Canadian Law Firms Still Not Getting the Message about True Nature of Client Needs
by Martine Turcotte, CLO of BCE, and Zygmunt Jablonski, CLO of Domtar
Click here to download the French Translation (pdf) of this post.
As general counsel for two different kinds of clients, there are many things that distinguish our respective roles. One of us has a large department, one has a smaller department. One of us works in a company that is in the tech and communications space, and one of us works for a company that is resource and product-oriented. One of our clients has a strong focus on domestic work in Canada, and one is a Montreal-based Delaware company with a North American manufacturing base and a global customer network.
But in terms of our roles as general counsel, what distinguishes us is not as significant as what we have in common — namely, that we have many varied responsibilities that require us to juggle a number of roles and constituencies every day. We solve legal problems, manage risk, coordinate brands, monitor public and governmental affairs, fulfill corporate secretariat roles — you name it, we are responsible for it.
Today’s general counsel – regardless of the company in which he or she works – is pulled in any number of directions by the sometimes competing demands of management executives, stakeholders, board members, employees, adversaries and competitors. We have a great deal of work that requires our immediate attention, but at the same time need to focus on long-term strategic needs for our law department and our companies. So, who has our back? Our great department team members, our management, and of course, our personal support network of friends and family outside the office.
Who is missing from that list? While we are both fortunate to work with extremely talented outside counsel, many of whom we cherish for their skills and friendship, there are still not enough firms out there who think of themselves as truly part of our teams and who “have our back” at all times.
Many Canadian firms do not seem to understand that the general counsel’s agenda and service expectations are changing — far too many of the firms upon which we have traditionally relied are too slow to work with us using new value-based techniques such as innovative pricing, staffing, knowledge, and process-based solutions that our businesses and complex legal problems require. There are some really notable exceptions, but they are exceptions, rather than the rule.
At a recent ACC CLO ThinkTank meeting (hosted by Zyg at Domtar Corporation HQ in Quebec, sponsored by Ogilvy Renault and attended by Martine (Martine is also a member of the ACC Board of Directors), a number of Montreal’s top CLOs met to discuss law firm/client value issues: what’s working and what’s not.
We were struck by the common experiences of every general counsel in the room. There was a strong sense of disappointment over resistance from many of Canada’s top firms when we asked them for a new approach our legal work and legal spend that will drive efficiency, and not just hours. There was also dissatisfaction with the firms’ lack of focus on process and project management skills. For the most part, we are still not seeing law firms truly align themselves with us in terms of profiting from our outcomes in a manner that is commensurate with the value of the services they provide to us.
Coming out of that ACC CLO ThinkTank, we wanted to pen this blog to help Canadian CLOs and GCs start the conversation between in-house leaders and Canadian law firms. It is important to remember that there are two sides to the story here — we both need to do better at having the “value” conversation. As in-house counsel, we need to be clear in defining what value means to each of us, and to reward firms that provide it; and firms need to improve and adjust, or reinvent their service models to accommodate the “new normal” of efficiencies and work based on results, not hours.
In concert with the ACC Value Challenge initiative, we aim to drive the conversation to get each side, clients and firms in Canada and elsewhere, focused on how we can do better, together.
