Legal news and trends for Canadian in-house counsel and c-suite executives
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/50883
Shelley Lloyd legal counsel These are highlights of the discus- sion, a more in-depth version of the roundtable is available online at www. canadianlawyermag.com/inhouse . Also this year, watch video clips from the event on our web site. INHOUSE: How are new regula- tory or legislative changes affect- ing your legal departments? SHELLEY LLOYD: I find that there are many more questions from our of knowledge that needs to be devel- oped within the legal team to ensure we are compliant; a lot more interaction between businesses, legal, and finance. DAVID ALLGOOD: Well, in the finan- cial institution world, obviously with the crisis, we have had as much legislation, new and proposed, as anybody. It has really forced us, in a sense, internally to re-balance the kind of work that we do because we feel that the people who are in-house often have a much better understanding of how the businesses are going to have to adapt to a new piece of legislation, or are in a position, through our industry associations, to comment on proposed legislation. And so, one of the things that we have been readjusting is the focus of some of our internal people to deal with the incom- ing and proposed legislation, and have looked to outside resources or contract people to do some of the more regular work because we are generally resource- constrained at any particular time. internal clients, basically the company that we serve, about how to understand the changing regulations; how they impact us. There is probably more of an expectation, too, that we have a good understanding of the impact without having first to go to outside counsel. So [there are] more research demands and more quick answers expected or hoped for from our department. JIM VIBERT: There are a cou- ple of specific areas that, despite the fact both of them have been around for a while now, the Sarbanes-Oxley [Act] in general, strengthening of financial con- trols. Despite the fact that our finance department is fantastic and we have a great revenue rec- ognition team, there is just a lot 18 • OCTOBER 2009 INHOUSE NICOLE BROLEY: We have a ton of . . . internal people, not necessar- ily within the in-house legal team but also just within the organization, who have tremendous understanding of those kinds of pieces of legislation. So they assist in a way the legal team, but the legal team obviously is responsible for trying to facilitate the business as David Allgood executive vice president & general counsel Royal Bank of Canada Aon Canada Inc. much as possible, too. And to David's point, I think we are at a point where there is an expectation on the in-house team that they have an understanding of the legislative changes, that they have an appreciation for how that impacts the business. LESLIE ROSENTHAL: Ninety per cent of our sales are from the United States. So my focus is more North American as opposed to just Canadian. Of course, certain things have affect- ed our workplace, such as [Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act] when it came into effect a few years ago. But generally I am more concerned with the impact of our products across North America. FRED KREBS: ACC is a global association, and the issues that you are talking about here are global. I mean, certainly in the United States . . . but we are hearing the same types of con- cerns being expressed by the Australians and the Australian Corporate Lawyers Association, and some things I have read that they have published. Also, our European chapter, I mean, these issues about the increased regulatory envi- ronment, combined with the economic compression of resources. You are fac- ing them here, and other in-house coun- sel are facing them around the world. INHOUSE: What strategies are you employing to meet these demands?