Canadian Lawyer InHouse

Roundup • A roundup of legal department news and trends Maria Preovolos, associate general counsel and assistant corporate secretary • est practices in managing boardroom B diversity: Shoppers Drug Mart — Adam Grabowski, vice president, legal affairs • est use of technology in governance, B risk, and compliance: BMO — Neil Puddicombe, vice president and corporate secretary, BMO Financial Group • est shareholder/stakeholder engageB ment: Canada Council for the Arts — Michelle Chawla, corporate secretary and director, strategic initiatives • oyce Borden-Reed CSCS distinguished J contribution award: Joan Wilson • SCS Peter Dey governance achieveC ment award: Peter Dey, chairman, Paradigm Capital • CSCS Peter Dey governance achieve ment award: Anna Tudela, vice president, regulatory affairs and corporate secretary, Goldcorp Inc. SMART LITIGATION. NOW EVEN SMARTER. Michal Fairburn has joined Stockwoods after more than two decades with the Ministry of the Attorney General - Crown Law Office (Criminal) where she was General Counsel. She brings unparalleled appellate expertise and unique insight into complex criminal law and regulatory problems. Michal's addition strengthens our capacity to deliver top-tier advice to clients about their civil, regulatory or criminal law risks – and the complex relationship among all three. Smart Litigation. stockwoods.ca 10 Untitled-3 1 • o c t ob er 2013 INHOUSE Canadian Corporate Counsel Association representatives Grant Borbridge of Emergo Group of Companies; Cathy Cummings, CCCA; and Terri Uhrich, K+S Potash Canada reviewed all submissions and determined the shortlist of nominees. One of the awards judges, Richard Leblanc, an associate professor of law, governance, and ethics at York University, said he looked for "intention but also results" when reviewing the submissions. For example, with Shoppers Drug Mart in the category of "best practices in boardroom diversity," the retailer had women and minority representation that was fairly high, says Leblanc, but they also had women chairing key committees and didn't have "over-tenured" directors, which he says promoted refreshment of the board compared to other boards with long-serving directors. In another submission a bank had a woman who had been on the board for 20 years. "I look at intention, outcome, and sustainability. I saw that with Shoppers," says Leblanc. He also focused on leadership and diversity. "You can say you have women on the board but are they in leadership positions? It's also about ethnicity, age, gender, and when the rubber hits the road do you do it? I think Shoppers was a good example of that." In the "best sustainability, ethics, and environmental governance" category, which went to Telus, Leblanc says he was looking for tangible commitments to employees, to the community, to customers and the environment. "That means meaningful metrics that are measured, of relevance to stakeholders and assurance of the numbers so you're not gaming the metrics" he says. The panel of expert judges included Leblanc, Brendan Sheehan of The Illawong Group; Gigi Dawe of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants; Stephen Griggs from Smoothwater Capital Corp.; Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP partner Carol Hansell; Sylvia Groves of the Governance Studio; Andrew MacDougall of Spencer Stuart; Paul Schneider of Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan; and Elizabeth Watson of Watson Inc. — Jennifer Brown 13-08-27 2:34 PM

• Cover