Legal news and trends for Canadian in-house counsel and c-suite executives
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the middle, which is a quirky thing that I think reflects the difficulty we had during those periods of time recruiting people, just because of competitive pres- sures in the marketplace," says Horlick. "There were competitive pressures for about a decade or so in Calgary and as a result, that gap has just not been filled. So there's a bit of a bulge in the middle between younger practitioners and older practitioners where we just don't have people." With succession planning becoming a priority in light of the pending retire- ment of the baby boom generation of lawyers, more companies are vying to ensure they have ample candidates to ascend the corporate ladder. Yet even for large companies conducting inter- national business, the competition to recruit can be daunting. Interestingly, that adds to the pros- pect of career advancement for the so-called generation X and Y lawyers in their 20s and 30s to gain exposure to all aspects of business, and readily achieve promotions based on their strengths and accrued expertise. "From a younger person's perspective, that creates a lot of opportunity in terms of advancement," says Horlick. Lawyer Hugoline Morton is one For people who are going to play on the team at the appropriate level, say for fi ve, 10, or 15 years into the future, you do want to have an appropriate mix. JEROME SHORE, The Coaching Clinic beneficiary. She joined Talisman in August 2007, after initially taking on a position at a private law firm follow- ing her 2006 call to the bar. At the law firm, she found her opportunities to be limited, especially considering she brought an MBA to the table on top of her law degree. At Talisman, she says, "The main advantage is that you get to be thrown into a role and become the immediate contact for a client group." She has also found there are oppor- tunities within the company to leverage her MBA and rise within the hierar- chy outside of a purely legal position, asserting there are no limits to her opportunities. "I'm enjoying the work and the challenges I have currently in my legal role," says Morton. In three years, she has grown her to corporate clients for several years before taking on his role at Talisman. Within Talisman's legal department, consisting of 25 lawyers, roughly half 38 • APRIL 2010 INHOUSE are relatively recent hires in their early 30s, while the other half are long-term lawyers in their mid to late 50s, soon facing retirement. "We have a big gap in legal portfolio in-house to become a key player in Talisman's North American operation group, and has recently taken on the company's seismic work