the managing partner role in this firm. They decided to open in Caracas in 1997, the decision was made in Canada. I was approached very early on, maybe when the office had been open four or five months to join. I had been almost 10 years in a major international firm, Baker & McK- enzie. . . . I ended up joining early 1998. At the time, when the office opened . . . they sent in a Canadian resident managing part- ner. After a number of years, the office in Canada felt it was time for Glenn [Faass] to move on to somewhere else, and, two, the office was quite large and independent enough to have its own managing partner from within. Being the most senior of the part- ners here . . . they thought that it would be the natural evolution for me to become the managing partner here, so I have been for the last two or so years. Q Q Q How do you split your time between practising and management duties? [M]y role [as managing partner] probably only consumes 30 per cent of my time. The other 70 per cent gets allocated between actual client files and my traditional marketing, publica- tions, international conferences — all the things you do as part of your practice. . . . But I have decentralized some things where I don't believe I am essential. So I'm not signing cheques, I'm not picking the colour of the carpet, I'm not dealing with details on treasury unless they're very significant. . . . Are the lawyers in your office Canadian or local? Obviously we opened with a Canadian managing partner and we started off more as a satellite office. But today we are a very independent, truly Venezuelan firm. Of the 106 em- ployees, the 106 are Venezuelan. Of the 46 lawyers we have, they are all Venezuelan, admitted in Venezuela. What is the focus of the legal work in the Caracas office? Our office evolved from being strictly the Venezuelan of- fice to the regional base for Latin American work run by Macleod Dixon. . . . Obviously we do a lot of work in Venezuela as it is a very prolific country in terms of legal issues — either Q Q Q because of the constant change in law or the $100 oil — and, being the fifth-largest producing country in the world, there is a lot of investment and a lot of projects here. . . . In Venezuela we are definitely full-service, but when you look at what we do in Colombia, or large projects in Mexico or in Peru, Guyana, Trinidad, or wherever it is, that is work that is primarily bring- ing in that international component of oil and gas, mining, or electricity at a very high level. And working with local counsel in those jurisdictions to support us. . . . What type of client would use your services in Caracas? We act for a large number of Fortune 100 companies from around the world. . . . More than 90 per cent of our clientele are multinationals. Irrespective of the sector we're in, they're multinationals doing business in this region, and gener- ally we have an advantage because they feel very comfortable with a North American firm. It's not just the language skills. It's the delivery, it's the service, the way you operate, the way you write the opinions and the memos. . . . And [clients] have found it very attractive, which I guess is the reason why in less than 10 years . . . we became the second largest law firm in the country. How would you characterize the relationship of your office with the firm's offices in Canada? We are one firm. It's not a franchise where you just use the name or something. There's about 100 equity partners around the world, including the Canadian offices, and all of us together we meet at least once a year and sometimes twice a year. We truly work as a partnership when it comes to the major is- sues. Mostly, each office is allowed to be run pretty independently because every office has its own market, its own reality, its own compensation market, its own clients that have been generated. What are the challenging aspects of running a firm in Venezuela? In Venezuela today you have to have the ability to be very independent and low-profile in terms of politics. Regard- less of how you feel personally, you have to make sure your firm is run and perceived as independent and solid legal advice to international companies. . . . My biggest challenge over the last year has been the attraction and retention of talent. . . .We've become a great place and lots of people want to work here. Above that, we pay at the top level of the market. So we don't lose people to other competitors and things; what we do lose is people to overseas. A lot of the younger generations have lost a lot of faith in living in Venezuela. To read more of ELISABETH ELJURI'S comprehensive interview with Canadian Lawyer, visit us online at canadianlawyermag.com www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com OC T OBER 2008 15