Canadian Lawyer InHouse

37 CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/INHOUSE SEPTEMBER 2017 For more than 100 years, Alterna Savings and Credit Union Ltd. has been helping Ontarians achieve their nancial goals and build strong, vibrant communities. We share our commitment to co-operative values with more than 143,000 members, and hold over $5.2 billion in assets under administration through 34 branches and online. Find out more at Alterna.ca Integrity People above Pro ts Excellence Congratulations Alena Thouin on your Innovatio Award for Law Department Leadership, from all of us at Alterna! alterna savings alterna savings alterna savings For more than 100 years, Alterna Savings and Credit Union Ltd. has been helping Ontarians achieve their nancial goals and build strong, vibrant communities. We share our commitment to co-operative values with more than 143,000 members, and hold over $5.2 billion in assets under administration through 34 branches and online. Find out more at Alterna.ca Integrity People above Pro ts Excellence Congratulations Alena Thouin cess, before it was rolled out to their regions. Wharton developed a reporting system of conditions not only for approvals but also for monitoring compliance with the conditions that the PRC had set. Even if a project was ap - proved, it wasn't carte blanche; the proposal may have conditions or the project may have monitoring obligations during execution. The implementation and revisions to the process led by Wilkinson and Wharton not only manage risk but also save the company money by having Golder focus on pursuits that are likely to be more profitable. An ad - ditional piece was the integration of this process directly into the sales funnel. In addition to the PRC, the team targeted finance, human resources, claims manage- ment, real estate and procurement to see if legal could help manage some of the risk in their groups. FINANCE AND COLLECTIONS "Daily Sales Outstanding" is a key cost to many businesses. Legal usually doesn't get involved until a large claim arises for non- payment. Wilkinson contacted more than 100 of the company's largest DSO offenders and created a "hit list." Within three weeks of initial contact, $4 million of the $11 mil - lion of revenue stuck in overdue DSO was back in Golder's pockets. Thereafter, a joint finance-legal team working group was de- veloped. The new automated process gives the legal team weekly cash flow reports, with insights into overdue accounts, in or- der to have the right team member assist with the collection. Now, due diligence is performed at an earlier stage and the project team works with legal and finance so that vi - able collections are handled internally, with only the outliers going to an external col- lections group. The process has now been implemented across North America. HUMAN RESOURCES Nicole Clark, senior legal counsel, was charged with making the corporate services teams feel as though they weren't an after- thought when it came to obtaining help from the legal group. The biggest impact was in the relationship with human resources. With the decline in oil prices and mining, significant restructuring occurred, includ - ing more than 400 terminations in a short period of time. Working with HR, looking at available transitions and performance im- provement plans, she found a working for- mula to balance Golder's obligations with the demands of employees. An intake form, combined with a unique severance calcula- tor, allowed for proper discussions to occur. Clark's handling of all employment-related disputes created a streamlined and consis- tent process, which resulted in less than one per cent of restructuring events commenc- ing any litigation. CLAIMS MANAGEMENT Fiona O'Brien, national insurance co-ordi- nator, and Linardi determined a Risk Man- agement Information System would greatly increase efficiencies in handling litigation

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