Page 19 - CCCA 270450 Magazine_Fall 2017_for web

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ey, especially when it comes to external counsel, says Miller. in 2015 about her department’s cost structure. “We have
“Which frms are you spending it with? What are you spend- reduced the costs of providing legal services; we haven’t re-
ing it on and how are you tracking it?” Miller says these im- duced our head count.”
portant questions need to be answered before you can tackle Her team did it by re-examining how they delivered ser-
the budget challenge. vices to “ensure we continue providing top-tier service for
Don’t simply depend on external law frms to provide rel- top-tier matters.” They looked at the “lower value end” of the
evant data because the way they track it is probably not helpful. scale and things that the in-house lawyer team was working
Sadly, the Altman Weil survey found that 73% of CLOs say their on that did not really provide any additional value and could
top 10 frms provided “no useful” spending analysis. likely be better done by the business units by training the
respective staff.
5. piCk low hanging fruit first
“the real trick there is to work closely
Lawyers agree that one of the frst spending items to go in rela- with your client group. it involves the
tion to the internal budget is travel, which has a multiplier ef- way they think and work,” odegaard
fect because it includes meals and accommodations. says. “Be ready for some tension, but
“Travel to conferences is an automatic,” says Capstone’s that’s fne. It drives good discussions
King. “We rely heavily on technology in downturns,” turning about what it is we are trying to do
to Skype and video and audio conferences to put people in the as an organization. They need to un-
same room. derstand what you are doing and why
Borbridge adds that “we can avoid travel in some in- you are doing it.”
stances,” but cautions that when it comes to the training and
education of lawyers, downturns are “not the time to cut in
those areas.” One area to tackle, Odegaard says, is the supply chain and
the way companies buy goods and services. Given the sheer
Because it’s slower, “everyone has the time to commit volume, Legal can’t look at everything, so Suncor is training
to doing some training. People have the its internal purchasing professionals on contracts and nego-
opportunity to take part in seminars.” tiations.
More importantly, though, “when times Miller agrees that there is much to be gained by
are tough, people need other things to streamlining internal processes, creating lim-
keep them interested…and to feel like its and managing business line expectations
their career is continuing to evolve. Cutting when it comes to legal services delivery.
things that help them do that, in my Over time, there is legal creep and more
view, is not the thing to do.” demands are made on law departments,
which aren’t necessarily worthwhile en-
deavours, he observes.
One area he cites is trademarks. He says
6. heaD Counts anD serviCe offerings searches can be costly and quickly add up,
but the business lines don’t pay for those
Salaries are one of the biggest costs when it comes to internal searches and likely don’t understand the
budgets. However, the reality is that the vast majority of corpo- cost to the company for conducting one.
rate legal departments in Canada are relatively small, yielding He questions whether a company really
limited savings. The CCCA’s 2016 In-House Counsel Compen- needs to conduct 30 trademark searches or
sation & Career Survey Report found that an average in-house whether fve will suffce.
counsel has 2.4 reports. Moreover, 44% of respondents have no Another area to monitor is patents.
direct reports, an increase from 39% since 2012. “They are very expensive” to obtain and
In fact, layoffs may actually hurt in the long run when it costly to maintain. He asks, “Do you really
comes to service levels. In some cases, a legal department might need the patent to protect the company” or
be better off taking the knife to its external counsel budget and is there a prestige factor at work internally
repatriating work in-house. with departments equating patents to suc-
Janice Odegaard, Senior Vice-President and General cess? Moreover, are you properly monetiz-
Counsel at Suncor Energy in Calgary, undertook a “rethink” ing your patent portfolio?

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