Canadian Lawyer InHouse

JULY 2017 16 INHOUSE NEIL STERNTHAL: Obviously we're in a peri- od of tremendous transformation in the legal profession where everyone is being asked to do more with less. We're hearing persistently that the in-house bar is increasingly capable to do more and more tasks and you also have increasing pressures including regulatory and compliance pressures. We're honoured to have you here today from the in-house bar. INHOUSE: Considering all of your day-to-day challenges, what is your No. 1 challenge in-house right now? NGUYEN: It's the growth of the business and everything that comes with that. When I started with the company, we had 80 em- ployees and we have now grown to 120 with an expectation of growing organically and through mergers and acquisitions. All the issues such as pressure on budget, regula- tory issues, staffing — it all comes from the growth of the business. As we expand into the U.S., Middle East and New Zealand, I need to start thinking about how does my legal budget grow with that and align with our financial expectations to be financially prudent for shareholders while also meeting the needs of the business. The growth of the business really drives all my calculations. OZYETIS: The loyalty landscape is changing a lot and so my biggest challenge is keeping an eye on that. With the passage of the changes to the Consumer Protection Act in Ontario that took place in December, there's a consul - tation process that's underway with respect to the regulations under it so in terms of the scope and how much that's going to change how loyalty programs operate is the one chal- lenge we have our eye on. As well, because the Air Miles program is a national program, it remains to be seen what other provinces will effect change in that area and how the chang- es will impact the program in that area. COTRONEO: Leaving aside the constantly evolving compliance landscape, I think my greatest challenge and opportunity is re- ally keeping up with the challenges of our digital transformation. We are growing our tech capability in Canada exponentially. We are extremely digitally focused and keeping up with the pace of that transformation is a great opportunity for us as lawyers and ment, intellectual property, prosecution of trademarks. I've also worked with alternative service providers and started thinking about how we can leverage their skillsets. As we do M&A, is there a way to have due diligence done by professionals other than lawyers? I've certainly had conversations with profes - sionals as to how we might do that. I'm al- ways interested in new ideas and leveraging technology. We are a technology organiza- tion and like to work with organizations that think about issues in different ways. INHOUSE: Pinar, how are you approaching what work you keep in-house and what you send out? OZYETIS: I identify a lot with what Neil said about doing more with less. That is the one pervasive theme I deal with on a day-to- day basis. I think our routine work actually needs to be kept in-house because it requires such a familiar knowledge of what our stan - dards are. For us, we're always balancing the different interests of our partners and that of our consumer-facing side — the collec- tors in the program versus the program it- self. To get to that place where you have that balance takes some time and that's before getting to the heart of whatever particular legal matter there is. For us, the more spe - cialized work will be outsourced to external business partners. It is about how to best partner, be agile and bring creative solu- tions to our business partners. VESELY: I have three main challenges and they are not dissimilar to what anyone here has already talked about. One is growth of the business. We've been around for just shy of 20 years and there is still something very early stage about the company. We're look - ing at all the ways to grow and the chal- lenges that come along with that. Reg- ulation is a huge issue. Cost is a huge issue. I think we're well poised to deal with that because we have deep quan- titative expertise in-house and tech- nology has always been a part of what we do. But learning how to leverage that particularly with our client base is something that we struggle with. INHOUSE: Peter, is growing a legal team going to be part of Resolver's own growth? NGUYEN: Absolutely, that's certainly the plan for 2017 and beyond. As we add new businesses and entities to the organization, there is a strong point being made by me to our CEO that we need to add additional le - gal professionals. The ultimate plan is to try to have a legal department that is very op- erational in nature that can turn out docu- ments and meet the needs of the business in a purely operational manner. When I think of the type of people I want to add, they aren't necessarily lawyers — they are people who have certain skillsets with strong op - erational capabilities. As we try to scale, we want to automate as much of the legal work as possible and certainly understanding that there are some things that can't be automat- ed, but we want to turn out our customer agreements as quickly as possible and try to use technology as much as possible and use different skillsets as we grow our business. INHOUSE: For now are you still sending a lot of work out to external firms or experimenting with different service providers? NGUYEN: I've done a bit of both. We do cer- tainly rely on our external counsel for work that is beyond the realm of my core compe- tency whether that is labour and employ-

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