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CCCA_V6No3_Q&A_Lippe-FIN_CCCA 9/18/12 1:38 PM Page 37 Feature children can’t watch certain shows] as an analogy, you can use to figure out how I can manage all that through the company; technology to embed rules in the way of system. that’s the kind of problem that in-house people are attuned to. What we’re doing with the level of global regulatory com- And the firms largely act as if,‘Oh, we delivered the memo…’ plexity is creating an incredible set of rules to govern corpo- The culture of professionalism asserts that distance is a rate conduct. People violate them, sometimes because they’re good thing, but certainly in these cases it’s clearly not. The unethical but more often, I think, because [the rules] are con- problems of the organizations are embedded problems, sys- fusing. And then people jump up and down.The complexity temic problems.The distance really doesn’t solve them; in fact, of those rules is such that, invariably, you can be seen to fail. it exacerbates them more often than not. So it’ll be interesting The rules have become sort of an enterprise operating sys- to see if the law firms can figure that out. tem as they purport to constrain different behaviours.You’ll see companies try to deploy systems, whether they’re fre- CCCA So what should a law firm do? quently-asked-questions systems or transaction-approval sys- tems, to embed the rules in the operation of the systems so PL It doesn’t matter how clever the law firm people are,or how there’ll be less room for humans to make mistakes.That’s why well-intentioned, if the client can’t follow through on their law firms are and will continue to struggle in terms of their service in a way that’s useful, then they have underperformed ability to deliver real value to clients — because the problems their job.I don’t think many law firms would acknowledge that of the clients are deeply enmeshed in the company. as part of their reality.Their duty stops where their words stop, I don’t need an 80-page memo explaining the Foreign where their piece of paper stops, not with the consequences of Practices Act; there are 14 online. [And] no one in my organ- the action. ization is ever going to read an 80-page memo.What I need is So to me,we need a heightened understanding of profession- AUTOMNE 2012 CCCA Canadian Corporate Counsel Association 37