Legal news and trends for Canadian in-house counsel and c-suite executives
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/50875
SIXTH ANNUAL position because you are able to see the entire picture that adds value to that role. GAUDI: And I would add to that, absolutely. Not only do you have a fan- tastic perch with which to oversee all of the operations (until the end of May, I have been the only legal counsel at The /ACC GENERAL COUNSEL ROUNDTABLE Globe, since I started almost five years ago), you really get to see everything. Recently I have picked up the secretary to the board role, as well. That gives an added layer of strategic insight to the organization. I think that between those two roles, you are very well-placed to help the company execute on its strategic plans. I think that is one of the very big rea- sons why counsel end up in greater leadership roles. FREDEEN: I am very familiar with the Deloitte survey because we spent a lot of time looking at it. The interest there was to see what's happened in the last five years. One of the interest- ing findings in that study was that the role of general counsel has evolved, has expanded and that is in the last five years, in particular. It is a North American phenomenon; it is not the case in other parts of the world, Europe as an example. . . . Plus I think a lot of what we do is compliance-based, so things naturally flow, like compli- ance issues, whether it is anti-money laundering or privacy or other parts of compliance. That kind of naturally flows into our jurisdiction because we kind of do that already. Secretary of the board, same thing; it is very much a legal kind of position. I think, natu- rally, lawyers are inquisitive and intel- ligent, of course. SIEVWRIGHT: I know in HP, cer- tainly a measure on my team's account- ability in their performance review is: do they have a seat at the table? When I do performance reviews you go to senior managers of the different busi- nesses. They are at the meetings; they are on the strategic planning sessions; they are part of the team. I think if you don't have that trusted advisor role, I don't think you are there to hear when something might be in the planning stage that you might need to give advice on, and it is critical in terms of success in a complex organi- zation to be joined at the hip with management. FREDEEN: One of the things that you raised, which I think is "bang on," is the reporting structure has to be through the CEO. In fact, there would be some that would say that there should be a dot- ted line or another line to the board, but certainly a connection to the board 20 • AUGUST 2011 ntitled-2 1 INHOUSE 5/3/11 3:12:41 PM I N H OU S E