Canadian Lawyer InHouse

MAY/JUNE 2018 52 INHOUSE As a thirtysomething GC, Anderson knows it's unusual to be in such a position at his age. "I am a millennial general counsel, which gets some interesting reactions and surprises people," he says. "I understand that to have the GC title is an amazing privilege and in a lot of organizations it is a title given to someone who has worked for decades to lead an impactful legal team. I don't take it lightly. I understand why someone who has worked for years might be surprised that I share that same title." Anderson wants people at WE to feel they can pop in and have a conversation with him and run ideas by him. "This place lets you be yourself and so I don't have to play the lawyer — that has made me a happier person and better at my job. My nickname is Legal Mike and happily that means people know who to reach out to and I feel like I'm an ap- proachable and an accommodating partner for anybody from the co-ordinator level to executive level," he says. WE Charity, formerly known as Free The Children, is a global development charity and "youth empowerment" movement founded in 1995 by Canadians Craig and Marc Kielburger. It has grown to include the popular WE Day event and there is a business side that supports it all, which includes international trips, jewelry, apparel and consumable products. Half of the profit from the business side is given to the charity and the other half is reinvested so the business can grow. Anderson oversees any legal issue that comes up for those two entities — from trademarks and enter- tainment law to real estate and HR issues. WE has to keep the charity and business sides sepa- rate and be conscious about there being no private benefit flow- ing from the business to the charity — it's one of the largest re- sponsibilities An- derson has. While he articled at a large law firm he realized he wanted to do something very different from the typical path of a corpo- rate lawyer. "I loved the [WE] organization and saw a lot of growth potential and that it was a great way to help people around the world so I jumped on the chance and have been here ever since," he says. Before law school, Anderson was working in television on the production side at MTV Canada. He was aware of WE and its work as the organization had partnered with MTV to do a few WE broadcasts. While he was there he realized he wanted to pursue a different career that might combine his various inter- ests and in improving life for others. "There was something about this organi- zation that was special and different. I was drawn here because it satisfied why I wanted to go to law school in the first place, which was to help individuals who hadn't been giv- en the same gifts I was set up with," he says. It also looked to Anderson like a great culture fit. "It's generally a young employee base and I love the energy of that. I also love organizations that punch above their weight and that's what we do here in spades. It's a great opportunity to face challenges and see what you can come up with. We're very in- novative here. No day is the same," he says. Anderson saw the job at WE as a great opportunity to grow and grow quickly. "Neither side [of the organization] was being serviced internally by counsel so I thought if I did a good job on contracts there was nobody ahead of me, so as we evolved my hope was to be where I am today, which is being relied upon to manage all things le- gal and happily that has happened," he says. Anderson had been a summer student at what was then Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP and then articled at Dentons LLP in Ot- tawa. He decided large firm private practice work was not for him. "Certainly I had some friends who took Bay Street roles and I was happy for them but it wasn't for me," he says, but he acknowledg- es that it was great training for his next role. "I'm a baseball fan and there are some great teams that are known for player development — whether or not you end up playing for the team long term, if you get developed by them you will have that forever. I want to be in a place that will be best for my development. And so that was my near-term goal when it came to the articling process. I loved the Dentons Canada Ottawa office and learned a lot — ultimately, it was a combination of my wife's career and me having an underlying motivation to be more in this space that made it an easier decision to leave that space." As a legal department of one, Anderson says he reaches out to external counsel, of- ten around the world, to help navigate the jurisdictions the organization operates in such as Kenya, Ethiopia, the United King- dom and China. SECOND SNAPSHOT T H E L A W Y E R Mike Anderson T H E C O M P A N Y WE • Articled at Dentons Canada LLP • University of Ottawa J.D. Law • Best advice he ever received: "If anyone offers you money or offers you opportunity, take the opportunity and the money will take care of itself." I understand that to have the GC title is an amazing privilege and in a lot of organizations it is a title given to someone who has worked for decades to lead an impactful legal team. I don't take it lightly. I understand why someone who has worked for years might be surprised that I share that same title. MIKE ANDERSON, WE

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