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He anticipates the sheer detail involved in the new requirements may catch small- er brokerages or insurers off-guard.There are penalties for non-compliance. The Fi- nancial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, the enforcement body created under the act, can levy a maximum penalty of $500,000 for a violation by an entity. The maximum for a violation by a person is $100,000. Criminal sanctions will be levied for willful non-compliance. Veilleux adds that most large insurance companies have rigorous risk-mitigation measures in place, "so while it's a new set of challenges, they're used to it." IH Recruiting difficult in public insurance companies vincial government. Those provinces include Quebec, Mani- toba, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia, and their lawyers are generally able to work a 9-to-5 day. Dean Scaletta hasn't missed a single school concert, gradu- T ation, tournament, or award involving any of his children. Scaletta is senior solicitor for Manitoba Public Insurance, where he has worked for 20 years. It's an environment where he is able to become involved in every aspect of insurance delivery while maintaining a healthy work-life balance. "The lawyers in the company are generally highly regarded, and it's been a very good work environ- ment," he enthuses. "And I know I'm not expected to be here until 10 o'clock. My day ends at 4:30, and I'm generally out of here by 4:45." But he is concerned there is a looming shortage of lawyers coming up the ranks who are interested in joining the public insurance company. "This is happen- ing in part because the economy is so robust," he says. "It's difficult to recruit from outside the company any lawyers who are 10-plus years at the bar because they're doing so well in private practice." He says the pay scale at the public insurer is not bad for the first 10 years. "You'll do as well or even slightly above what you'd earn in private practice, but, beyond that, you tend to level off pretty quickly. "Our salary level at the senior, non-executive level tends to be below margin. That makes it challenging if we have a senior person retire or leave for some reason. We're almost looking at trying to hire someone fairly junior, and training them and incurring a bit of pain for five years or so, until they become proficient in what needs to be done, because we just don't pay enough to recruit for the senior positions." It's also a highly specialized space of work. "We have a plan for bodily injury compensation which is very different from the tort system that most lawyers in the province are used to working with. It can be quite technical," he says. "Even if you are a good lawyer with good experience you'd be coming into he role of counsel for insurance providers varies across the country and is especially unique where automobile insurance is administered under the auspices of the pro- a system that you know virtually nothing about, and it would be a very steep learning curve." Then there is the continual public accountability. Scaletta and his team appear before the province's public utilities board each year to justify proposed rate increases. Last December, they proposed a rebate, although the board de- termined it wasn't enough and raised the amount Interest groups are granted standing and public scrutiny can be in- tense, even if the rates aren't going up. well in private practice." — DEAN SCALETTA, SENIOR SOLICITOR, MANITOBA PUBLIC INSURANCE "This is happening in part because the economy is so robust. It's difficult to recruit from outside the company any lawyers who are 10-plus years at the bar because they're doing so Issues such as privacy are taken more seriously "because people expect that protection from a government," he says. In his role, Scaletta is involved in almost every aspect of the insurance delivery, right down to issues surrounding managing the huge volume of e-mail that comes in to the insurer. He is a sort of point man for any question per- taining to the legal implications of matters ranging from tracking the perpetrators of staged accidents to fraudulent injury claims or even a deluge of hail such as the one in the town of Dauphin that lead to a total of $50 million in claims. "One of the biggest challenges we face on a day-to- day basis is meeting all those challenges and expectations and being the company that everybody loves to hate," he says half-jokingly. "It's life in a fish bowl at times." But compared to private practice, the trade-off has been worth it. "I don't drive a Mercedes, but that's not our lifestyle," he says. "I've watched my children grow up and that's what's been most important to me." IH C ANADIAN Lawyer INHOUSE OC T OBER 2008 37