Canadian Lawyer InHouse

19 CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/INHOUSE SEPTEMBER 2015 requests received within one business day; discuss and agree with the business unit leads on timelines at the start of the process; and draft and/or review certain agreements within two business days. The team also initiated a new process for the allocation of work among the LCR staff (which includes lawyers, a law clerk, and an articling student, as well as compliance personnel and regulations writers), with central repositories being established for incoming requests and formalized tracking to ensure timely completion. As a result, external legal costs were reduced by 10 per cent due to the relocation of work to the team. "We've also established the concrete measures on how to allocate the work and a common depository for all new work that comes in," says Ziman Sabbagh. Since the open house, relationships with the business units have improved. "They see the benefi t now of engaging us," says Schulz. "They see us [as] more personable and ap- proachable. I think it was successful in address- ing the perception, but they also have a better appreciation of what we do and why we do it." SANDRA STRANGMORE Improving perception and workflow at Interac STANDING (L TO R): Jacqueline Tsai Olga Ziman Sabbagh Scott Thorner Lesley Blanding Mariana Schulz John Thomson SITTING (L TO R): Saleha Ali Brody MacLean Kikelomo Lawal Monika Gilewicz L egal departments often have a reputation for being the naysayers in an organization, and that can translate into business partners being hesitant to engage them early in a conversation about a new project. As part of a "people and culture" initiative launched at Interac Asso- ciation last year, the legal department received feedback on its perception in the organization. "While our work received high marks across the board, there was a feel- ing among some that we sometimes take a long time to turn things around; we get bogged down in the details and don't look at the big picture," says Olga Ziman Sab- bagh, senior legal counsel with Interac. There was also a sentiment that legal and compliance operated as "police offi cers" advising business units about what they can and can't do. "There was a hesitation to come to us with a question or an initiative or to involve us in a large-scale project because of the impression that we might stop or prolong the project and not get to the end goal," says Mariana Schulz, senior manager of compliance at Interac. "That's defi nitely something we wanted to shed." The scope of the project undertaken at Interac was two-fold: to educate the various business de- partments that legal compliance and regulatory supports about the value legal brings, and to im- prove and measure the legal division's productivity. The department leadership tabled a "mind map" of strategies for rebranding LCR, and as a department. It also formulated a visual to convey its new image. "Overall, we wanted to highlight our value — to the organization as a whole and for individual projects — and to change the mental picture to that of 'air traffi c controller' — one whose job is essential and benefi cial for the smooth running of operations across the organization," says Ziman Sabbagh. To address head-on the impression the business units had of the legal and compliance team, it held an open house to provide the opportunity to get to know legal and understand what it does. In preparation, the team revamped its presence on the internal web site, posting informational pieces authored by various mem- bers of the department. The materials included answers to frequently asked questions and explanations for com- mon "what if" scenarios (e.g. What if I haven't signed a confi dentiality agreement?). The team also unveiled a number of concrete promises, including commitments to assign and acknowledge all CATEGORY: Law Department Management DEPARTMENT SIZE: Small COMPANY: Interac Association/Acxsys Corp.

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