THE ASSOCIATION OF CORPORATE COUNSEL released an update of its “Leading Practices Profiles” in April entitled The Role of General Counsel in Canada. GCs should read the profiles for ideas from law departments that are delivering greater value to their organizations.
Efforts to improve efficiency and effectiveness are described in the report across four categories: law department structures; professional development; technology; and the selection and management of external counsel. A few of the initiatives are leading practices, but most are sensible efforts to improve the effectiveness of legal resources. The participating organizations were CIBC, Ivanhoe Cambridge, the International Air Transport Association, Manulife, TransCanada and WorkSafe BC. Interestingly, almost all have significant international business and legal activity.
As part of a preamble, the ACC report sets out eight leading practices: convening the department regularly for collaboration; scheduled communications with geographically dispersed members of the department; professional development; alignment of resources with business units; technology for service delivery; performance review mechanisms for inside and external counsel; alternative fee arrangements; and consistency in compliance activities. All but the last three can be applied to any department in a company.
Two sets of findings are noteworthy from the Canadian profiles. The first relates to law department structures. CIBC’s law department teams are organized around three strategic business initiatives, plus a litigation and compliance team. Ivanhoé Cambridge has set up three teams: one for each primary business unit. IATA designates six lawyers as divisional counsel and five as regional counsel as part of a plan to assure expertise and global coverage on three continents. Manulife’s 180 lawyers and its legal structures are deliberately decentralized globally, with most embedded in one of three geographical divisions or in the investment division.
TransCanada recently moved away from a functional model of legal-services delivery to one where most of its 76 lawyers are embedded with business units, while still reporting through to the law department. WorkSafe BC structures its legal team along specialty lines: corporate/commercial, litigation and regulatory.
It does appear that self-contained, and somewhat independent, legal teams can be aligned and embedded with discrete business units once the department and the company reach a certain size. In our experience, this is more often the case when there is a significant amount of transactional work and less often the case when most of the work is litigation or corporate support work for HR, IT and finance. The pendulum of trade-offs between efficiency and effectiveness in structures swings back every five to seven years. The key is to remember that strategy determines structure. In the meantime, intra-departmental communications and technology help prevent silos and keep the focus on performance.
The second finding to emerge from the profiles is in response to the question asked of the GCs about the benefits of their undertakings. CIBC believes that they now have the right balance of efficiency and effectiveness. Their services are regarded as reliable and there is positive support from senior management. Ivanhoé Cambridge maintains that their lawyers are more business-like in that they can better secure transactions and meet deadlines. IATA’s team has reduced business unit demand for routine services and made more time for educating business professionals on complex issues. TransCanada’s town hall meetings help connect and coordinate geographically dispersed team members. Lawyers rely on an advanced project management approach to handle complex legal work more effectively.
General counsel, however, should keep three factors in mind when they make these types of changes. First, the demand for legal services should be forecasted for each primary business unit for a minimum of two years. Second, inside counsel functioning as solo practitioners should be replaced by two-person teams to improve coverage and turnaround times. Third, key performance indicators and other metrics are essential to drive priorities and behaviours. They should target measurable results for effectiveness and efficiency.
To sum up, sustaining momentum for innovation in legal services depends on the right blend of demand forecasts, progressive operating protocols for business units, the reporting structures of legal teams, and key performance indicators.
Richard Stock, M.A., FCIS, CMC, is a partner with Catalyst Consulting. The firm has consulted to more than 250 law departments over 20 years. Reach him at (416) 367-4447 or at [email protected].
Efforts to improve efficiency and effectiveness are described in the report across four categories: law department structures; professional development; technology; and the selection and management of external counsel. A few of the initiatives are leading practices, but most are sensible efforts to improve the effectiveness of legal resources. The participating organizations were CIBC, Ivanhoe Cambridge, the International Air Transport Association, Manulife, TransCanada and WorkSafe BC. Interestingly, almost all have significant international business and legal activity.
As part of a preamble, the ACC report sets out eight leading practices: convening the department regularly for collaboration; scheduled communications with geographically dispersed members of the department; professional development; alignment of resources with business units; technology for service delivery; performance review mechanisms for inside and external counsel; alternative fee arrangements; and consistency in compliance activities. All but the last three can be applied to any department in a company.
Two sets of findings are noteworthy from the Canadian profiles. The first relates to law department structures. CIBC’s law department teams are organized around three strategic business initiatives, plus a litigation and compliance team. Ivanhoé Cambridge has set up three teams: one for each primary business unit. IATA designates six lawyers as divisional counsel and five as regional counsel as part of a plan to assure expertise and global coverage on three continents. Manulife’s 180 lawyers and its legal structures are deliberately decentralized globally, with most embedded in one of three geographical divisions or in the investment division.
TransCanada recently moved away from a functional model of legal-services delivery to one where most of its 76 lawyers are embedded with business units, while still reporting through to the law department. WorkSafe BC structures its legal team along specialty lines: corporate/commercial, litigation and regulatory.
It does appear that self-contained, and somewhat independent, legal teams can be aligned and embedded with discrete business units once the department and the company reach a certain size. In our experience, this is more often the case when there is a significant amount of transactional work and less often the case when most of the work is litigation or corporate support work for HR, IT and finance. The pendulum of trade-offs between efficiency and effectiveness in structures swings back every five to seven years. The key is to remember that strategy determines structure. In the meantime, intra-departmental communications and technology help prevent silos and keep the focus on performance.
The second finding to emerge from the profiles is in response to the question asked of the GCs about the benefits of their undertakings. CIBC believes that they now have the right balance of efficiency and effectiveness. Their services are regarded as reliable and there is positive support from senior management. Ivanhoé Cambridge maintains that their lawyers are more business-like in that they can better secure transactions and meet deadlines. IATA’s team has reduced business unit demand for routine services and made more time for educating business professionals on complex issues. TransCanada’s town hall meetings help connect and coordinate geographically dispersed team members. Lawyers rely on an advanced project management approach to handle complex legal work more effectively.
General counsel, however, should keep three factors in mind when they make these types of changes. First, the demand for legal services should be forecasted for each primary business unit for a minimum of two years. Second, inside counsel functioning as solo practitioners should be replaced by two-person teams to improve coverage and turnaround times. Third, key performance indicators and other metrics are essential to drive priorities and behaviours. They should target measurable results for effectiveness and efficiency.
To sum up, sustaining momentum for innovation in legal services depends on the right blend of demand forecasts, progressive operating protocols for business units, the reporting structures of legal teams, and key performance indicators.
Richard Stock, M.A., FCIS, CMC, is a partner with Catalyst Consulting. The firm has consulted to more than 250 law departments over 20 years. Reach him at (416) 367-4447 or at [email protected].
