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.
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66 LEXPERT MAGAZINE | JULY/AUGUST 2017 BY RICHARD STOCK | COLUMNS | Richard G. Stock, M.A., FCIS, CMC is a partner in Catalyst Consulting. For law department manage- ment advice that works, Richard can be contacted at (416) 367-4447 or at rstock@catalystlegal.com. The Director of Legal Operations OVER THE PAST five years I have had the opportunity to work with dozens of corporate and government law depart- ments in Canada and abroad. Most have at least four features in common. First, the leadership and lawyers of the department must comply with a broad range of financial, human resource and technological requirements identical to those affecting all other departments in the organization. Second, as inside counsel become more closely aligned and sometimes embedded with business units, the demand for their advice and legal services increases. e average work week becomes longer, with much legal work getting done aer 6 p.m. e third feature is pressure to manage relationships with ex- ternal counsel more effectively and efficiently. Very few law de- partments have the experience or appetite to manage the "supply chain" well. e fourth is a performance imperative. Law departments must have business plans and objectives with measurable targets. Some of these are financial and readily quantifiable, but others are strategic or de- velopmental and can be difficult to frame. Part of the solution is to bring manage- ment expertise to law department opera- tions. In most cases, this means introduc- ing a new management position in the form of a director of legal operations. e job title may vary, but most financial insti- tutions as well as large municipalities such as Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa have had such positions in place for more than 15 years. I recently spoke to several such legal executives about the current state of law department management and the pros- pects for the future. Scott Morgan has been Air Canada's Director of Legal Operations for over two years, bringing with him 20 years of expe- rience in legal leadership at two Montréal- based law firms. He supports the general counsel on efficiency projects, tracking departmental objectives, managing profes- sional development programs, the intro- duction of new technology, and conclud- ing fee arrangements with law firms. Scott anticipates law departments will be using emerging technologies much more to im- prove service delivery within two years. e Regional Municipality of York has a full-time Manager of Business Operations and Financial Planning. Julie Grellette brings business and budget planning expe- rience to the role, which includes establish- ing performance measures, arrangements with external counsel, financial planning, and technology in support of the region's court system. Bell Canada's Miguel Baz divides his time between legal operations and the role of Assistant Corporate Secretary. His long- standing responsibilities for relationships with external counsel were formalized in 2013. Since then, his emphasis has been on harmonizing arrangements and controls for legal fees. Baz predicts that technology will con- tinue to transform legal service delivery for in-house and external counsel alike. However, technology literacy will need to improve for all counsel to keep pace. CN's Jonathan Leung is a Financial Analyst in the law department and facili- tates the flow of information between the law department and the finance/account- ing department. Budget and performance targets are tracked. Leung has invested considerable time over the past 18 months in working out the operational details of reducing the number of primary external law firms to two. Construction-engineering firm SNC- Lavalin boasts a 70-person legal team across 15 countries, and add- ed a Director of Legal Operations in March 2017. Jean-François Denis was tasked with helping to transform the legal department into a "centre of excellence." His responsibilities include legal sup- port systems and technologies, policies and procedures, training, talent retention, measuring per- formance, and (like his CN counterpart) reducing primary external law firms to two. Denis believes that business and legal tech- nologies must drive change in how firms are retained and service delivered across 24 time zones. Innovation, information man- agement and focus are the watchwords. General counsel who are leading de- partments of 10 or more lawyers should consider hiring a full-time director of legal operations; the return on investment is sig- nificant. And many good resources exist to help law department managers in their jobs, including from the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium, the Association of Corporate Counsel, and the Association of Legal Administrators. Why should companies hire their own legal executives? For the significant return they'll receive on investment LAW DEPARTMENTS 'BUSINESS and legal technologies must drive change in how firms are retained and service delivered across 24 time zones. Innovation, information management and focus are watchwords'