Canadian Lawyer InHouse

19 CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/INHOUSE JULY 2017 themselves. For us, it's the reason we draw upon the good relationships we have with external providers — it makes the trajectory of building a relationship that much easier. REBICK: Does that make you more likely to stick with your traditional relationships as opposed to trying new things? OZYETIS: I think for us it does. As Peter said, we are always exploring ways to doing things more effi - ciently, and when it comes to things like technology, I'm receptive to that, but when it comes to new relationships, it takes time and effort to be meaningful and that's the commod - ity that's not easily available, that time to do that initially. REBICK: Are you finding the external firms taking on that cost investment themselves? NGUYEN: I certainly am. I used to see the law firm relationship as traditionally being very much one-way. In the past year . . . [we] have worked it out with our new counsel who is very much open to change and we've worked out a plan for them to work with us to better learn our business. He will come in and sit down with all our key executives and map out a strategy rather than me telling him directly: "These are my priorities for the year. How are you and your firm and associates going to get there?" It's not a conversation about fees at all, it's about how is the relationship going and quality of the work and setting me and my team up to be successful with a standard set of documentation so I don't have to call them for very basic things that I have imme - diate access to it. I attended a conference in March where a CMO talked about putting all their materials up in a portal — stan- dard agreements and closing books are there — very self-service oriented. A small firm in Cleveland had set up a portal for their cli- ents. That's very appealing to me. Anything lawyers and law firms can do to re-think the relationship is certainly appealing to me; it's no longer a one-way dialogue. For us, assum - ing data security issues get taken care of, the tradeoff for ease of use and accessibility is re- ally, really appealing. 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 decision-making. TERRA REBICK, Thomson Reuters Canada As business partners, we are required to function in that environment at a very high level. It's that ability to cope with change and be agile that I'm really looking for. VESELY: Approach matters. The ability to problem solve and get across the finish line in a polite way — you need people you can get along with. INHOUSE: What challenges do you have with your external counsel? COTRONEO: I require them to be an exten- sion of my own internal team and to effec- tively do that I need them to have a deep un- derstanding of our business priorities, of our culture, of our history, of our clients. That requires time and investment. My biggest challenge is finding that time and making that investment, certainly with a new pro - vider, so they can most effectively provide what we need in a quick and efficient way. OZYETIS: It also creates a challenge for the external service provider because quite frankly there are so many now. Especially in an environment when you're looking to explore a new provider, it's difficult for external providers to differentiate business acu - men is impor- tant to us. Like everyone else is say- ing, being technology-savvy is important. We currently have a product I'm using from our own internal product that I'm trying to build an application on and I would expect anyone from our team would be able to do that and be very com - fortable with not just to be a lawyer and review or draft documents — I would want him or her to be open to all sorts of things. OZYETIS: I think that's a critical soft skill now. In addition to having the technological background and ability to understand data and privacy and all the surrounding issues, the ability to change track quickly is critical and knowing your day to day is going to be very different. STERNTHAL: I think it's an area where law - yers are particularly well trained to adapt to continuous learning and that we, being former lawyers in private practice, possess. COTRONEO: At its base I think we're look- ing for real intellectual horsepower but also the ability to work in that area of ambiguity and in a less structured environment than it ever was before. Capital One is a bank so you wouldn't think that would necessarily be the case, but we have adopted management practices that are very agile and lean based.

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