Corporate legal departments are playing an increasing role in developing corporate social responsibility programs and green initiatives within their companies — providing both valuable legal guidance and strategic advice. And they aren’t just doing all of this because it’s the right thing to do — it’s also good for business.

Fred Crooks is faced with a challenge that most in-house counsel are no strangers to — getting the high-quality external advice required at the greatest cost efficiency available.

The decision to outsource is a major strategic one for most companies, as it involves weighing the potential cost-savings against the consequences of a loss in control over the product or service.

While Canadian companies are marketing green products and services to the point of ubiquity, Canada’s Competition Bureau, along with the Canadian Standards Association, is cracking down on so-called “green washing,” with a set guidelines that prohibit vague or misleading environmental claims on products and services.

After a few years’ hiatus, the annual Canadian Lawyer Legal Fees Survey is back and bigger than ever. More than 300 lawyers and firms responded to our online survey, in which we asked about the going rate for 26 different legal matters.

The results of an Association of Corporate Counsel survey landed in my inbox recently, and I was pleased — although not all that surprised — to read that 85 per cent of CLOs found their careers to be rewarding and “welcomed opportunities to expand their roles and the support they provided to their clients.”

 

When Julie A. Lee Harrs accepted her first corporate counsel gig — after more than a decade at a large Bay Street firm — she never imagined herself taking a job where she would have to wear a hard hat and safety boots.

When the British Columbia government recently announced plans to introduce a consumer-based carbon tax, to apply to virtually all fossil fuels, it was lauded by some and heavily criticized by others.

Two hundred kilometres northwest of Vancouver, in the southern Chilcotin, the Xeni Gwet'in First Nation is having it out with the British Columbia Ministry of Forests.

Law Student, F, 25, seeks high-interest summer position with Canadian law firm (remuneration a bonus). This smart, enthusiastic, in-debt law school student prefers law-related experiences, such as a trials or arbitrations, but is equally at home filing and researching. Seeking Big Law companion to settle down with forever (or at least through until articling).