Canadian Lawyer InHouse

60-SECOND mortgage documentation to eight pages in plain language from the original 37 pages. "To be seen as a strategic business partner in-house — that is my goal," says Skakun. "Then it's to get our outside coun- sel on board with that, too. They need to be a strategic business partner and deliver their products in an innovative way." Extending the brand to the legal department Skakun has applied the company's approach to its customers to the way she wants to provide service to her internal clients. "We have a great tool at Coast Capital aimed at providing customers with real and timely financial help — it's called the 'Where You're At Money Chat' and looks at four areas — manage, save, grow, and protect. We have taken that concept and created the 'Where We're At Legal Chat,'" she says. Under the category of "manage," the department provides legal advice and project management on a variety of topics. Under "save" it oversees internal and exter- nal legal services, costs, and relationship management. Under "grow" the depart- ment aims to do everything in alignment with corporate direction and strategy, and under "protect" it has a mandate to iden- tify and oversee legal risk. "So while we track litigation, negotiate contracts, deal with regulatory matters, address legisla- tive changes, assist on human resources issues, work with the board of directors, undertake large documentation projects, etc. — we do all of it in alignment with our corporate strategy and mission, purpose, and values," she explains. A love of the deal and an entrepreneurial spirit After law school Skakun articled at Stikeman Elliott and later returned to Vancouver to work at Farris Vaughan Wills & Murphy LLP. "Eventually it was at the point where I was about to have the 'do you want to be a partner or not' dis- cussion when I got a call from a startup," she says. She left Farris Vaughan to go in- house at Burnaby, B.C.-based Xantrex Technology Inc., a company in the solar power industry. She was involved in SNAPSHOT THE LAWYER: Lisa Skakun THE COMPANY: Coast Capital Savings Credit Union • Started first in-house department for Coast Capital Savings in 2010 • Recipient of the Western Canada Tomorrow's Leader award • Attended University of British Columbia Law School (LLB) and Osgoode Hall Law School (LLM, Business Law) • Co-chair of judy&company Leaders Cabinet, an initiative of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation • Business book recommendation: Small Giants: Companies That Choose to be Great Instead of Big, by Bo Burlingham. Smallgiantsbook.com several acquisitions the company made and the eventual sale of the business to global giant Schneider Electric. "[Xantrex] had grown to a point where it was going to sell or become larger so I took that opportunity on, and it was a great three years of doing acquisitions, then it was sold to Schneider Electric," she says. After the sale, Skakun became coun- sel for Schneider's Canadian companies. It was a big change and she realized it was probably no longer a good fit for her. "You go from being the direct contact with the board of directors to being one of 250,000 employees worldwide and one of over 1,000 subsidiaries. It wasn't for me," she says. Skakun was thinking about going back into private practice when she received a call from a recruiter asking if she would be available to meet with the chief executive officer from Coast Capital Savings Credit Union. "I told them, 'I'm not a banking lawyer.' But they said, 'No, they don't want anyone who has been a banking lawyer with pre-conceived notions of the indus- try or how the job should be done'." Building a department and giving back Her legal department is small, but she has been innovative in bringing together the help she needs to make it work efficiently. In addition to a paralegal, a corporate secretary to the board, and an assistant, Skakun successfully recruited two articling students from the University of Victoria who have been working with her depart- ment for the past nine months. During their time with Coast they were seconded for six weeks to external counsel but were about to leave in February to begin the bar admission course. "In their absence, we will have a student seconded from one of our external counsel. The articling process has been a huge success and we plan to continue the program this fall," says Skakun, who also sees it as a means to give back to the community. "We all know articling positions are scarce and in last year's economy quite a number of students didn't get articling positions. It's been a great process." Skakun knows the value of getting hands-on experience. She worked as a paralegal for C.M. Oliver & Co. Ltd. (now part of Canaccord Wealth Management) brokerage house before going to law school. The experience solidified the type of law she wanted to practice. Getting external counsel to step up When Skakun arrived at Coast Capital the company was using multiple outside law firms. She issued a request for proposal and narrowed the field to a few firms, then did a presentation to them on how Coast approaches innovation. Her idea was to get them on board with providing differ- ent ways to handle legal fees in the future. "I think you get better service if they understand your business and its chal- lenges and risks. I think some in-house lawyers are hesitant to approach their external counsel about this. It's about rela- tionship building and part of strengthen- ing it is letting them know your expecta- tions," she says. She believes the firms that tackle the issue of providing services differently will be successful in changing the status quo. "I don't think anyone has nailed it yet because they don't have to. I think it will be a mid-tier-size firm that will say, 'How do we steal work away?' It's what the mar- ket will bear." IH INHOUSE APRIL 2012 • 37

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