Canadian Lawyer InHouse

33 CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/INHOUSE SEPTEMBER 2015 33 CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/INHOUSE SEPTEMBER 2015 arrangements in the majority of the work we do with them'." Ali also looked at legal project management and whether the fi rms were properly managing fi les and relationships. The fi rst cut was done based on a consideration of spend. That reduced the number by half, and then they surveyed various customer groups about law fi rm use such as the capital markets group. "As we started to see the fi rm scoring, we started to realize there were fi rms that get what we're trying to do and then there are fi rms a little behind the eight ball on some of this," he says. BMO did go back to some of the fi rms to see if they wanted to respond differently to the survey on issues such as AFAs. Some declined saying they were not going to change their approach. Some did change to work with BMO. BMO also rolled out a retainer agreement that insisted on every law fi rm signing the same agreement regarding project management, commitment to innovation, diversity in their law fi rms and the way they were resourcing fi les. The law fi rm panel review is now a "living, breathing thing" and the bank constantly reviews it to make sure the fi rms are consistently providing value, says Ali. If the fi rms are not delivering based on the retainer, the bank looks to potentially re- move or add fi rms as required. All the panel fi rms now run TyMetrix 360, and BMO can track the life cycle of a fi le at certain stages. As a result of all the changes, the bank has seen a dramatic increase in compliance with the program. "Everyone is now going through one process and the fi rms know they can't bill us outside the process, and if they try to, the invoice is going to be rejected," he says. The retainer letters in combination with the billing system force the billing to align to what we agreed to, whereas before, you'd have a situation where a fi rm would have a different hourly rate and not catch it unless someone was reviewing line by line." Lawyers at the fi rms that do work for BMO have TyMetrix loaded into the system at the only rate they can charge against. The rates are reviewable every year. Ali says the bank is work- ing toward 100-per-cent use of AFAs. "We are trying to hit that, but we know it's not doable in all cases," he says. When Ali took on the role of legal counsel and senior adviser on the technology & operations le- gal team, a signifi cant change he introduced was to bring in a contracts liaison under his supervision. In less than a year, it diverted more than 30 per cent of lower-risk matters to be man- aged more effi ciently without senior lawyer review, allowing senior legal resources to focus on more high-risk, complex, and strategic matters. SANDRA STRANGEMORE SECOND SNAPSHOT T H E L A W Y E R : Imdad Ali T H E C O M P A N Y : BMO Financial Group • Called to the bar in the U.K. in 2008 and Canada in 2014. • Joined BMO's legal, corporate, and compliance group in 2012. • Certified as a barrister-at-law, England and Wales. • LLM Legal Practice — Inns of Court School of Law, City University of London. • LLB in commercial law from University of Westminster. • BA Radio and Television Arts, Ryerson University. CATEGORY: Tomorrow's Leader DEPARTMENT SIZE: Large COMPANY: BMO Financial Group

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