By Lucy Saddleton, Managing Editor, ADB Insights
In a rapidly evolving legal landscape in British Columbia, general counsel – and the law firms that support them – play a vital role in supporting the quest for business growth, while also carefully mitigating risk for the organization.
With the upcoming election in BC this fall, together with the knock-on effect of the US election in November, lawyers are poised to monitor changes in the tariff landscape, while navigating privacy and cybersecurity risk amid the meteoric rise of AI.
Legal departments also face an increasingly volatile and complex regulatory environment, giving rise to the need for continuous monitoring and interpreting of regulations.
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“I think it’s incumbent upon chief legal officers to ensure that their team develops a regulatory intelligence program…with work streams and maybe a technology system that allows them to ensure that they are doing regulatory tracking proactively,” says Jeremy Trickett, chief legal officer at British Columbia Investment Management Corp. (BCI).
Tracking regulatory changes is particularly challenging for global companies like BCI, Trickett says, as they have to ensure they remain compliant with changing regulations in multiple jurisdictions. This can involve updating internal policies, training staff, and sometimes implementing entirely new compliance programs.
Regulatory complexity is also a significant concern for Catherine Lau, general counsel at the Vancouver-based Mountain Equipment Company (MEC), together with elevated cybersecurity risks, and balancing technology integration with privacy and ethical considerations.
With regard to regulatory complexity, Lau’s team conducted a comprehensive review and revision of all privacy policies, procedures and practices to ensure they were complying with evolving regulations, and they made the necessary changes to adapt to recent changes in competition law. They also filed a mandatory report under Canada’s anti-modern slavery act – Bill S-211.
On the cybersecurity side, Lau and her team are preparing for the elevated level of risk. “It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when these incidents might occur, so we’re preparing accordingly,” she says.
The shifting role of lawyers
Lawyers are accustomed to rapidly learning new skills to adapt to global upheaval and geopolitical issues.
“With the pandemic, we all became experts in public health and public health & safety regulations,” says Hubert Lai, university counsel at the University of British Columbia. “With Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine, we’ve had to become experts on sanctions and export controls. With Gaza, we’re dealing with encampments, and we’re looking at fiduciary duties as they relate to investments and business decisions.”
Lai notes that legal department leaders must use their privileged visibility into all aspects of the organization to provide advice on all issues affecting the business, beyond just legal advice.
Many general counsel are taking responsibility for additional business functions, as organizations recognize the value that they bring to the table. Lau’s legal team is also responsible for sustainability matters, for example. In addition, general counsel are increasingly involved in discussions around digital transformation for the business.
“I think it’s very important for general counsel to really embrace and facilitate innovation and to ensure that new technologies are being deployed responsibly, so within our organization there are ongoing discussions around adopting and leveraging emerging technology, just to maintain our competitive edge,” says Lau. For example, MEC implemented smart waivers on iPads for customers using in-store climbing walls. Waivers are collected and stored electronically, in compliance with privacy and retention policies.
Lau’s team built a contract database and a ticketing system to help prioritize and keep track of work with respect to risk assessment, and they also developed a collaborative framework. This requires selected team members from various departments identifying areas of risk and opportunities to ensure a comprehensive approach to risk management, as well as the integration of privacy leads into each department.
“As lawyers we have the unique opportunity to serve as advocates for policy changes by fostering innovation and leveraging our expertise to provide very valuable input on proposed legislation, not only to support innovation, but also to drive sustainable economic growth,” says Lau.
Similarly, Trickett also keeps his team agile through cross-functional collaboration.
“The legal industry hasn’t fully figured out what it means in a hybrid environment to maintain and foster really close collaboration within a team, and with other teams, and that is critical for managing these risks as the volatility of these risks is changing at a different pace,” says Trickett. “Finding ways of connecting and collaborating within the legal team and outside of the legal team is more important than ever before,” he adds.
The role of general counsel has evolved from merely being a legal advisor to being a strategic business partner, so legal department leaders are playing an increasingly significant role in corporate strategic planning.
“Most effective GCs moving forward will play an even more active role in defining and establishing corporate strategy, rather than reviewing it after it has been created,” says Trickett.
Uncertainty facing organizations can slow corporate decision making and lead to conservatism in the pursuit of business goals, so legal departments have a vital role in helping to define the parameters of acceptable action to enable business growth, Trickett says.
From his perspective as Vancouver managing partner at Bennett Jones LLP, Kwang Lim comments that lawyers must remain nimble to stay on top of the rapidly shifting legal and regulatory landscape.
“Lawyers have a broad lens and insight which allows us to work with our clients in a more holistic way,” says Lim. “As business advisors, we are really helping our clients navigate through the regulatory landscape. They look to us as partners in growth and trusted advisors,” he adds.
The impact of AI
Forward-thinking legal departments and law firms are incorporating artificial intelligence to improve efficiency and predictive analytics to help manage risk. Lim encourages his team at Bennett Jones to have “intellectual humility” as they adapt to the world of AI.
“We need to embrace change with the right sort of attitude and recognize that AI is not going anywhere, and it’s larger than us,” says Lim. He notes that AI presents many opportunities for legal leaders to add value in areas where AI cannot be used, such as using emotional intelligence to listen and understand and tailor legal advice to clients.
AI is undoubtedly poised to transform the legal landscape, both in terms of adding value, and also presenting increased risk.
“If lawyers are going to use generative AI, they really need to do their homework,” advises Lai. “Many lawyers do not come from an engineering background or a science background so this is a new area that they need to understand. It’s exciting, but as far as my team is concerned, we’re moving very cautiously.”
Economic Innovation
Lim believes that lawyers play a significant role in impacting BC’s innovation journey.
“From our perspective as lawyers, I’ve noticed repeatedly that we see all sides and facets of this economic innovation die, and that really allows us to be able to look past and transcend just the transaction….and really be able to apply a broader lens and scope and intelligence to do more for clients,” says Lim. This can involve facilitating opportunities and connecting capital to a client that’s looking for financing, or looking ahead at the regulatory landscape to proactively advise clients on preparing for what’s to come, for example.
Lau agrees, noting that lawyers make a positive impact by facilitating collaborations between businesses, academia and governments by entering into arrangements that foster innovation and growth. In one recent example, the legal department at MEC supported a program run by the UBC Sauder School of Business Centre for Climate & Business Solutions which paired students with small and medium-sized enterprises and provided them with tools and resources to identify and reduce carbon emissions.
Trickett’s large in-house legal team plays a major role in driving BCI’s economic growth story, as the institutional investor has grown exponentially in size over the past 10 years, now holding over $250 billion in assets under management, 83 per cent of which is managed in-house. The team has facilitated major investments in BC for companies including Canadian quantum tech company, Photonic.
“We are intimately involved in facilitating the execution of transactions through really sophisticated investment strategies that are happening worldwide to meet our clients’ needs,” Trickett says. “I am pleased to see how a very large in-house legal team has wrecked impact, not only on investments in Canada, but also on the innovation and growth story of BC.”
Hear from some of BC’s top legal leaders at the Legal Innovation Forum in Vancouver on November 20.
