Lexpert Magazine

LEXPERT MAGAZINE | MAY 2019 13 our legal and regulatory framework. My team should not be there or see their role in a narrow sense as traditional lawyers where a client asks a questions and you deliver a menu of options for them to chose from and beyond that, it's a business decision as to which path they take." She says the company doesn't offer its in-house lawyers specific business training, "although it's something we've looked at. "ere isn't a formal program in place but where a lawyer identifies a gap in busi- ness understanding or knowledge, for ex- ample, we've partnered with our finance team to help. We've delivered some ac- counting training for lawyers that I know they have benefitted from, reading financial statements and that sort of thing. On a case- by-case basis where there's an opportunity for training we'd definitely look at it, but a lot of the training comes from being fully immersed in the business itself." As for whether the appetite for business risk has declined with gyrations in the stock market, the possibility of rising rates and politically fulled trade disputes, Schweizer doesn't think so. She agrees with Wood that in the communications industry, the bigger risk is failing to evolve to keep up with dis- ruptors to consumer habits. e spectre of emerging and potentially disruptive technologies sometimes push her company into areas it's not totally comfort- able with, she acknowledges, saying that's an area that is "for sure" nerve-wracking. "ere are lots of matters that are truly of technology that are truly of first impres- sion, as well as brand new application of the law to a different technology — the kinds of issues you know that there's probably no precedent for. "You can't necessarily call outside coun- sel and get a clear view because some issues haven't been addressed before. You can read what the statute says but applying it to the situation is really a matter of judgment." When Peter Hickman, Vice-President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Nalcor Energy in St. John's, picks up the phone to call outside counsel, it's for a very different reason. Like most senior other in-house counsel, his role has evolved and expanded from purely legal to straight business discussions, "although whether anyone listens to me or not is a different story," he jokes. "It's almost through osmosis, I suppose, you take into account commercial and busi- ness interest, and your advice would tend to be couched that way. at's a good thing and a bad thing. "It's good to for your advice to be cogni- tive of the business interest of your client — the business, But on the other hand, you don't want want to get caught up in it too much. You want to give them advice with- out trying to anticipate how it could be used. Your advice may not be as indepen- dent as it should be if you're not careful." Hickman says sometimes, if he has a con- cern, "we'll get an external opinion just to en- sure objectivity and get a different perspec- tive to make sure we're not too close to it." When it comes to risk, he says Nalcor, a provincial energy corporation headquar- tered in St. John's, Newfoundland and Lab- rador, has the same general business risk as any commercial energy company. It hedges against oil-price fluctuations as part of mitigating business risk, for example. But it faces an additional risk. Political risk. In fact, the recent provincial election underscores that. e NDP vowed to scrap Nalcor as part of its platform. ey didn't win, but the Liberals and Conservatives both said they will look at the company to achieve greater efficiencies. "For us, there's always a risk that a change in government will lead to a change in poli- cy," he says. "at's just a fact of life." COVER STORY FEATURES "It's almost through osmosis, I suppose, you take into account commercial and business interest, and your advice would tend to be couched that way. That's a good thing and a bad thing." PETER HICKMAN VICE-PRESIDENT, GENERAL COUNSEL AND CORPORATE SECRETARY, NALCOR ENERGY

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