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ANNUAL CORPORATE COUNSEL SURVEY ARE YOU ASKING THE LAW FIRMS YOU DO BUSINESS WITH TO PROVIDE A DIVERSE ROSTER OF LAWYERS TO WORK WITH (I.E. REDUCED HOURS, WOMEN, VISIBLE MINORITIES) AS PART OF AN OVERALL DIVERSITY STRATEGY IN YOUR ORGANIZATION? even though we may have a quarter where hiring increases, it could be followed by another that doesn't show positive results," he says. In fact, litigation was the No. 1 area of practice corporate counsel outsources, with 82 per cent of respondents putting it in the top spot, followed by labour and employment law, intel- lectual property, and regulatory matters. Responses to the survey came from a cross section of YES NO We're thinking about it. 12.4% 67% 20.6% WHAT WAS THE EXTERNAL LEGAL SPEND FOR THE CANADIAN LEGAL DEPARTMENT IN YOUR LAST FISCAL YEAR? $100,000 or less 10.4% 17.9% 17.9% 23.9% 5.2% 15.7% $101,000-$500,000 $501,000-$1 million $1.1 million to $3 million 9% $3.1 million to $5 million $5.1 million to $10 million More than $10 million WHAT ARE THE AREAS OF PRACTICE YOU CONTRACT OUT TO FIRMS THE MOST? Tax 29.1% Litigation 81.6% U.S.-cross border 16.5% Intellectual property 37.9% Employment/labour 43.7% Regulatory matters 36.9% Class action 18.4% Environmental 16.5% Other 31.1% departments with 15.7 per cent from legal departments that had $10 million or more in legal spending in the last fiscal year, 17.9 per cent spent less than $1 million, and 23.9 per cent were from departments that had between $1 million and $3 million in legal costs. Almost half of the respondents were from small legal departments with fewer than five lawyers. There was a fairly even distribution of responses from the various sectors: 19 per cent coming from financial institutions and another 19 per cent from the service sector while government, industry/ manufacturing/resource-based industries and technology " We're not looking for law firms not to make money but we're looking to make sure they're delivering value for money. We want to see a healthy legal industry because that will ensure good competition. Sanjeev Dhawan, Hydro One Networks companies fall in under 15 per cent with 7.5 per cent of sur- vey respondents coming from the non-profit sector. When it came to listing the things firms can do to improve " their working relationships with their clients, at the top was a desire that firms become "more concerned with costs" (58.6 per cent), followed by "be more proactive" at 31 per cent, and "be more commercial/practical" at 29.9 per cent. Some survey respondents commented that they would like their firms to: "make an effort to understand our business and industry" as well as "communicate better — return calls, report progress," and "raise legal issues that we have not identified," — which was interesting when contrasted with the fact that 74.5 per cent said they do not involve their primary law firm in internal risk-management strategies. Interestingly, topics that have been hot-button items on (respondents could choose more than one) the legal seminar circuit such as diversity in hiring, alternative billing, and outsourcing offshore did not show up as items resonating much with in-house counsel in Canada, according to the survey findings. For example, despite the various efforts afoot here to promote diversity in the legal profession, 67 per cent of respondents said they are not asking the law firms they do business with to provide a diverse roster of lawyers to work with (i.e. reduced hours, women, visible minorities) as part of an overall diversity strategy in their organization. However, 21 per cent said they are thinking about it and 12 per cent are www.CANADIAN Lawyermag.com N O VEMBER / D ECEMBER 2011 43 C A N ADIA N L A W YE R