Canadian Lawyer InHouse

SEPTEMBER 2015 20 INHOUSE I n the fall of 2013, Bell Mobility engaged with McCarthy Tétrault LLP on a large litigation matter that was proceeding to commercial court. A trial was scheduled to be heard six months after the proceedings were commenced, with evidence in chief to be submitted by affi davit. The litigation matter involved franchise issues and a large amount of information. Noel Peacock, senior legal counsel, litigation at BCE Inc. in Ontario, knew it had the potential to be a massive amount of complex work. "We decided we needed to retain external counsel that we had good experience with and who are experts in the subject matter, and move the matter forward as quickly as possible," says Peacock. The matter involved a complex factual matrix, and McCarthy's litigation team needed to put together seven affi davits from a collection of more than 15,000 documents. Ultimately, only a few hundred were used, but McCarthy's team needed to review and synthesize a vast amount of information in a short time frame while simultaneously integrating that information into a compelling set of affi davits. "We needed lawyers who were very ex- perienced to make the right judgment calls to gather the evidence and organize it into these interacting affi davits and be aware of what the issues were," says Peacock. To address Bell's need for a cost-effective solution and given the demanding nature of this mandate, McCarthy's turned to SANDRA STRANGMORE Hybrid staffing streamlines big litigation file STANDING (L TO R): Joe Milstone , Cognition LLP Noel Peacock, BCE Inc. Thomas Sutton, McCarthy Tétrault LLP. CATEGORY: Working with External Counsel DEPARTMENT SIZE: Large COMPANY: BCE Inc. alternative law fi rm Cognition LLP when staffi ng the team. McCarthy's litigation team wanted a lawyer who was experienced at drafting compelling and persua- sive affi davits, but who would be billed out to Bell at approximately the rate of a fi rst-year associate. The fi rm also wanted a lawyer with a suffi cient level of ex- pertise to work seamlessly with the team throughout the process of preparing the affi davits. Ellen Swan, a Cognition lawyer with commercial litigation experience, became an extension of the McCarthy Tétrault team in the equivalent role of a senior associate. Swan participated on update calls with the fi rm's internal team as well as externally with Bell. She worked onsite at the Toronto offi ce of McCarthy Tétrault as well as remotely. She also assisted with preparation for discoveries and cross-examinations. This fi le required a large team working under tremen- dous time pressures and large volume of work. The mo- tion materials consisted of affi davits from eight witnesses and ran to almost 900 pages. "The way we approached things was very much a part of the challenge we face all the time in terms of coming up with cost-effective ways of dealing with litigation — especially large litigation that can get out of control," says Peacock. The parties involved agreed to a Consent Dismissal Order. "What we did was create a process for determining the litigation that the other side agreed to and was approved by the commercial list and satisfi ed our challenges in keeping the costs down," says Peacock. Through the use of Cognition, McCarthy Tétrault was able to lower its fi xed weighted hourly rate and Swan from Cognition was billed at the rate of a junior associate. "Ellen was very good at spotting issues in that morass of evidence that would be relevant to what the litigators who would be standing up in court would have to argue later on," says Peacock. "When compared to the length of complex commercial actions, we dealt with this in just six months."

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