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Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/50835
A WHAT SECTOR IS YOUR COMPANY/ORGANIZATION IN? s Canada fights to stay out of a looming global recession, it seems corporate counsel are preparing for the worst with plans to bring more work in- house even as they expect to see an increase in the amount they will be challenged to do in the coming year, according to the annual Canadian Lawyer corporate counsel survey. With continued uncertainty in the market, if the econo- my continues on a downward trend, 64 per cent of the 137 respondents who came from leading Canadian corporate and government legal departments say they will bring more work into their own department. Even if there is an improve- ment in the economic outlook, 61 per cent said they will not send more work outside their organizations, and 57.4 per cent said they will be implementing new cost-cutting mea- sures with the firms they currently deal with. In fact, awareness of and concern over costs was the No. 1 area corporate counsel identified as something firms can do to improve their working relationships with in-house legal departments. Of those responding to the survey, 83 per cent say any perceived improvement in the economic climate in 2011 had no effect on their legal department spend. In terms of external legal spend, 53.3 per cent said their budgets did not change over last year while 38.3 per cent said it was higher. When it came to their department's budget, 45.1 per cent said they saw no change while 34.5 per cent saw it increase and 20.4 per cent saw a reduction over last year. For the 38.3 per cent who did see an increase in external legal spend, 45.7 per cent said they attribute changes to their spending to more work being sent outside the organization. But on the internal staffing front, 48.5 per cent said there was no change in the size of their legal department over last year, while 31.3 per cent said their department grew as there was more work to be done; however 17.2 per cent said their legal department actually shrank. Keeping work in-house is a trend also noted by recruiters such as Robert Half International Canada, which recently issued its hiring index specific to the legal community. "We have heard from corporate GCs that they would look to bring work in-house rather than farm it out," says John Ohnjec, division director with Robert Half Legal in Canada. "They're still being very cautious — nobody is really making those full-fledged dives into bringing on two or three coun- sel in-house either — they are taking a measured approach and looking specifically to the type of work that needs to be done." According to Ohnjec, hiring is happening for specialty areas such as litigation and intellectual property. "I think everybody realizes we aren't going to catapult out of the tough times we've had in the last couple of years, and Non-profit 7.5% Technology 12.7% Financial 18.7% Service 18.7% Resource- based 13.4% IS THE VOLUME OF LEGAL WORK LIKELY TO GROW FOR YOUR COMPANY IN 2012? Industry/ manufacturing 14.2% Government (municipal, regional, provincial, federal, and First Nations — including boards and tribunals) 14.9% 12.9% No WHAT TYPE OF BILLING ARRANGEMENT DO YOU HAVE WITH YOUR PRIMARY LAW FIRM? Billable hours Flat fees 0% Alternative arrangements Combination of billable hours plus flat fees www.CANADIAN Lawyermag.com N O VEMBER / D ECEMBER 2011 41 50% 5.9% 44.1% 56.4% 30.7% Yes Stay the same