Canadian Lawyer InHouse

JULY 2015 22 INHOUSE when you're making the business case, but down the road they know their work is going to get handled faster, more effi ciently, and they prefer in-house dealing with a lot of it and I do too — we understand the business. I don't see the need to use outside counsel for those things so I shift what I send outside. I'd rather send out things that are more prob- lematic, more risky, where I need that extra advice and keep the real strategic day-to-day partnerships inside. That's what we do the most, and the business people are more than happy to help me make my business case. Desjardins We have become extremely sophisti- cated in the way we make those deci- sions. Whether, we keep it in-house, and if we go outside, how we procure that, and which law fi rm we choose, because now the idea of one single law fi rm that does it all for you is gone the way of the dodo. We're very strategic as to how we are going to procure it, through RFP or others, but also which law fi rm are we going out to. And, sometimes the big Wall Street fi rms or the big Bay Street fi rms are not the fi rms you want to go to. You want to go to that small shop that is good at what they do and at an effi cient rate. INHOUSE: When you're sourcing someone new, have your law fi rms offered you someone who has worked on your fi les, like a secondment but on a more permanent basis? Petrolito I had a seventh maternity leave in my depart- ment recently and decided to use an alterna- tive fi rm here in Montreal. It just so hap- pened a person I had worked with at Avon, who had worked there for seven years de- cided to come back to Montreal and join this fi rm. I was very lucky to be able to have him to replace the mat leave. I wanted to explore the secondment idea and actually asked the different law fi rms I work with if they had somebody they could lend out to me. Believe it not, most of them answered, "we can't af- ford to give you someone full-time." I thought that was a very interesting situa- tion, because you would think they would be craving this kind of relationship and yet they just couldn't take the time, or at least couldn't afford, to give me this person as many hours as I needed. I really needed someone practically full-time, so this was an actually amazing op- tion because to boot I got this other person at an incredible hourly rate. He's charging me less than a paralegal and I'm having him for a minimum 25 hours a week. He's already do- ing more hours for me and he already knows the industry. He's been in-house for 14 years. It's an unbelievable coup in every sense. INHOUSE: What issues are you focused on with respect to regulatory and risk management matters? Petrolito Cosmetics is a highly regulated industry here in Canada, and actually federal legisla- tion in the U.S. is asking for it to be even more regulated. We have to protect the consumer and the consumer is much more savvy and sophisticated these days and they want more information. Also the demographics at L'Oréal are very young and we need to ensure they're all well trained and that they understand the pro- cesses. We put into place a comprehensive risk management program with all of our advertising, all of our marketing — nothing goes out unless both scientifi c affairs and le- gal have reviewed it, and they all know this and they all really follow it. There are very strict policies and proce- dures that are put into place. I think it's just a question of making sure that where you've got the bigger risk it is managed the most. There are risks with Canada's anti-spam legislation, and risk with competition law to some extent. Of course, there are the busi- ness risks, not just the legal risks. You've got to know your business fairly well in order to understand the risks. It's harder to do in a smaller team and I think you have to do an internal audit and understand all the different factions of your business and then say, okay, well this is what I think is the weak point, and this is what I have to make sure is well looked after. I think you just have to see really where your risks are and concentrate on those. ROUNDTABLE ROUNDTABLE ROUNDTABLE ROUNDTABLE ROUNDTABLE ROUNDTABLE ROUNDTABLE ROUNDTABLE ROUNDTABLE ROUNDTABLE ROUNDTABLE ROUNDTABLE ROUNDTABLE ROUNDTABLE ROUNDTABLE ROUNDTABLE ROUNDTABLE ROUNDTABLE ROUNDTABLE ROUNDTABLE ROUNDTABLE ROUNDTABLE ROUNDTABLE ROUNDTABLE ROUNDTABLE ROUNDTABLE ROUNDTABLE

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