Legal news and trends for Canadian in-house counsel and c-suite executives
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/50877
specialize, but here you need to be a jack of all trades and be relatively comfort- able diving into issues and areas of law that you might not be all that familiar with and [you] have to bring yourself up the curve relatively quickly." On the international side, you The Enbridge control centre in Edmonton. projects in, or they want a piece of the pie. Balancing all of those interests plus the interests of our customers, which are based on their own financial health, and getting a project in on a timely basis, that's a significant chal- lenge." The company's CEO has stated that Enbridge is aiming to be a carbon neutral company by 2015. For Robinson, the challenges of the job are somewhat different. While he enjoys the variety of the work, it can also be a double-edged sword. "In pri- vate practice you get an opportunity to require at least a rudimentary grasp of the laws in foreign countries, but also — and perhaps more importantly — an understanding of the cultural differences that might influence how counterparties approach a negotiation or dispute. Taking a North American view doesn't always work so well in certain jurisdictions. But these challenges allow Robinson to play a significant role on complicated files from start to finish — one that is appreciated by the legal group and the business. That's something he didn't really experience in private practice. "It's rewarding to have a job I look for- ward to coming to." For Kanvik, he's seen the company grow significantly over his nine years, and he's played a role in acquiring a lot of the assets Enbridge now owns in the U.S. "Being part of that, being on the cutting edge of what the company is doing and where it's looking to go is very exciting," he says. "Everyone looks at energy as being a very specific, defined, possibly esoteric area of law. It really is not — our business encap- sulates a lot of the different disciplines of law and brings them all into one situation." Enbridge is not only expanding its systems to deliver fossil fuel, it's con- tinually looking at alternative fuels. "We have a couple of wind farms, and we invest in fuel cell technologies and other alternative fuels," says Kanvik. "So there's always the possibility in the future that opportunities with Enbridge could present themselves to go into a different part of the energy industry." IH 44 • DECEMBER 2009/JANUARY 2010 Untitled-1 1 INHOUSE 11/27/09 10:40:38 AM