Canadian Lawyer InHouse

17 CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/INHOUSE JULY 2017 counsel, but we have very tight relationships with those external counsel and they're intimately aware of what we're aiming to achieve with any particular project. INHOUSE: You mentioned Intellectual property work that you manage. Are you using IP firms or full-service firms? OZYETIS: Our trademarks strategy, for ex- ample, is an interesting one and we've taken a mark that is fairly generic, which is the Air Miles family of trademarks, and made a fairly recognizable brand out of that. It was a chal- lenge and involved a lengthy and ongoing trademark strategy. For something like that we'd have to consistently use the same firm and same strategy to effectively execute that. So that's an example of where there is always good depth in our relationships and I think that benefits us organizationally as a whole. INHOUSE: Andrea, at Capital One, is the way in which the business is growing changing how you are staffing or sourcing help externally? COTRONEO: It definitely changes the com- position of the talent I want to bring in and retain. My personal philosophy is that I want the most interesting and strategic work to be kept in-house, and that is for a number of reasons. I think my team is certainly closest to the business, to its objectives and can more effectively execute due to that role. I tend to engage external counsel in highly special - ized areas. I think we all probably do that. Employment is one of those, and complex litigation because we do have a whole litiga- tion portfolio in-house. Those are trusted relationships. They are highly specialized. I am much more focused on keeping the tal- ent in-house interested and engaged and that tends to be around the technology-based work. It also allows me to create opportuni- ties for my team. I have a fairly large team of lawyers and it's about creating opportunities and career paths for them. Because I do have a few different areas of risk and other areas I manage such as government relations, I'm also giving them cross-functional opportunities. We also partner with our colleagues in compliance to effectively find opportunities to grow sideways now rather than grow up all of the time. It's my personal philosophy to keep that most interesting work close so we can do that and partner with not only my colleagues in Canada but across our other jurisdictions across the U.S. and U.K. to find opportunities for my team. Like Peter said, it's not necessarily about adding lawyers but it's about where the work should reside, whether it's a parapro - fessional, a junior lawyer, a more special- ized subject matter expert or compliance expert. We are constantly evaluating how that work is divided within my team and trying to push out the low-value, high- touch work and find the better opportuni - ties to create job satisfaction. INHOUSE: As Capital One is a larger global organization, do you have access to or have you tried alternative service providers? COTRONEO: We have done a lot of it, actually. We have tried alternative le- gal providers and some of those established legal service providers. Today, I have an employment lawyer who sits with my team three days a week. In the past, we've had the same model for contract overflow two days a week. This is about highly specialized work that doesn't warrant a full-time lawyer. We are about to embark on a new arrangement for a two- to- three-month project that is essentially document review. We're about to try a new provider on that who will provide qualified lawyers to sit with my team and complete that project. We are constantly looking at getting the right balance of external and internal. When a full-time employee isn't warranted, it has been a good solution for us. We are using a different provider for docu - ment review and it was very driven by fees and I did go out for quotes on that work. I'm very interested in project management work. I have no experience with it, but I would be interested to learn more about project management. INHOUSE: Megan, do you think about trying to make the case to bring in another lawyer? VESELY: For sure, I think that's certainly where we're looking. For me, it's certainly created an opportunity to be a real general - ist across disciplines and functions as well as across jurisdictions. We manage hedge fund portfolios and most of the hedge funds The loyalty landscape is changing a lot and so my biggest challenge is keeping an eye on that. PINAR OZYETIS, Air Miles

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