Canadian Lawyer InHouse

May/June 2018

Legal news and trends for Canadian in-house counsel and c-suite executives

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7 CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/INHOUSE MAY/JUNE 2018 News Roundup A roundup of legal department news and trends Diversity pitch event brings together in-house and private practice By Jennifer Brown I t looked a little like a cross between Dragon's Den and speed dating for in- house and external counsel, and while not every meeting will result in a match, most came away knowing a little more about who they might turn to for work in the future. The Diversity Pitch Event, organized by Diverse Champions for Diversity, a group of in-house counsel led by Julia Shin Doi, was held March 7 in Toronto and gave law- yers from diverse backgrounds an oppor- tunity to pitch themselves and their firms to in-house counsel from more than two dozen companies and organizations. The event was spearheaded by Shin Doi, who is general counsel and secretary of the board of governors at Ryerson University. She also helped organize a similar pitch ses- sion for women lawyers in Canada through the Women's General Counsel chapter of the Women's Law Association of Ontario. She was inspired by a pitch event held each year by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association in the United States as part of its annual conference. "I always wanted to do a pitch session for racialized lawyers," she says. "The Diverse Champions for Diversity welcomed the idea and developed the concept for racial- ized lawyers." The Diverse Champions for Diversity is a grassroots group of senior racialized lawyers both in-house and in private practice with strong ties to the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers, Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers and the South Asian Bar Association. "Talking about diversity is not enough. We need to take action and work together to achieve diversity. The success of the first Diversity Pitch Event shows the power of corporate counsel to effect change and shines light on talented racialized lawyers in private practice who are ready for change," said Shin Doi. Private practice lawyers had to apply to the Diverse Champions for Diversity in or- der to be considered for the pitch and sub- mit a $100 fee per team. Lawyers from large firms such as Bennett Jones LLP, Norton Rose Fulbright LLP, Osler Hoskin & Har- court LLP and Borden Ladner Gervais LLP were in attendance, along with smaller firms such as Walker Law, Stockwoods LLP, Robins Appleby, Hum Law Firm and Kramer Simaan Dhillon LLP. Tanya Walker of Walker Law was one of the private practice lawyers who applied to pitch at the event. Walker says she pre- pared in advance to pitch to in-house coun- sel from Indigo Books and Music Inc. and Home Depot. She prepped by checking out the LinkedIn profiles of the people she was meeting with and researched the companies, with the idea to start her pitch with what makes her firm different and how it could benefit the organi- zations to which she was pitching. "We led with the benefits of having a bou- tique firm. We focused on how we are struc- tured and how we delegate work based on complexity and how that results in a reduced cost to the client but there is al- ways partner attention on files," she says. She found the event helpful in terms of the advice from in-house but also from a networking point of view. "It's great for them to consider allow- ing a small firm or sole practitioner to represent them on smaller matters. It was also a great way to mingle with colleagues because some of them I haven't seen in a long time," says Walker. "I think sometimes people think smaller firms means less quality, but I think I work harder [than] when I was at a bigger firm because you really have to prove yourself." Each in-house company was pitched by three different teams of private practice lawyers for 10 minutes each. When the pitches were complete, the in-house counsel shared their impressions with the room. Dela Avle, supply chain support manager and senior counsel with Bruce Power, em- phasized that while the company uses large law firms and does requests for proposals, it's important for external firms to know that even if a firm is not doing work with them now the opportunity does exist, especially in specialized areas such as information technol- ogy, intellectual property, labour law and Ab- original work. He noted Bruce Power is also keen on using alternative fee arrangements. "We are of the view that our legal work should not be exclusive, so just because A gathering of minds sharing knowledge at the Diversity Pitch Event

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