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The in-house counsel role appeals to those with a passion for learning and who thrive on challenge and change. It is the ideal profession for ambitious individuals like KJ (Ke-Jia) Chong, the current Treasurer on the CCCA Executive Committee. We spoke with KJ about her career, her motivations and her lifelong commitment to learning.

Communicating effectively is half the challenge when working in-house. The shorter, the better in most cases, but there are other issues you might want to consider. While normal course in private practice may be to send a thorough PDF memo on the law, this might not be the best way to get your message across in an organization.

As we enter a new year, still full of uncertainty but perhaps seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, the CCCA continues to ensure a strong and supportive presence for in-house counsel across Canada. This is why we exist – to serve you, our members – a purpose that Steve Smyth, 2022-2023 Chair, takes to heart. We spoke with Steve to get his sense of where we are as a profession and where we are going.

Like it or hate it, ESG is no longer a fringe part of business, and lawyers have a key role to play in ensuring organizations develop clear, consistent and credible goals for their environmental, social and governance frameworks.

Practising law is the business of law firms; in-house practice and legal departments are just part of a business that has many other priorities. Legal group budgeting, financial systems, hiring, firing, promoting, contract management, records keeping, and IT have to integrate with everything else. General Counsel is just one member of an executive team. The Legal Department (“Legal”) is just a small — but important — part of something much bigger.

An often repeated phrase is that diversity is having a seat at the table, inclusion is having a voice, and belonging is having that voice be heard. If more voices are heard, then more people will feel valued and, if more people feel valued, then we will have achieved a noble goal. But if people feeling good is not a worthwhile goal, then the driver of that value toward higher performance and better outputs is at least an objective that most businesses understand.

Employing principled strategies to govern your pro bono efforts will help you to continue to provide the purposeful pro bono work without getting overwhelmed by it.

The Ethics and Professional Responsibility Committee and the CCCA prepared answers to 22 frequently asked questions about solicitor-client privilege and client confidentiality especially for in-house counsel. Please refer to the rules of your governing body for the detailed rules in your jurisdiction.

Have you ever tried to explain what you do at work to your friends? Inevitably, this involves gently managing peoples’ glamorous expectations that your day job involves drama and antics that would appear in a script of Suits. We all know the day-to-day lives of lawyers offer disappointingly few drama-soaked storylines.

I’m always trying to get the most out of my time, as I’m sure many of you are, but I feel like something’s got to give every single day. There must be a better way, right? Here are four steps I am trying out to avoid the overwhelm and be more productive without sacrificing my family, fun or sleep time. Spoiler: It isn’t always easy; however, overall, it’s working.