Canadian Lawyer - sample

34 N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7 w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m Cullen says at his organization "it is absolutely in the top identified risks in our enterprise risk management framework. "It's a strategic issue that should be on the board's radar," he says, adding it's not hyperbole to say a breach can destroy a company overnight. "If you have a global organization, you don't want to be the Canadian entity that allows a cyber-event." Cullen says he pays very close attention to law firms — they are vendors that "con- tain a lot of highly confidential informa- tion that's very valuable to a bunch of rich clients and can be leveraged in extortions," and even high-quality protection systems are not infallible. "Maybe you can be soft on other aspects of the contract, but this is some- thing we have to be tough on." In the "other" section of the question, the issue of privacy was mentioned. Wendy Lawrence, program chairwoman at the Association of Corporate Counsel and director of compliance and privacy at The Hospital for Sick Children, says privacy is a "key consideration" for organizations today, both in terms of compliance with evolved privacy laws such as PIPEDA and PHIPA and data security. "In my role, I am constantly monitor- ing privacy incidents in our industry and re-assessing our privacy compliance framework to ensure it continues to be effective at preventing privacy incidents from occurring and keeping the hospital prepared should an incident occur," Law- rence says. Today, almost all organizations need to deal with some level of personal informa- tion in their operations, she notes, which means privacy protection is essential to doing business. Cullen says his company works hard to make sure it has proper breach response processes. "At the end of the day, no organization is immune from these things, but what makes the difference, as with most things at life, is how you respond to it." Holding steady from past years, litiga- tion tops the list of work most commonly sent outside. At 78.4 per cent this year, it's up from last year's 72.2 per cent, followed by employment/labour (54.3 per cent), mergers and acquisitions (28.1 per cent), intellectual property (27.1 per cent) and tax and regulatory matters (both at 26.6 per cent). Denis says litigation is typically hap- pening after the fact. "You're being sued, you react and defend yourself. If all goes well, you win — nice — but isn't there anything else the firm can bring?" One of his biggest challenges is how to leverage the law firm relationship — "pret- ty much building deeper supplier relation- ships," he says. Denis says some firms are getting good at leveraging AI and analytics to better understand trends legal departments are seeing in terms of lawsuits and having a discussion on how to predict and prevent adverse effects, for example. "That's really what keeps me up at night — how do we go beyond just spending and being a cost centre?" he says. While some respondents were succinct with their reasons for going with certain firms — "I choose lawyers that are reason- able, practical and do not bill me to death Bright minds protecting bright ideas since 1893 Ranked as one of Canada's top IP law firms in both Canadian and international surveys of in-house counsel, we understand the business of innovation and the vital role that IP plays in today's competitive, market-driven economy. ridoutmaybee.com TORONTO | OTTAWA | BURLINGTON ntitled-3 1 2017-08-15 4:09 PM

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