Page 31 - CCCA 270450 Magazine_Fall 2017_for web

{ FeatuRe }

Monica gallanT is in The business of fixing

pRobleMs. When she faced iMpleMenTing

neW policies To coMply WiTh The canadian
anTi-spaM legislaTion (casl), gallanT
saW a gReaTeR oppoRTuniTy. heR business

insTincTs and keen eye led heR To sTaRT a

legal opeRaTions TeaM aT shopify.

“i’M a fixeR,” says gallanT. “solving coMplex
pRobleMs is soMeThing ThaT geTs Me exciTed.”

The Role of legal opeRaToRs “Long gone are the days when they were expected to give
professional legal advice and no more,” says Morgan, Director
Legal operation specialists are leading the way of Legal Operations, law branch at Air Canada. “Legal depart-
for the future. This burgeoning management feld ments are making ever-increasing contributions and are grow-
is uniquely set up to tackle the ever-growing challenges facing ing in stature and size within corporations, but in an increas-
in-house counsel. Legal operation managers are the change
agents organizations need to create cost-effective, effcient and ingly complex legal environment, ‘legal’ resources are extremely
innovative legal departments. stretched. Operations specialists who have specifc skills and
In many ways legal operations, or legal ops for short, is a whose day job is operations can improve effciency while law-
culmination of the rapid changes happening in the legal pro- yers can focus on doing the value-added strategic legal work.”
fession within the last decade. According to the Corporate Le- Legal operators take care of the day-to-day duties of running
gal Operations Consortium (CLOC), legal operators serve in the legal department. Most legal ops specialists are in senior
multi-disciplinary roles and have 12 core competencies: strategic management positions reporting to general counsel or running
planning, fnancial management, vendor management, data ana- a team alongside the traditional legal department.
lytics, technology support, alternative support models, knowl- “Dedicated specialist resources help develop and, most im-
edge management, professional development and team building portantly, keep the focus and implement the legal department
in legal departments, communications, governance and records strategic plan,” says Morgan. “This is done by improving sys-
management, litigation support, and cross-functional alignment. tems and processes, new technology solutions, fnancial and
Legal departments are facing shrinking budgets and more pres- HR management, fnancial rigour to engaging outside counsel
sure to keep costs from outside counsel down while working to services and the operational minutiae that lawyers sometimes
incorporate new technology for greater effciency. treat as a distraction from their day jobs of providing legal ser-
The position is slowly growing in Canada. Scott Morgan left vices. Possibly most important is a strong knowledge of and the
his position as Chief Operating Offcer at Norton Rose to head ability to manage technology. This is where the largest gains in
up the new legal operations department at Air Canada. productivity will be made.”

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