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process is one that is never finished. "This is an evolving, long-term Burt, however, says the recovery strategy of developing new modules, shifting to identifying new potential recoveries, stopping doing things that aren't making much of a difference, but I would say one of the most important features in an older company like ours is that there's a culture shift that has to occur. We have moved from a culture of conflict avoidance, less formalized approach may be the most appropriate way to achieve some level of recovery without the extra pressure that such a program may put on a smaller in-house department's workload. "Even if in Canada we don't imple- For some Canadian companies, a " he says. ment something like this on a whole- sale basis, there are certain aspects of it that can certainly be used to show value in the legal department, I don't mean dollars and cents value necessar- ily, ognition that measurable targets bring to an in-house department is hard to ignore. "For better or worse, I think a lot of " says Lilley. Indeed, some lawyers say the rec- times in-house groups are seen as cost centres, so to be able to go to manage- ment and provide a way which you may be able to give back to the company and help the company find money it would otherwise not have access to, I think is a very beneficial thing, participation in a recovery program is one obvious incentive DuPont is still working on, Burt says sometimes noth- ing will advance your career better than delivering value to the business. "If you can win a lawsuit, While rewarding lawyers for their " says Lawless. great, but if what you did was to pro- tect the asset or an important market or a supply stream or an outlet, if you protected a price, if you opened up possibilities for the businesses that were not open before, that's going to get noticed and it really gives people licence to think beyond the traditional role of contract," he says. For companies looking to start a recovery program, Burt suggests that's This year our experts will examine the increasingly complex issue of risk management and the signi cant role senior legal counsel can play in working with the executive team in this area. Sponsored by For more information contact InHouse editor Jennifer Brown at jen.brown@thomsonreuters.com INHOUSE/ACC General Counsel Roundtable INHOUSE 7th Annual August 2012 COMING IN having "buy-in" from senior manage- ment, both in the legal and corporate sections of the business. Programs also need to be data-driven with systems in place to track what in-house depart- ments achieve, he says, as a precisely managed and defensible program will have a good chance of growing and attracting more resources from busi- ness managers. While recovery initiatives are undoubtedly already in Canadian in- house departments on an informal basis, that the discussion will continue with programs like this expected to become more common in the in-house world as companies try to be more efficient. "I think the trend is there, I think some lawyers are anticipating this is going to happen. It's not a ques- tion of if, it's a question of when and how fast," says Dhawan. IH Weirfoulds_Roundtable_IH_June_12.indd 1 INHOUSE JUNE/JULY 2012 • 12-05-10 1:56 PM 33

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