Legal news and trends for Canadian in-house counsel and c-suite executives
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COVERSTORY The Lawyer: Fred Crooks, executive vice president, corporate services, and chief legal officer. The Company: Bell Aliant is one of North America's largest regional telecom- munications providers, serving a population of 5.3 million Canadians. Bell Aliant was created by joining Bell Canada's regional wireline business in Ontario and Quebec, Bell's major- ity interest in Bell Nordiq, and the Aliant wireline business, its information technology company, xwave, and its knowledge solutions through Innovatia. Bell Aliant is headquartered in find a Toronto firm that would treat an Atlantic Canada firm as part of its firm for the purposes of staffing a file, but Crooks threw out that challenge to Cox & Palmer and Blakes. "They worked up a model where they satisfied themselves that this could work. They spent a lot of time together sorting out their respective areas of expertise — who could do what best — how would it work to have a Toronto partner working with associates at a different firm in Halifax," he says. "What they've come up with is a solution that we're very hap- py with and that has produced, on some significant transactions, what we believe are substantial savings or substantial costs that we avoided that otherwise would have been incurred," he says. Sure, it works for Crooks, but does it work for the firms in- volved? Is it an organizational nightmare to staff a file? "I think you can't lose sight of the fact that the top priority and objective here is proper service to the client," says Danny Galli- van, managing partner of the Halifax office of Cox & Palmer. "Why does it work? I think it works because the pre-existing relationship gives rise to a number of intangibles that are criti- cal to underpin this relationship," he explains. "First, there has to be mutual respect. Secondly, there's got to be trust. Third, there's got to be confidence in the skill sets of every party of the relationship. And fourthly, there can't be any territoriality in place." Gallivan says a firm in an arrangement such as this has to be prepared to say that, in some circumstances, someone from the other firm should do a certain task. "Collectively, the whole is better than the individual parts," he says. "That's why I think it works. We've had the good fortune of having a number of transactions where it has worked and it seems to be a natural fit." Richard Corley, partner at Blakes' Toronto office and head of the firm's IT group, says he thinks there are a number of key ele- ments that are responsible for the success of the arrangement. "There's tremendous leadership in Bell Aliant in their legal group with Fred Crooks and his team. He has a very clear vision and is excellent at communicating that vision and really helping to drive the efficient allocation of work between the different 16 A UGUST 2008 C ANADIAN Lawyer INHOUSE Halifax and has 10,000 employees. The Firms: Starting out as a two-person shop over 150 years ago, Blake Cassels & Graydon LLP now has more than 550 lawyers in offices in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, New York, Chicago, London, Beijing, and an office in Shanghai through its China Alliance. Cox & Palmer's nine law offices stretch across Atlantic Canada, with representation in every major city in the region. With over 170 lawyers, the firm is the result of the 2006 merger of Patterson Palmer and Cox Hanson O'Reilly Matheson. lawyers so we avoid duplication of effort," he says. It's been over a year since this formal arrangement has been in place, and the best test of the relationship so far, says Crooks, was right at the start, with the $330-million sale of Aliant Direc- tory Services to the Yellow Pages Group last year. "That's really where this plan first hit the ground. We really saw how well this could work and we really saw the cost ben- efits," he says. And Crooks continues to see the benefits to this model, al- though he realizes it's not for everybody. "The model assumes an excellent relationship and regard among the firms that are involved and participating in this. There's got to be a confidence, and both firms have to have a level of trust in each other that they could work together and make this work," he says. "There's no rocket science about this. We find we get great value and advice out of this. We're very pleased with the advice we get from these firms, and to have them working together col- laboratively really makes a noticeable difference." Cox & Palmer's Gallivan agrees: "One size doesn't fit all. You've got to look at the specifics of the client's needs and the relationship that exists among the firms and the ability to pro- vide what the client desires, which is cost-effective quality ser- vice," he says. "If people aren't willing to work co-operatively, then clearly they don't have the client's best interests at heart and it's not go- ing to work. And you'll find that out awful quick." Corley says that while this kind of arrangement is comfort- able for a firm like Blakes, it is something that needs to be prac- tised in order for it to work better. "You need to build up the experience and levels of confidence and trust and respect and just understand that we've all got our eyes on exactly the same ball — helping our client to get the particular transaction done in the very best way possible and to give them collectively the best legal representation," Corley says. "I think if you keep that focus in mind it can work very well and does work very well." IH 60-SECOND SNAPSHOT