Canadian Lawyer InHouse

15 CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/INHOUSE JULY 2016 BY JENNIFER BROWN or a number of years now, we've all read and heard about the growth of the in-house legal department. The banks and telcos led this charge, steadily increasing their legal headcount as they discovered the value of having more lawyers employed internally to handle a variety of matters, especially the growing regulatory burden. Other sectors followed suit. But lately, the buzz in most sectors seems to be more of hold- ing the line, or growing cautiously while at the same time narrowing the roster of external partners. In some cases, cutbacks are happening in-house. It seems our panel of in-house counsel for this year's annual roundtable fi ts that trend mod- el. For our 11 th Canadian Lawyer InHouse Annual General Counsel Roundtable, we brought together the heads of legal departments from a range of sectors — old and new economy — but the common thread in the discussion was the challenge of how to do it all under con- stant budget pressure, often in times of growth but also with diminishing or fl at revenue. PayPal, Dell Canada, Alterna Savings, Navistar Canada, and Randstad Canada are all challenged to be both innovative and cost-effective in the incredibly competitive markets in which they all operate. In some cases, such as that of Barbara Silverberg at Dell Canada, the way legal services is procured is being driven by the way the rest of the company has done business for years. Silverberg talked about the company's use of reverse online auctions for large, repeatable litigation matters. For about fi ve years now, law fi rms wanting to do big- ticket litigation business with Dell have had to agree to this highly competitive process where there is no room for "beauty pageants" or glossy law fi rm proposals. On the upside, this was the fi rst year I heard in-house counsel tell me they are seeing law fi rms making real efforts to do business differently. Silverberg says there's been a "noticeable difference" in fi rms being more proactive and trying to be more creative in how they go after business. As Robert Soccio of Navistar Canada put it, given the economic climate in Canada, there's always pressure these days on service providers to bring more to the table. So in our discus- sion Soccio and his peers discussed what they are seeing law fi rms offering to show additional value. And while we talked about alternative fee arrangements and requests for proposals, they all seemed to agree that for them, relationships still matter and still dictate who gets a good quantity of work. Budgets also fi gured prominently in our discussion. As Jason Young of PayPal pointed out, legal spend is primarily driven by what the business is doing. Knowing what the business needs is also key to being valued as in-house lawyers, says Lara Speirs of Randstad Canada. During our discussion, Speirs said: "I think it's also about rethinking how the legal depart- ment is viewed. Are you just a cost centre or can you be part of the strategic growth of the industry and the company?" Young also made the point that while in-house counsel are often these days working to scale back on the number of fi rms they are working with, that kind of exercise can be mutually benefi cial for those who are ultimately chosen. "I think when you are able to give more business to fewer fi rms, you are helping them better understand your business and that's going to help you in the long run." I hope you fi nd the discussion informative and relatable to your own experience. Watch for the video coverage of the roundtable at Canadianlawyermag.com/inhouse. JOHN HRYNIUK PHOTOGRAPHY F In our 11th Annual General Counsel Roundtable, fi ve in-house lawyers from a variety of sectors and law departments give the straight talk on the reality of lean times. Alena Thouin General counsel and corporate secretary, Alterna Savings and Alterna Bank sponsored by:

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