Page 17 - CCCA 243725 Magazine_Winter 2015

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“I think most lawyers have in their
background explicitly or implicitly
an affnity for policy, and that is at
the heart one of the threads that run
through a legal and Pr group,” she
explains.
+ reputation risk driving Change
Kennedy says she started noting a
Bibic says one of the biggest changes he has seen in corporate shift in the extent of the legal de-
boardrooms since joining BCE is the attention being paid to risk. partment’s reach into other divisions following the Enron crisis
“Ultimately, it comes down to reputation risk and brand risk.” in 2000, which led to the Sarbanes-Oxley reforms in the United
It’s forcing chief legal offcers and their corporate law depart- States that focused on governance. The shift picked up steam
ments to garner a better understanding of things like media, following the fnancial crises in 2008, which led to a number of
public relations and government affairs. risk reforms. It’s that increased focus on risk management that
A decade ago, he says, reporting on regulatory matters at the is driving a closer collaboration between legal departments and
CRTC was “fairly esoteric,” and if there was mainstream media other divisions within companies.
coverage of an issue, it played out over time. However, with the KPMG’s 2012 Beyond the Law survey notes that “in a very
rise of a 24-hour media cycle, and an increase in media outlets challenging business world, general counsel are being called
and instantaneous coverage, it has changed the way companies upon to play a greater role in the running of companies, par-
must manage their corporate reputation. Something that might ticularly in the management of risk.” The survey of 320 general
not have garnered traction a decade ago can go viral on the In- counsel in 32 different countries found an increasing need to
ternet in a matter of minutes. develop closer working relationships with other parts of the or-
“Stakeholders don’t have to rely on an intermediary like the ganization. Respondents cited fnance (61%) and internal audit
media to take an esoteric issue and make it mainstream,” Bibic (59%) as the top two areas. However, right on the heels were
explains. sales and marketing, cited by 55%.
Bibic is not alone in branching out beyond the traditional le- When it comes to reporting lines, CLOs are increasingly see-
gal role expected of a chief legal offcer or general counsel. Over ing their reach extend beyond purely legal functions.
the past decade, there has been a growing shift of power in the
corporate ranks, as the law department plays a more important
role in a corporation’s public face. More and more CLOs and + pr in the Clo target zone
GCs are being handed oversight for some form of the three Rs
of communications—government relations (GR), investor rela- Of the three Rs, investor relations remains largely within the
tions (IR) and even public relations (PR). purview of chief fnancial offcers, but legal remains closely in-
Take Melissa Kennedy, Executive Vice-President, Chief Legal tegrated, providing advice and direction. Government relations,
Offcer and Public Affairs at Sun Life Financial. She oversees however, is increasingly reporting to legal, and public relations
enterprise legal, compliance, corporate secretarial, and corpo- is also in the CLO’s target zone.
rate and public affairs functions. That includes government and The USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journal-
public relations, but not investor relations. ism undertakes an annual survey of generally accepted practices
Like Bibic, she represents a new breed of chief legal offcer within public relations departments at public and private compa-
that is emerging in corporate Canada. “I have always been quite nies. In the 2014 survey, the legal department is the fourth most
attuned to the PR aspect of my work given the profle nature of listed company division that has oversight of PR. About 43% re-
the things I have historically done in my career.” port to the CEO directly, while 26% report to marketing. Human
That includes heading up the litigation groups at the Ontario resources is third at 7.3%, followed by law at 6%. A further 28%
Securities Commission and the CIBC, where she became “very indicate they have dotted-line reporting to legal.
attuned to the potential reputational risk” posed by litigation, The study also found the greater the integration of PR and
particularly class actions. She later took on a broader role at the communications functions in departments like fnance and law,
Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, which extended beyond law and the higher the company scores in internal success factors, such
included corporate affairs, before joining Sun Life in 2014. as strategic planning and fnancial success.
Interestingly, the legal and PR departments suffer some of
the same challenges, which is embedding and integrating their
operations into the business, and getting the respect they seek
from company decision makers.

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