Managing
far-flung
in-house
counsel
By Luis Millan
hen Douglas Carrothers was
handed the mandate of revamp-
ing the in-house legal department
of Canada’s fourth largest life and
health insurance company, it was on the eve of the
global financial crisis when scores of businesses be-
gan to embrace the mantra of cost-cutting and im-
proving business efficiency in order to get through
the volatile times.
At a time when the majority of general counsel
were under intense pressure to shave costs, run a
lean team and deliver more with less, the vice-pres-
ident of the legal department of Industrial Alliance
Insurance and Financial Services Inc. was grappling
with the challenges posed by managing a steadily
growing geographically-dispersed bilingual team
that dealt with diverse legal systems.
While Carrothers has made considerable head-
way over the past two years, it is still admittedly a
work in progress, in part because Industrial Alliance
is posting healthy numbers. The Quebec City-based
insurer has emerged from the financial meltdown
in better shape than its competitors, some of whom
are struggling to restructure their businesses. With-
out much fanfare, Industrial Alliance is in fact
progressively growing, gaining market share in the
retail markets in fiscal 2009, with assets under man-
agement increasing by 18 per cent to $58.4 billion.
After having proved that it could expand beyond
Quebec without faltering, with no less than 21 ac-
quisitions over the past decade, Industrial Alliance
is taking on the U.S. market, having ac-
quired two businesses last year and an-
other during the summer.
“Our in-house legal department
has grown as much through
acquisitions as organically,”
explained Carrothers, who
now heads a team of 55 lawyers
and support staff, stretched across
five different cities in Canada and
the United States. “What I have to
deal with is remnants of different com-
panies, and try to pull them together. It’s
getting the folks to think as a group in-
stead of individual companies.”
No easy feat. The breadth of issues fac-
ing general counsel managing far-flung in-
house legal teams can be daunting. Even
though English is the lingua franca of the
business and legal world, language barriers
can come into play as can cultural differ-
ences and local sensitivities. The physical
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