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CCCA_V2No3_GrassGreener-FIN.qxd:CCCA_V1No1_DriversSeat-FIN.qxd 9/18/08 3:04 PM Page 32 Feature years was an extra zero in the contracts he handled. Now she’s the sole legal counsel at Hyundai Auto Canada’s “It really got to be rather mundane and the same old, same Markham, Ontario, headquarters, where she plays a management old,” he recalls. So when a position came up at Calgary-based role in addition to her legal duties. “I wanted something more Walton International Group, a real estate asset management firm, broad-based; I wanted to keep learning,” she says. “There’s so he jumped on the opportunity and hasn’t looked back. “It’s such much I’m doing now that I wasn’t involved in before. Every day, a variety of work,” he says. “It was really nice to learn something you come in and it’s something different.” new, exercise the grey matter a little bit.” Livermore wasn’t deterred by the old stereotypes that in-house Heading the other way work is second-tier. He knew many high-achieving lawyers who But not everyone who makes the leap in-house ends up quite as had made the switch, including his current boss Adelle Fruman happy with the experience. When a real estate opportunity arose — “probably the smartest person I’ve ever dealt with” — who at CIBC, Jane Chung didn’t want to pass it up. After all, every- served as an Alberta Court of Appeal judge before heading up the body she knew seemed to be fantasizing about going in-house, nine-person legal department at Walton International. “It’s not and the prospect of manageable hours held a lot of appeal for a just somewhere to go and retire,” he says. junior associate dealing with the demands and long hours of law Like Livermore, Faithlyn Hemmings loves the variety that firm life. comes with in-house work. Although she never pictured herself After a couple of years, however, she found she was tired of just making a career in business, her contact with entrepreneurial “scratching the surface” in the variety of legal work she per- clients as an associate at Blaney McMurtry in Toronto made her formed for the bank’s mortgage division. “I got to learn about the realize just how interesting the corporate world could be. business — that’s something that you really can’t get in private MARNIE BURKHART, JAZHART STUDIOS Terry Livermore Legal Counsel Walton International Group, Calgary 32 CCCA Canadian Corporate Counsel Association FALL 2008