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CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/INHOUSE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015
Manage better by measuring
Pressure to prove value
internally causing more
in-house teams to
embrace metrics and
benchmarking.
BY JENNIFER BROWN
L a w D e p a r t m e n t M a n a g e m e n t
AS CANADIAN corporate legal depart-
ments continue to grow in size, collecting
data about spending and benchmarking
against how others perform is becoming
"table stakes," a room of in-house lawyers
heard in Toronto recently.
Leading the pack on in-house metrics
and benchmarking are Canada's big banks.
At the Association of Corporate Counsel's
Law Department Leadership 2.0 conference
in Toronto Sept. 21, representatives from
BMO Financial Group and the Royal Bank
of Canada spoke to the challenge of tack-
ling it all during a session entitled: Show me
what you do! Demonstrating the value-add
of your legal department.
In-house have always wrestled with how
best to manage the impression they are
a cost centre and not a revenue generator.
While providing good advice and being a
great lawyer is always the goal, it's become
a "given" and like all other business units,
legal must justify costs on top of managing
risk. There's also the increased expectation
from internal stakeholders for what legal's
role should be. That means corporate coun-
sel need to be able tell a good story about
the kind of value they are bringing overall.
In-house leaders need to be able to under-
stand, measure, and improve the cost effec-
tiveness of the legal department.
Bindu Cudjoe, deputy general counsel and
chief administrative offi cer with BMO, said
there has been a "fundamental shift" in terms
of legal department focus on how external
fi rms are bringing value to their clients.
"Thank you for the glossy brochures,
bios, and information on where you are
ranked with Chambers, but the point is
how are you going to help us demonstrate
value?" she asked, referencing the revolution
around value-based billing, alternative
