Canadian Lawyer InHouse

41 CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/INHOUSE SEPTEMBER 2017 F or both small and large organizations, understanding how to use data to better inform future decisions is an ongoing chal- lenge. It's there to be made use of, but many legal departments have yet to embrace the rewards data can deliver. "I'm a bit of a data person. I was an invest- ment banker before I was a lawyer so, for me, we do a lot of repeatable transactions and there's a real opportunity if you're able to gen- erate the data to actually have a better sense of what you're doing or how you're spending with your external law fi rm partners," says Brooke Hales, senior counsel at TD Bank in the corporate and treasury groups. "Some- times, I think there is a bit of hesitancy to use the data, but there is a lot of power in the data if you're willing to harness it." Hales recently undertook an initiative at TD Bank that involved rationalizing all external law fi rm billings for the group she represents and setting up a system to track deal costs and pricing systematically. This will enable TD to manage its external le- gal spend in a more organized manner and make smart pricing decisions. She has also led a number of innovative transactions for TD including its fi rst subor- dinated debt public offering into the United States. Having come into the in-house group at TD just two years ago, her nominators in- dicate these are great accomplishments. "These are skills that one would typi- cally see in counsel with many more years of in-house experience," said Wendi Locke, partner at McCarthy Tétrault LLP, who nominated Hales. A former investment banker with Gold- man Sachs, Hales holds a law degree and an economics degree from Harvard University. She is called to the bar in New York, Con- necticut and Ontario, having passed the U.S. bar exams based on her own initiative. "Having worked at a Bay Street fi rm then at TD for eight years and managed the same legal team where Brooke works, I can sin- cerely say that Brooke is the most insight- ful, intelligent and analytical young lawyer I have worked with," said Jennifer Lee, vice president with TD Bank, one of three indi- viduals who nominated Hales. "Hales has negotiated innovative fl at fee arrangements and completely reorganized the way the team processes bills per trans- action, allowing the team to better see and understand billing trends and manage ex- penses," said Lee. "For example, Brooke's billing project resulted in the closure or consolidation of close to 10 'general mat- ter' fi les, pushing billing to be more accu- rately bucketed and fees ultimately reduced. In other cases, Brooke has negotiated per transaction spend reduction of more than 10 per cent per transaction." Hales says at the beginning it was about "changing habits" — originally there was billing to just the general matter buckets Lee referred to. "We would open individual matters for each issuance that we did, so it's a little bit more work upfront, but by doing this, we were able to generate the type of data we needed to see exactly how much we spent on each type of issuance and was it more in certain jurisdictions? And was there a reduction as we did more of the same type of issuance going forward?" she says. "The result is that we have a much clearer picture of our external counsel spend, so we're able to tell by issuance what we spend with various fi rms and look for opportuni- ties to reduce that," she says. Hales has been working in-house for fi ve years and was called to the bar in 2010. She is also a member of Women in Capital Mar- kets, sits on the paraprofessionals commit- tee at TD and is involved in TD's United Way fundraising efforts. IH Grabbing hold of the power in data By Jennifer Brown RAMESH PURADCHITHASAN Brooke Hales, senior counsel at TD Bank Category: Tomorrow's Leader Department size: Large Company: TD Bank

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