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NATL61_004 03/08/2007 09:17 AM Page 4 From The Editor A whole new Mot du rédacteur en chef Une nouvelle ballgame position de force Les conseillers juridiques d’entreprise In-house counsel are making the rules. établissent leurs règles du jeu. By Jordan Furlong oogle tells me that 2007 has been declared the year of, among elon Google, 2007 est l’année des moulins à other things, the dolphin, the widget, the surf lifesaver vents, des dauphins et de l’héliophysique G(Australia), the windmill (the Netherlands), the pig (China), the Sinternationale. À mon avis, c’est également “threequel” (Hollywood), and, apparently, of international heliophysics. l’année par excellence pour le conseiller juridique Permit me to throw one more in there: I think 2007 will also be the year d’entreprise. of the corporate counsel. Cette affirmation est loin d’être exagérée, à en In-house lawyers have always represented the best of both worlds in the juger par la position privilégiée de l’avocat en law—they’re smart lawyers and savvy clients.But it seems to me that only entrprise. D’ailleurs, les employeurs corporatifs recently have both their corporate bosses and their outside law firms et les cabinets juridiques qui font affaire avec woken up to just how powerful a force they can be. des conseillers juridiques d’entreprise ont récem- Part of it is the staggering growth in corporate counsel responsibilities ment reconnu la force et le pouvoir exercés par —as our feature stories demonstrate, their plate now features everything ces derniers. from complying with a planetful of constantly evolving laws and regula- Plusieurs raisons expliquent cette reconnais- tions to figuring out how companies should respond to the electrifyingly sance. D’une part, les responsabilités en matière de rapid emergence of climate change as a major risk management and pub- conseil corporatif ont récemment augmenté de lic relations issue. manière stupéfiante.Ainsi que nos articles de fond Part of it is the newfound significance of in-house lawyer in the cor- le démontrent, les avocats d’entreprise ont bien du porate hierarchy—as aptly illustrated in our article on the role of gener- pain sur la planche! Ils doivent se conformer à des al counsel in the modern business hierarchy. As one in-house lawyer is lois et des règlements en constante évolution à quoted in our cover story:“[I’m] joined at the hip with the CEO.” l’échelle planétaire. And part of it is the increasing impatience felt by in-house counsel Une autre justification est l’impatience grandis- towards outside law firms’ fees and service. Our feature story describes sante ressentie par les avocats d’entreprises au sujet how the tide is finally turning—how corporate clients with a lot of des tarifs et du service offerts par les cabinets weight to throw around are dictating the terms upon which they’re pre- juridiques externes. Notre article de fond décrit pared to accept outside legal services. comment les clients corporatifs dictent les termes For a perfect example of this latter phenomenon, consider a January selon lesquels ils sont disposés à accepter des serv- speech delivered by Mark Chandler, Senior Vice-President, Secretary and ices juridiques externes. General Counsel of Cisco Systems, at a conference in San Diego.Chandler Illustrant parfaitement ce revirement de situation, is a pioneer among the new breed of corporate counsel, and his remarks, Martin Chandler,V.P., secrétaire, avocat-conseil chez titled “The State of Technology in the Law”but really about law firm billing Cisco Systems et pionnier en matière de conseil cor- mechanisms, are still reverberating throughout the bar. Here’s a sample: poratif, a affirmé lors d’une conférence présentée en “Letters from law firms telling me how much billing rates are going janvier à San Diego : « les lettres provenant de cabi- up next year are therefore totally irrelevant to me.Think about it: not nets juridiques qui m’avertissent à quel point les taux one of the CIOs of your firms expects to get a letter from Cisco explain- de facturation augmenteront l’an prochain manquent ing how much more our products will cost next year. And not one of complètement de pertinence (…). Ce qui importe our suppliers comes to us to tell us how much their prices will go up pour moi est la productivité et les résultats ». next year. So from my perspective, I don’t care what billing rates are. I Ce message fait écho à la position de l’avocat- care about productivity and outputs.” conseil d’aujourd’hui. Ceux qui veulent faire That’s the message from today’s corporate counsel, and anyone who affaire avec lui gagneraient à prendre ceci en con- wants to do business with their firms had better get it—and fast. sidération rapidement. Send your comments to ccca@ccca-cba.org. Commentaires? ccca@ccca-cba.org. 4 CCCA Canadian Corporate Counsel Association MARCH 2007