Canadian Lawyer InHouse

JANUARY 2017 22 INHOUSE Toronto is the fi rst location outside of the U.S., Romano explains, that has a "no strings attached model." "Johnson and Johnson doesn't receive any shares in the companies it works with and these companies are free to enter into deals with competitors of Johnson and Johnson," he says. "That's unique — typically with incubators, the price of admission is that a percentage of equity in the company is of- fered or there is a royalty involved. With JLABS there are no strings attached." Romano worked on the transaction that brought JLABS to Toronto. "I've been sup- porting JLABS globally this past year for their day-to-day operations," he says. "We have a program where we make third-party service providers available to the startup companies." Even though he is based in Canada, Roma- no provides support to the program globally. His full-time responsibility is to Janssen Canada where he supports the immunology and oncology business in Canada. But he is enjoying the time he is dedicating to JLABS. One of the things JLABS has done a lot of is quick-fi re challenges — basically a Drag- on's Den-like challenge where people can submit their ideas and if selected are given lab space at JLABS for free. In setting up the challenges, Romano is involved in reviewing the terms and condi- tions. "We just did one called World Without Disease — a global challenge — and the winner could receive a cash award and/or a choice of lab space at any JLABS location," he explains. Romano says Janssen's involvement is a refl ection that companies realize not all in- novation can occur under their own roof. "There are a lot of extremely bright people coming out of university, and entrepreneurs attack things differently and solve problems differently. The idea of providing an incu- bator is that you create the opportunity and see what takes hold. The whole idea of a no strings attached model like JLABS is if you get all the great minds working together and creating, maybe they don't all sign up with Johnson and Johnson at the end, but if you raise the tide all the boats go up." Romano says it's about trying to encour- age an innovative environment to fi nd the next cure or next great invention. In the past, companies typically tried to do inven- tions in-house. Another interesting project the legal de- partment is involved with is a Startup Im- mersion Pilot. "We realized there is a lot of what en- trepreneurs bring to the table in terms of energy and vitality that could be good for lawyers to be exposed to as well," he says. "We've created this pilot in the U.S. and Europe and Toronto where we partnered with a startup company and asked to learn to think like them. The idea is we would learn about their business, get a better under- standing of what it's like to be an entrepre- neur and the lawyer would be able to share experiences in the industry so when they go to [their] adviser they are better organized." The lawyers share their experience deal- ing with venture capitalists or investors — providing some perspective on what a com- pany like J&J would look for when deciding with whom to collaborate or invest. "It's been an opportunity to learn more about companies in the industry and get out of our comfort zone," he says. "One thing about going in-house is you tend to just sup- port your business and you don't have that outward-facing role external counsel typi- cally has, so this is an attempt to bring that back into our own in-house practice — to get lawyers to think like entrepreneurs." Romano has also helped put together a series of "Let's talk legal" workshops rolled out in partnership with an external law fi rm, on issues such as business issues, protecting intellectual property and venture fi nancing. It is designed as a course presented in col- laboration with Johnson and Johnson Inno- vation. "It's not a typical role for an in-house lawyer chatting with startups and giving general advice," he says. IH any general counsel will tell you these days that they are moving closer to the front lines of business all the time. Once part of a legal department set off from the rest of operations, they are now often embedded, seen as key players in actively assisting in propelling business forward day to day. Matthew Snell has seen that happen, especially so in the last few years as IBM's business moves toward a more agile econo- my where clients need faster response times to what their own businesses demand in order to stay competitive. Snell, who is general counsel and secretary for IBM Canada, is part of an integrated global team at the IT giant. The legal team for IBM in Canada includes 27 people, many focused on customer-facing transactions. "We defi nitely see ourselves as part of the customer- facing team," he says. "We sit with the customers and the Matthew Snell, General counsel and secretary, IBM Canada BY JENNIFER BROWN

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