Canadian Lawyer InHouse

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018 40 INHOUSE P r o f e s s i o n a l P r o f i l e THE ROLE OF LEGAL operations is get- ting a lot of attention these days as organi- zations such as the Corporate Legal Opera- tions Consortium pushes the job title to new and powerful levels, and law firms are taking notice. But in many large in-house departments, legal ops has been around for years and peo - ple like Richard Stewart have been quietly acting as "chief of staff" pushing forward the day-to-day operational requirements that include people, technology and pro- curement of external legal services. "It's lovely that everyone is catching up to where we have been for 10 years," says Stewart, and not in a condescending way. "It's nice that it's being recognized — it's part of the increasing professionalization of the in-house role. Gone are the days where the in-house lawyers were there just there to dispense legal advice. We are now full busi - ness partners." What gets measured gets managed, as they say, and as part of the business world in-house departments need to become more business focused on how their own func - tions perform. That's why it's important to have some someone such as Stewart on staff to manage the law firm that is legal and compliance group internally at BMO. Stewart is deputy general counsel and chief operating officer with the legal, cor - porate and compliance group at BMO Fi- nancial Group, now based in Toronto, a role he started formally about two months ago. "This was an excellent opportunity for me to come and work at the heart of the enterprise," says Stewart. "It gave me the opportunity to innovate and be an agent of change in the legal and compliance function and to move beyond practising law in a busi - ness context." In the COO role, Stewart is responsible for LCCG's overall operations, providing oversight for finance, human resources and strategic initiatives. He is also responsible for BMO's Legal Excellence Program, which will now be rolling out to Europe as well. He was most recently associate general counsel, U.K. & Europe, BMO Capital Markets. "To use a phrase, I'm standing on the shoulders of giants here, because we've been thought leaders in this area of chief operating officer for legal and compliance for about 10 years under [EVP GC Simon Fish] Simon's vision and stewardship — he instituted the office of the COO 10 years ago, so this isn't new for BMO and it's great to be part of that great tradition," he says. "My role is to man - age the day-to-day and strategic aspects of the big internal legal and compliance firm that is BMO legal and compliance." The way Stewart sees it, there needs to be someone "keeping score in the relationship between legal and compliance and the rest of the enterprise." "I think that's one of the ways in which the COO can help. We have an overview into all of the silos of all the different line of business groups and can counsel and ca - jole them into working in partnership with the business better," he says. "Our strategic aims can get more aligned if someone is there setting the strategic agenda." BMO has 650 employees in legal and compliance. In the grand scheme of things, Stewart says he helps develop and imple - ment the strategy for legal and compliance within BMO. "I would describe my role as chief jav- elin catcher. It's not through any malicious intent, but you can be dealing with an IT problem in the morning and clogged drain in the afternoon and how to reduce cost in the Legal Excellence Program later in the day," he says. "I am also the person here for anyone's is - sues they feel need to get escalated and I also deal with a lot of the HR employee relations issues that come out of having 650 people in the legal and compliance organization," he says. Stewart also has charge of the budget to make sure the department stays on track. The third piece he manages is the rela - tionships with BMO's external law firms — the Legal Excellence Program Fish has pioneered over the last five years — a formal structure to engage with external counsel. "The main thing that interests me is the external counsel relationships," he says. Stewart came to in-house in 2013 straight from private practice (four years at Fresh - fields, then Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP for 10 years). "I knew how law firms worked and what the drivers were," he says. But Stewart really sees his job as putting the customer first, and that customer is the one on the street who banks with BMO, not just the legal department's internal business clients. "My role here is the same as everyone else here at BMO and that's to think like the customer and that's something that's really important," he says. And that will become more important for the bank's external firms in the near future. "They think BMO is their customer, but what I want to instill in them is the fact that their customer should be our customer as well — we are all completely aligned. Law firms will always have a bit of reticence to get completely aligned," he says. When it comes to defining the legal ops role skillset as it's currently evolving, Stew - art acknowledges that legal ops profession- als aren't necessarily always lawyers. They sometimes have financial backgrounds, project management skills and softer skills — emotional intelligence. "You're there to serve the staff, not there to lead the show. One needs a high degree of empathy and understanding of our law firm partners and how they see life," he says. "I want to take to take things to the next level and say we need to partner together. We want to get law firms aligned with the bank's Legal Excellence Program." Stewart says the profession is at "an Legal ops takes the lead BMO legal's new COO sees big opportunity for legal operations professionals. BY JENNIFER BROWN

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