About

Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020.

What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years?

While my team has done approximately 20 M&A transactions in the past 24 months, i would say the most important was the C$5bn investment we received from constellation brands, which was ironically one of the simplest deals to paper.

How do you feel in-house legal leaders can successfully introduce and implement a culture within a legal department?

I believe it all starts at the top. One leads by example in terms of work ethic and, more importantly, how you treat your colleagues. If you set an example, and combine it with making a point of identifying moments when that culture isn’t being adhered to, you can end up with a department of which you can be proud.

If you had to give advice to an aspiring in- house lawyer or general counsel what would it be and why?

Be a business person. If you aren’t asking a million business questions and getting all the context for the agreement you’ve been asked to review or the legal challenge you’ve been asked to overcome, you’re doing it wrong. Lawyers are easy to come by. Business minded lawyers far less so.

How do you suggest in-house lawyers build strong relationships with business partners within their company?

The best way to build a strong relationship is to understand what the business needs. The more questions you ask, the more easily you can find solutions. And the more solutions you find or build, the stronger your relationships with your business partners become. Legal departments should not be the place where deals get killed. It should be a department your colleagues view as problem/issue solving.

What techniques do you use to provide commercially-focused advice to your company, and how do you communicate these to more junior lawyers in the team?

I don’t use any particular techniques but I insist my junior lawyers always wear a business hat. They shouldn’t just be finding out what the business deal is from the business partner, they should be thinking of ways to make it better and exploring and proposing those to the business partner. It is easy to communicate with your business partners and to have them trust you if it’s clear you are as interested in closing their deal and driving revenue, or whatever the case may be as they are. If it’s clear you put the company first, it will be self evident in your delivery.