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CCCA_V6No2_Q&A_Faure-FIN_CCCA_V6No1_Q&A_Faure 5/23/12 11:56 PM Page 26 Cover Trevor Faure General counsel and partner Ernst & Young Global London, England Working smarter T revor Faure, global general counsel and partner of Ernst & Q In your book, The Smarter Legal Model, you suggest that in- Young Global, believes that today’s corporate counsel has the potential to play a pivotal role in modern business. He points out house legal departments can be run in a business-like manner. What are the chief obstacles to taking a business approach to the that a global“perfect storm”— the globalization of capital markets, practice of law? global recession and the spread of technology — has raised the A I am reminded of the quotation of [former British Prime stakes for compliance and risk management and is forcing legal Minister] Harold Macmillan when he was asked what the main departments to be as efficient and competitive as the rest of the obstacles to political achievement are.Macmillan said,‘Events,dear organization.In-house counsel,he says,are in a unique position to boy, events.’ If we in business, or as lawyers in businesses, had flat, be partners and drivers in the modern enterprise by using business stable, wholly predictable clients, businesses, economic environ- methodologies to demonstrate the value of the legal function. ments, then you could robustly and reliably plan the business His book, The Smarter Legal Model, outlines his thesis that in- development of the legal function.The fact of the matter is that our house legal departments can be run in a business-like manner, businesses and clients are subject to events, my dear, events. balancing the provision of more legal coverage with less head- Thus, for example, most corporations [allow] significant spend for count while providing in-house counsel with work-life balance. litigation.Yet, none of us can flawlessly predict where or when lit- A keynote speaker at the Canadian Corporate Counsel igation will end, and those of us who deal with both volume and AssociationWorld Summit in Montreal, he spoke with executive scale of litigation can put all sorts of brackets and estimates around editor Beverley Spencer. a range, but in a forthcoming year, you can never flawlessly know 26 CCCA Canadian Corporate Counsel Association SUMMER 2012