Canadian Lawyer InHouse

JULY 2017 18 INHOUSE we oversee are in the U.S. or Europe and the regulatory regime in both is something we have to be conscious of; not to mention what's happening here in Canada. I work very closely with the operations team as well as the risk team and the overlap between those groups is extreme. I sometimes wonder where the one stops and [the] other starts. REBICK: I think it's the great opportunity and great thing about being a GC or in- house counsel now is the fact the roles are changing and integrated with the business and that you are such a key part of the deci - sion-making. I learned this about five years ago when I started in-house that sometimes you have to teach people you work with that you aren't there to say here are all the rea - sons why you can't do it — here are all the things I think will make it better. It's given GC and lawyers a great opportunity and, hopefully, that will just continue. OZYETIS: It also adds a whole new functionality to the role. Now it's about problem solving and find- ing efficiencies. Historically, I wouldn't have identified that as part of the role, but I think it is very much part of our day to day. S T E R N T H A L : What are some of the specific skillsets you're looking for in terms of lawyers you're hiring? Is it proj - ect management or data sci- entists? What sort of things are you looking for from lawyers and non-lawyers? VESELY: This has actually surprised me. I just had an intern who is going through a Masters program in mathematical finance and is about to graduate and is applying to law school. This guy blew me away. He could code, he knew the financial markets, he could write. His ability to articulate himself and argue and problem solve was just incredible and he is a 23- [or] 24-year- old kid. I thought, man, this is exactly where the profession is going — you have to be that rounded in order to succeed. I think even in the last two years what I've learned in terms of what the regulators are focused on and we see it in the financial services sec - tor in terms of algorithm review and trad- ing review — the level of sophistication is so extreme now. It's certainly not where it was 10 years ago when I started practising. COTRONEO: I have had the same experi- ence. We are a highly data-driven company built on data analysis and we have teams of data analysts. I am looking for team mem- bers who can interact and communicate with those folks. I have a lawyer on my team who is an ex-data analyst from Capital One who came back after law school. I am certainly seeing a very different skillset in my younger team members in that ability to interpret, to understand our use of data and our technology evolution is becoming absolutely critical. NGUYEN: For us, as I start to think about the type of role I want to bring on, certainly 12th Annual Canadian Lawyer InHouse General Counsel Roundtable Visit canadianlawyermag.com/inhouse to see our video coverage of these topics: Top challenges of managing in-house, online July 10 Managing external counsel, July 17 Alterna ve fee arrangements, July 24 Hiring for tomorrow, online July 31

• Cover
• _GoBack