Page 31 - CCCA 226419 Magazine Fall 2014

{ Feature } In-house Become the clIent you are By Kim Covert in-house counsel can be forgiven for thinking they’re being left out of the larger discourse surrounding the future of the legal profession. Most of it seems to revolve around the way big law frms have been affected by changing global economic conditions and how they can leverage technology to deal with those effects. ut in closer focus, you fnd that underpinning that dis- driving the demand for change and through their demands are course is the idea that change is client-driven—that for reshaping the way legal services are delivered. Bthere to be a future for the legal profession, clients must According to the report, “As both buyers and sellers of legal return to the centre of it. And in-house counsel are the clients. services, in-house counsel will continue to exert considerable That means they’re already in the driver’s seat—but most leverage in requesting changing legal services.” don’t realize it yet, Susan Hackett, founder of Legal Executive The majority of those demands—whether from the corpo- Leadership LLC in Maryland, told the ReInvent Law conference ration that is the in-house counsel’s own client or from the in- in New York last February. house counsel as client of an outside frm—can be boiled down “Without in-house counsel, change won’t happen at all,” to three words: better, faster, cheaper. But within those fairly Hackett said. The problem is that in-house counsel are lawyers stark limitations lies a world of opportunity for innovation for frst and clients second. They’ve received the same education anyone with the will, the sense of entrepreneurship and, above and training, and worked in many of the same kinds of jobs, all, the creativity to see it. as their outside-frm lawyers. Their unique positioning—acting While lawyers tend to consider what they do to be more art as clients of outside frms and in-house counsel for corpora- than business, lawyers themselves, with their appreciation of tions—puts them at the fulcrum of change. precedent and abhorrence of risk, are not generally seen as art- But frst they must “resolve this tension between being law- ists. But that doesn’t mean they can’t become creative. yers within organizations where they’re expected to act like Lyn Heward, the former creative director of Cirque du Soleil, business people,” explained Hackett. “If we want change, it’s not believes everyone can make creativity part of their everyday life about the better product or service, the better process, all of the if they apply themselves to it. She outlined her steps to living fabulous ways that you all are trying to drive change. It’s about creatively during her keynote speech at the St. John’s confer- behaviour and about changing behaviour.” ence, including jumping on creative opportunities as they arise, Changing behaviour—along with the education and train- awakening your senses so you’re more likely to see those op- ing and regulatory regimes that create and reinforce that behav- portunities in the frst place, looking beyond the obvious and iour—is one of the key takeaways of the fnal report from the creating an environment to stimulate creative thought. She CBA’s Legal Futures Initiative, Futures: Transforming the Deliv- challenges those who see only obstacles to use constraints as a ery of Legal Services in Canada. spur to creative action. Released in August at the 2014 CBA Legal Conference in To illustrate this last point, she told a story about how the St. John’s, NL, the report is the result of two years of research Cirque had been commissioned to create a great show for a Las and consultations from across the spectrum of the legal profes- Vegas hotel, and it did. It created a fabulous show, with a like- sion. And at the heart of everything is the idea that clients are wise fabulous budget, which was summarily rejected—though Canadian Corporate Counsel assoCiation | CCCa-aCCje.org 31