Public-sector in-house roles force lawyers to stop hiding behind memos and start helping decision-makers move. That is the view of Dorothy Wong, vice president, legal and corporate services at ICBC, who argues that legal advice matters only when it fits into the messy, time-pressured reality of how organizations actually operate.
Wong began her career articling at Lang Michener, which later became McMillan LLP, where the full-service grind built technical muscle. Working closely with partners on major transactions and regulated clients taught her how to approach intricate legal questions with structure. But it also kept her at a distance from the real-life consequences of the deals she helped close.
Once documents were signed, clients moved on, and so did she. Wong found herself wondering what happened after the transaction and why the organization decided to pursue a given path in the first place. That curiosity pushed her toward an in-house opportunity at Vancouver Airport Authority.
Into the public sector
The airport was her first step into a business sitting at the intersection of community expectations, government oversight and commercial pressure. She started in real estate, close to her private-practice roots, but quickly expanded into broader support for the entire operation. The shift exposed how narrow her earlier definition of legal work had been.
At the airport, she watched executives weigh legal risk against serving the community, financial constraints and customer impact. Legal advice, she realized, is only one input in a larger decision-making matrix. That changed how she approached her craft, from being less focused on what the law allowed or prohibited to being more focused on what the business was actually trying to achieve.
The airport also opened a door she had not anticipated: legal management. Promoted to director of legal services, she moved from being responsible for her own files to being accountable for how the legal team served the organization. "It was this legal management role that I didn't think about before when I went in-house," she says. "And it's now the trajectory that I am on."
The ICBC purpose
By the time the ICBC opportunity came about, Wong was already drawn to the public-sector model. The insurer's purpose and reach across British Columbia strengthened the pull. ICBC provides mandatory basic auto insurance for every driver in the province and delivers driver licensing, provincial identity cards and a road safety mandate that touches nearly every resident.
Proximity to that mandate shapes how she wants her lawyers to operate. She pushes her team to get out from behind their desks and spend time with internal clients. That meant going airside at Vancouver Airport Authority in her earlier role and now means sitting with front-line teams at ICBC. "It's possible to give legal advice from a distance," she says, "It's really interesting and rewarding to actually see what it is that you're contributing to."
That immersion has reshaped what she looks for in a hire. Technical excellence is assumed, but no longer sufficient. She wants curiosity, a genuine willingness to learn the business and what she calls a bias for problem-solving. Her CEO, who is a lawyer himself, models this approach: Lawyers who take ownership of their client’s problems and take accountability for the business outcomes are most effective.
Leadership as a separate discipline
Wong is candid that leadership is not a natural extension of private-practice success. Moving into management meant admitting that the skills that made her an effective deal lawyer were not enough. "You have to go into it with some humility," she says. "It's a totally different skill set." Much of her time is now devoted to leading and overseeing not only legal and privacy but also functions spanning procurement, corporate strategy and claims . While she is no longer handling files herself, she doesn’t view this as a retreat from practice but as another way to deliver value inside a complex public institution.
For lawyers contemplating a move in-house, particularly in the public sector, her case is straightforward. "Being in-house has made me a better lawyer," she says. "It gave me a deeper understanding of how people make decisions and the why." Seeing legal advice compete alongside financial, operational and customer concerns forces counsel to frame their input in a way that is actually useful.
The complexity has not diminished; it has intensified. Every decision sits at the intersection of law, public interest, finance, and human impact. For Wong, that tension is not a drawback. It is the purpose.