Legal news and trends for Canadian in-house counsel and c-suite executives
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/50886
CLOSING • A roundup of legal department news and trends Budget realities mean more in-house work for U.S. general counsel An Altman Weil Inc. survey has found nearly 75 per cent of U.S. cor- porate law departments face cut- backs in 2009. And those reductions are, on aver- age, almost 11 per cent, something that has caught the attention of vet- eran legal management consultant Daniel DiLucchio, Jr. of Altman Weil. "The one thing that was interesting to me was the fact that the budgets are being reduced so significantly," he says. "These are pretty substantial budget cuts that they are facing and I don't think I've seen anything like this even in past recessions." The survey, "Law Department Cost Control," looks at the current world- wide economic crisis and the effect it is having on legal departments in the U.S. The survey was conducted in November 2008. It found the greatest concerns for U.S. legal departments are outside counsel costs and uncer- tainty. Not too far behind is the worry of the cost of litigation work, much of which is farmed to outside counsel. "The [legal] spend in the U.S. for liti- gation is very high and higher than it is outside the U.S.," says DiLucchio. "Litigation can be 40 per cent of the total budget." Less money for outside counsel and concern over litigation could lead to in-house counsel doing a lot more litigation work themselves, which has not escaped the notice of some gen- eral counsel, says DiLucchio. "I was with a general counsel yesterday who said 'I understand we are facing a budget cut and they are asking me to do a number of things more efficiently and effectively, but I will not put this com- pany in jeopardy,'" he says. According to the survey, the solu- tion for more than 62 per cent of com- panies seeking budget cuts is to bring more work in-house. DiLucchio says that means legal departments will be working harder or smarter, burning the midnight oil or triaging work, placing a lesser focus on lower-priority work. One area that is not a high priority or concern to U.S. law departments is international legal costs. E-mail ideas and questions to: kharris@clbmedia.ca British Columbia seeks changes to lobbyist registry British Columbia's much- maligned lobbyist registry is ready for an overhaul according the province's attorney general. The registry was created as a tool to keep track of who is lob- bying elected officials and for what purpose. Opponents of the legislation say the act has no teeth and therefore lobbyists are not registering. This has led the opposition-B.C. New Democratic Party to call for the registry to be reworked. Responding to questions in the B.C. legislature, Attorney General Wally Oppal said the law aimed at casting a light on those lobbying the government needs to be fixed. "The legislation at the time 30 • FEBRUARY 2009 was modeled after the Ontario act and the federal act. At that time it was considered that Brit- ish Columbia was leading the way in that type of legislation," Oppal told the legislature in No- vember. He later responded to direct questioning about whether he would change the act saying, "the short answer is that I do be- lieve the act needs to be fixed." David Loukidelis, the province's information and privacy commis- sioner and lobbyist registrar, has said he would no longer conduct investigations under the lobbyist registry. The act does not grant anyone the power to conduct in- vestigations under it, and those under investigation can refuse to co-operate. U.K. seeks to clarify bribery laws A patchwork of bribery and corruption laws have created confusion and complexity and should be modernized, says the U.K. Law Commission. Following its review of corruption and bribery laws, the commission report, "Reforming Bribery," sets out two new provisions to deal with out-of-date and overlapping statutes. One new law would deal with giving bribes and the second with taking bribes. The law would also be extended to cover foreign nationals that live in the U.K. and conduct business there. The commission recommends a new offence in the U.K. of bribing a foreign public official. The second offence would be applicable to corporate bodies, of negligent- ly failing to prevent bribery by an employee or agent. A defence of this crime will be proof that a company has a system in place to prevent bribery. The law commission was created in 1965 to review laws in England and Wales. More information about the Reforming Bribery report can be found at www. lawcom.gov.uk/bribery.htm. For weekly INHOUSE news and updates go to: www.canadianlawyermag.com/inhouse INHOUSE