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CCCA_V3No3_Gaming-FIN.qxd:CCCA_V1No1_DriversSeat-FIN.qxd 9/16/09 9:55 PM Page 27 Real change to legal services requires a new focus. Feature T he chorus of change sings on. At national and international legal conferences, I hear a babel of opinions about “the system being broken,” about the adversarial relationship between client and counsel fueled by the economic crisis. Many voices, mine among them, highlight what to us seem inevitable trends: that provision of legal servic- es is undergoing major and permanent change; that corporate counsel will take a stronger role in driving the relationship with their outside counsel as they themselves face extreme cost reduction pressures from their management; that the quality and value of legal services will be measured in new ways; that alternative fee arrangements will steadily supplant the billable hour as the basic unit of exchange. So, are all these “paradigm shifts” really happening? Are they fundamental trends with lasting significance? Or, as some law firm managing partners insist, are they passing fads that strut their moment upon the stage before the legal profession returns to the same old same old? They say the “system” isn’t really changing and doesn’t really need to change.All the players are just responding to extraordinary and temporary external events, and pretty soon “everything will return to normal.” Are these the voices of calm reason — or the muffled head-in-the-sand cries of conservatives or vested inter- ests intent on preserving the status quo? Over the last several years, I’ve watched the “negotiation wars” care- fully from ground level, comparing what people seem to be doing with what they are saying. My observations channel MarkTwain’s observation that a lot of people are talking about the weather, but nobody is doing any- thing about it, resulting in some thunderheads but little real change in climate so far. Some prime examples: • While there are certainly innovators and first-adopters among CLOs, notably Jeff Carr at FMC Technologies, Mark Chandler at Cisco Systems,and RioTinto as they announce $100 million in offshoring legal work,there By Pamela Woldow Illustration: Kevin Ghiglioni, i2i Art Inc. AUTOMNE 2009 CCCA Canadian Corporate Counsel Association 27