Lexpert Magazine

66 LEXPERT MAGAZINE | JULY/AUGUST 2016 BY RICHARD STOCK | COLUMNS | 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. He can be reached at rstock@catalystlegal.com. Strategic Impact AN EXPERIENCED general counsel recently asked me an interesting question. How, aer 30 years of serving a company, does a law department add value? How does one change service delivery to do this when demand already exceeds resources and internal clients are quite satisfied? I suggested the adoption of a key perfor- mance indicator called "strategic impact." Corporate legal departments in Canada are oen quite small. On the non-gov- ernment side, 50 per cent of departments have fewer than four lawyers and 80 per cent have fewer than 10. Strategic impact means that these depart- ments have to "punch above their weight." Most have moved beyond becoming the business-prevention police, but very few provide more than operational support. An organizational structure that allows the GC to report di- rectly to the CEO is one way of increasing strategic impact. is is possible when the role is combined with corporate secretarial responsibilities or with oversight of other portfolios, such as environmental health and safety, public af- fairs, compliance or even human resources. In-sourcing or co-counselling complex legal matters that would otherwise be re- ferred to external counsel are other ways to add value. ere are many examples of this with transactional work, but very few with litigation or labour and employment work. Another way to add value is to involve inside counsel with special projects that the company believes are important. Le- gal counsel can be members of the project team or they can lead the team. At least 25 per cent of the law department's time should be allocated to special projects or to high-visibility and sometimes in-sourced or co-counselled legal matters. is requires freeing up 25 per cent of the department's time to redeploy counsel for strategic activity. Clients must become more self-sufficient for routine work, and lawyers must become more efficient if they are to find 10 hours each week to take on something different. Work with strate- gic value is not a spare-time endeavour or something that only happens aer 6 pm every day. If work re-allocation is not enough, the law department may review the competen- cies of in-house counsel. What are the non- legal, core competencies and attributes that counsel must have to add measurable value and for the law department to have a stra- tegic impact? Lawyers already possess many of the at- tributes essential to strategic impact. ey are committed, thorough and oen good communicators. But they must now be- come creative thinkers who develop imagi- native solutions and new ways of thinking about situations, problems and opportu- nities. ey must approach problems and situations in a non-linear fashion, and de- velop ideas and make decisions based on intuition as much as logic. ey must offer ideas or solutions that seem to come from someplace outside of the immediate prob- lem or situation. ere are also skills that allow counsel to gain leverage and to assume a position of leadership in an organization. A good lead- er takes ownership and is willing to take risks and demonstrate creativity by cham- pioning new and innovative approaches leading to business success. Another competency is "impact and influence." is is the ability to influ- ence others through the use of persuasive techniques, presentations, and persisting against resistance or obstacles. Counsel demonstrating this competency are capa- ble of developing and implementing vari- ous influence strategies that successfully impact multiple customers both inside and outside of the organi- zation. Many counsel manage or influence others to reach a goal or have a specific impact. ere are also business and cli- ent competencies. ese comprise the body of knowledge and skills that include an understanding of the organization, its industry, management practices and their applicability to the organization. To have strategic impact as a law depart- ment, counsel other than the general coun- sel must have a strategic business sense. is is the ability to understand the busi- ness implications of decisions and the abil- ity to improve organizational performance. Such counsel understand the business and bottom-line impact of decisions, establish or recommend a course of action to accom- plish short- and long-term goals and share with others their own view of the desirable future state of the business, function, com- pany or industry. In summary, strategic impact means having the right structures, projects, com- plex work and competencies. In-house counsel are often perceived as mere 'fixers,' but they can do so much more LAW DEPARTMENTS 'STRATEGIC IMPACT means small departments have to punch above their weight. Most have moved beyond being the business-prevention police, but few provide more than operational support.'

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