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DIVERSITY REPORT Recipe for success D Having a variety of backgrounds on your legal team is good for business, say panellists at this year's /ACC roundtable. BY KELLY HARRIS iversity is an important issue for Canadian legal depart- ments, and the differences they seek go beyond skin colour, religion, disability, or sexual ori- entation, delving into the world of diver- sity of thought and legal training. The fourth annual Canadian Lawyer InHouse/ Association of Corporate Counsel round- table canvassed the topic to coincide with this issue's special report on diversity. Roundtable participants included ACC president Fred Krebs; David Allgood, exec- utive vice president and general counsel of the Royal Bank of Canada; Jim Vibert, senior counsel with computer and office products giant Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Co.; Shelley Lloyd, legal counsel with insurer Aon Canada Inc.; Nicole Broley, legal counsel with professional services firm Deloitte & Touche LLP; and Leslie Rosenthal, general counsel for video-game maker DreamCatcher Interactive Inc. While none of the roundtable mem- bers could recall specific incidents where outside counsel weren't hired because they lacked diverse lawyers, it was evi- dent participants value an assortment of backgrounds. "Study after study will show that, when you take a group of diverse people and put them together to work on a project, the long-term effects of that project will be more successful," says Vibert. Allgood says there have been initiatives in Shelley Lloyd, legal counsel Aon Canada Inc. (l to r) Leslie Rosenthal, general counsel DreamCatcher Interactive Inc.; David Allgood, executive vice president and general counsel Royal Bank of Canada; and Nicole Broley, legal counsel Deloitte & Touche LLP. the United States by in-house counsel, like A Call to Action, to promote a diverse group of lawyers within their panel firms. That movement has begun in Canada as well. Royal Bank's corporate culture also promotes diversity. "The CEO is very focused on diversity, and, in fact, we have within our more broadly based procurement policies, a diversity principle," Allgood says. "And so, that principle is carried forward in the context of hiring law firms. The under- Fred Krebs, left, president of the Association of Corporate Counsel, and Jim Vibert, senior counsel Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Co. taking is not an absolute prohibition. It is . . . more of a prefatory kind of statement in which they are encouraging the outside law firms to do this." In the U.S., the Minority Corporate Counsel Association has had a long-standing relationship with the ACC, says Krebs. One of the ways the group promoted diversity with legal providers was to first raise awareness of the issue. Krebs says at first it was simply telling outside counsel the issue was important to them. Later they started requesting tracking information and a small www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com OC T O BER 2009 35 Canadian Lawyer InHouse SANDRA STRANGEMORE