Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP and the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association (CCCA) release the fourth annual In-House Counsel Barometer, an online survey created in conjunction with Ipsos Reid to uncover the opinions and attitudes of Canadian in-house corporate counsel.

The survey was distributed in February 2008 to CCCA members from a variety of organizations and industry sectors. Nearly 500 members participated.

In 2008, notable trends and changes include:

• More in-house counsel agree that it is important to have law firm experience before becoming an in-house counsel

• The top advantages of working as in-house counsel over working in a law firm continue to gain strength since the survey began in 2005.  These strengths include: being an active part of business decisions, applying their legal training to a business environment and getting a variety of legal work

• Over the past 12 months, significantly more in-house counsel have been hired as a cost saving measure

• A number of areas of law are increasingly becoming challenging, including: regulatory compliance and environmental law, while other areas such as governance and tax are better understood today compared to previous years

• More in-house counsel expect the size of their legal department to increase over the next two years

• When choosing an outside law firm today, more respondents are paying attention to the law firm’s specialization, existing relationships and referrals, and individual lawyer ratings

In 2008, the survey explored several new topics. Highlights include:

• Reasons for recommending a career as in-house counsel include the variety of work undertaken, a better work/life balance and being an active part of business decisions
  
• The amount spent on in-house counsel has increased over the past two years
  
• Less than half of respondents said their organizations take any special precautions to protect legal privilege for the legal advice they obtain
  
• Among those that do, controlling and restricting access to such information, clearly identifying and labelling privileged information, and using secure and segregated file storage techniques are highlighted as the top measures
  
• Close to half of respondents are not at all aware of virtual data rooms, an online environment for implementing transactions from due diligence through closing to electronic archiving

Click here to view the full 2008 In-House Corporate Counsel Barometer.

 

Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP is focused on business law and is consistently ranked by independent rating agencies as a market leader in each of the firm's core practice areas. With more than 235 lawyers in Toronto, Montréal, New York, and an affiliate in Paris, Davies manages complex and sophisticated commercial and financial matters, regardless of borders.

CCCA provides a national forum for corporate counsel to advance the development of their practice of law, professional skills and careers as corporate counsel. There are now over 9800 regular and associate members and 12 regional chapters across Canada.

For information, contact:

Gary Nurse
Manager, Marketing
Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP
Tel: 416-367-6902
Fax: 416-863-0871
E-mail: gnurse@dwpv.com
www.dwpv.com