Page 26 - CCCA Magazine Summer 2014

{ FeatUre } “ Te OJAG is unique in its set-up and operations; Developing a detailed understanding of how the client does business leads to both however, every organization is inherently unique better and more timely advice. ers from within in order to build our team ” This lesson may, in fact, be the most dif- in its requirements. What is common is the role lesson 5: trust your people of general counsel as leaders. fcult to implement. And I would say that it cannot be properly implemented unless you follow the four lessons I have just de- scribed. our succession plan. We recruit those who There is always a risk that one of my have the potential to be leaders. Then we seek to identify and grow our future lead- the world, in the middle of the night, is going to make a mistake. That risk is un- of tomorrow. military lawyers, alone, halfway around avoidable. However, it can be mitigated by lesson 3: Build a strong team properly applying lessons 1 to 4. I could even go so far as to say, “Build a The pay-off for our investments is an family.” Solid, personal relationships are agile and disciplined organization that especially important when your team is can respond nimbly to changing circum- small or geographically dispersed. Build- stances—including those tense moments ing a strong team requires both a shared in the middle of the night when the com- vision and a commitment from both par- mander is looking at one lonely legal of- ties. My frst priority when I became JAG fcer for the thumbs up or down. was to create mission and vision state- conclusIon ments for the OJAG. The mission and vi- sion allow us all to work towards the same These fve big lessons help ensure that my goals and values. legal offcers have the proper tools and skill A strong team—a strong family—re- sets to deliver independent, operationally quires an environment of mutual trust and focused, solution-oriented legal advice and support, and the most important part has services across the full spectrum of mili- to come from the top. We leaders must take tary law, no matter where or under what the time to know our people, and under- circumstances they fnd themselves. stand them, their backgrounds, their needs, The OJAG is unique in its set-up and their motivations and their challenges. We operations; however, every organization need to know and honour their families, is inherently unique in its requirements. who sacrifce to allow them to do what they What is common is the role of general do. Most importantly, we need to look after counsel as leaders. What I have tried to do them by creating an organizational culture is share some lessons that I think are ap- that values them, their health and ftness, plicable to all in-house legal departments and their work-life balance. and illustrate their application in mine. Whether you lead a large organization or a lesson 4: Know the client and their small one, I hope I have shared something business you will fnd useful and valuable for your It is critical to know who the client is. Ba- team’s success. ❚ sically, for those of us who are “in-house” legal advisers, this means recognizing Major-General Blaise Cathcart, OMM, CD, QC, is that the organization is the client. For my Judge Advocate General (JAG) of the Canadian team and me, the client is the Crown— Armed Forces (CAF). He joined the CAF as a the executive branch of the Canadian legal offcer with the Offce of the JAG in 1990, government. became JAG in 2010 and was re-appointed as Understanding the client’s business and JAG in 2014. He is a graduate of Dalhousie Law its goals is key. Legal advice is never given School (Bachelor of Laws) and graduated with “Distinction” from the Masters of Law Programme in a vacuum. It must be based upon a con- (Public International Law) at the London School sideration of all the information available of Economics and Political Science in the U.K. He and, to be useful, it must also account for received the Queen’s Counsel designation from the the context in which it is sought and given. Province of Nova Scotia in 2012. 26 CCCa Magazine | suMMer 2014 été