Canadian Lawyer InHouse

SEPTEMBER 2017 36 INHOUSE Toronto (left): Tony Linardi, Juan Bracho, Jaebeom Kwon, Fiona O'Brien, and Joan Didriksen. [Vancouver team] Alyse Wilkinson, Mary Wharton, Nicole Clark. D uring the continued downturn in the oil and gas and mining industries, it was important for Golder Associates Ltd., a global engineering company focused in the energy sector, to manage risk across the board and still remain competitive. Building on its "Making Legal Services Better" campaign, the legal team under the leadership of Canadian general counsel Tony Linardi embarked upon phase two of its initiative. "By being involved at the earliest stage of a business opportunity, we're better able to help the operations team assess the real risk involved in a project and develop an ex- ecution plan," says Linardi, GC, corporate secretary and principal in Canada, oversee- ing teams in Vancouver, Calgary and Mis- sissauga. All levels of the company agreed that risk management was the key vehicle for the legal team to add commercial value to the bottom line. This was done by building trust and targeting high-value legal assis- tance associated with "Project Risk." "As a consulting engineering fi rm, with thousands of design and construction proj- ects around the globe, managing project risk is key to our survival," says Linardi. The development of a structured Proj- ect Risk Committee approval process was required, but to create an effi cient model to work for a company where a $1,000 con- crete testing project in Canada could create the same or more liability as a $25-million solid waste landfi ll project in Africa was a challenge. A system was created that did not just rely on the typical dollar value for thresholds. Instead, a qualitative approach was taken so that the PRC would be triggered by real risk, not an arbitrary dollar value. Approxi- mately 25 PRC distinct triggers were fi nal- ized of actual risk factors (scope of service, complexity of the project, geographic loca- tion, contract terms, technology use, etc.). Alyse Wilkinson, team leader, senior contract specialist, and Mary Wharton, ex- ecutive assistant, were the "stars" of the pro- gram, says Linardi. Wilkinson took on the initiative to ensure that the principals and associates who were used to "calling their own shots" understood that this was an evo- lution of the risk management program. "She rolled up her sleeves to fi ll the 'ex- ecution gap' that existed between the design and implementation of the process," says Linardi. Working through the applicable trigger(s) with project teams to determine how to best mitigate risk, increase profi t and present to the PRC, Wilkinson modifi ed the templates and process and developed frequently asked questions and training components to help focus on key objectives. She found ways to fi ll the gap between management and op- erations and streamlined the process so that items could be approved by email and projects unlikely to succeed could be abandoned at an early stage, saving proposal costs and effort. She then worked with each individual legal team member to ensure they knew the pro- Gaining trust, tackling risk and adding commercial value By Jennifer Brown Category: Risk Management Department size: Small Company: Golder Associates Ltd. ROBIN KUNISKI

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