Canadian Lawyer InHouse

19 CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/INHOUSE JULY 2015 19 Desjardins, along with Mark Girgis from Mega Brands Inc., and Nadia Petrolito from cosmetic giant L'Oréal, all described their collective disappointment in dealing with RFP responses from some law fi rms. If fi rms are too busy to take legal RFPs seriously, Desjardins offers this advice: In- stead of providing a poor response to an RFP or one that doesn't specifi cally address the specifi c in-house request, don't do it at all. He argues focusing on the clients they already have will net them a more profi table result. As Desjardins said: "One of my chal- lenges to them is 'guys, stop running after all those RFPs.' Forget the next rabbit and concentrate on your existing client base. First go back to your existing top 20 cus- tomers. Are you serving them well? What are you doing for them? Who else is doing some work for them, how can you do more?" Greenberg echoed that saying: "Don't ask for the RFP if you have no chance of getting it or if it's really out of your bailiwick. It's just a waste of time." And in terms of alternative fee arrange- ments and fi nding other ways to get fi rms to deliver cost effective services, Petrolito perhaps summed it up best when she said the best cost savings is fi nding the right lawyer, period. I think one of the great takeaways from the roundtable, which you will see in their answers to the questions about RFPs and alternative fee arrangements, is that these lawyers are testing their external fi rms to give them what they really need. If they don't get it, they are looking elsewhere and they have a powerful vote. As Fred Headon of Air Canada pointed out, the research he and the Canadian Bar Association's Futures committee did cer- tainly spoke about the need for predict- ability in legal services fees. "I think that refl ects the fact that everywhere else that's how things are unfolding and it creates a gap between our profession and everybody else." We hope you fi nd the discussion informa- tive and relatable to your own experience. Watch more from the roundtable in our video coverage of these fi ve engaging in- house lawyers online at canadianlawyermag. com/inhouse SPON SOR ED BY: Mark Girgis Vice president, legal affairs, and corporate secretary MEGA Brands Inc. (now part of the Mattel family of companies) Prior to the acquisition by Mattel, three lawyers and three paralegals now part of a team with more than 40 lawyers Fred Headon Assistant general counsel labour and employment law, Air Canada Team of fi ve labour lawyers out of the 22 in-house Also led the 30-person legal Futures initiative for the CBA the PIERRE CHARBONNEAU

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