Lexpert magazine features articles and columns on developments in legal practice management, deals and lawsuits of interest in Canada, the law and business issues of interest to legal professionals and businesses that purchase legal services.
Issue link: https://digital.carswellmedia.com/i/1547047
www.canadianlawyermag.com 51 PRIVACY, AI, AND THE CHALLENGE OF KEEPING PACE WITH HEALTHCARE TECHNOLOGY Ratika Gandhi was not looking for an in-house role when a recruiter called. Now she oversees legal and compliance for Alcon across Canada and Latin America. At Alcon, that work is defined by one particular tension: the law struggles to keep pace with rapidly advancing technology. Nowhere is that gap more visible than in privacy and artificial intelligence, where personal health information is involved and the regulatory environment has not yet caught up. Alcon has responded by structuring the company with a dedicated privacy function; regional privacy officers embedded across North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia; and an internal AI committee that weighs new initiatives before they advance. Gandhi's path to that role began at McMillan LLP's business law group, where she focused on mergers and acquisitions while expanding into health law, privacy, and regulation. Private practice, she says, gave her "a great CANADA'S REGISTERED-DEALER REGIME GIVES COINBASE A CLEARER PATH THAN THE U.S. For a crypto exchange, a clear set of rules can be a competitive advantage rather than a burden. That is how Laure Fouin, associate general counsel for Coinbase in Canada, frames the registered-dealer regime that has governed Canadian crypto trading platforms for years – well before US lawmakers began assembling anything comparable. Fouin joined Coinbase in late 2024 after 11 years as a securities lawyer, first at McCarthy Tétrault LLP and later at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, where she co-chaired the digital assets and blockchain group. Those years taught her to treat unfamiliar technology with familiar discipline. Even when a product is unprecedented, she says, the legal analysis stays "grounded in core principles of what is proper risk management, how to look for precedent and then make your own statutory interpretations." What pulled her in-house was the chance to stop handing off the analysis and start opportunity to get exposure, especially as a business lawyer, to many different types of businesses." She was not seeking an in-house position when a recruiter approached her. Gandhi joined as director of legal and compliance; within months, leadership changes created a vacancy at the top. She was confirmed as head of legal and compliance within her first year. Her goal is to position her group as a strategic asset, not a gatekeeper, coaching her lawyers "to be a business partner who is not just there to check a box but, rather, someone the business comes to early on to help think about options and understand the business objective and the way to achieve it." The firms that stand out, Gandhi says, are those "that know my business really well and know the types of issues that I'm thinking about and also my risk profile" and proactively flag developments rather than circulating generic bulletins. Her advice to lawyers considering in-house work: "Sometimes people think that going in-house means it's a nine-to-five job. It's not." owning the outcome. After years advising everyone from large financial institutions to early-stage startups, she wanted a single client and a seat at the table. She wanted to be "more embedded in the business, in decision-making and in strategy, and to have an impact." In Canada, Coinbase operates as a restricted dealer with the Ontario Securities Commission as its principal regulator. "Legal and compliance at Coinbase are integral to the product life cycle from day one," she says. She points to the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which is moving through Congress, as evidence that the United States is working toward a registration regime for crypto trading platforms that Canada has already had in place for years. Fouin is candid about how she uses AI and where it fails. She has seen tools cite statutory provisions that simply do not exist when she checks the source. "Legal cannot ever do this," she says. Her advice for lawyers eyeing an in-house move: "Don't fear asking stupid questions." RATIKA GANDHI Company: Alcon Title: Head of legal and compliance, Canada and Latin America LAURE FOUIN Company: Coinbase Canada Title: Associate general counsel, int'l legal, head of North America and Caribbean