When the general counsel of Canada’s largest producer of ethanol was about to retire, the company put out the word that it needed the services of a lawyer with certain skills for three days a week. Among other things, that skill set involved corporate matters, experience with Quebec law, and proficiency in French. As a native of Montreal, a member of both the Ontario and Quebec bars, and a senior associate with Shibley Righton LLP in Toronto, I thought it looked like an interesting assignment.
As things turned out, it has been.
GreenField Ethanol Inc. is one of North America’s leading suppliers of green fuels. For 20 years, GreenField has been producing industrial and beverage alcohol and fuel ethanol. Like others in the industry, GreenField is now working to develop cellulosic ethanol that uses waste generated by the agricultural, forestry, and municipal sectors. Biofuels and new cellulosic technology, in particular, are soon expected to be the fastest-growing part of North America’s energy mix.
Ethanol is very much a green energy issue and efforts to develop cellulosic ethanol are an exciting next step for the industry. Making fuel from waste rather than food products is a good-news story in anyone’s book.
I took the assignment at GreenField and adopted a schedule that had me working two days a week at Shibley Righton and three days at GreenField. The two offices are near each other in downtown Toronto, but I rarely split a day between them. The arrangement provides that I am on call for both offices all of the time, which means I have gone from having one demanding full-time job to having considerably more on my plate.
But the experience has definitely been worth it and has made me a much better lawyer.
Not many lawyers in private practice have the opportunity to simultaneously work in-house for a client and continue to develop their private practice. In taking advantage of this opportunity, I am obtaining legal and business experience not generally available to lawyers in private practice and gaining an inside understanding of what clients want.
At GreenField, I give advice on all kinds of company decisions involving senior management, which means I am plugged in to the organization’s decision-making process. The work can include reviewing contracts, giving general business advice, employment and sales issues, and involvement with various business development projects.
At Shibley Righton, I am a member of the business, real estate, and condo law groups and am also involved in health law and professional regulation. But the focus of my practice is on corporate commercial law. With a general corporate commercial practice, one of my goals as a lawyer is to become a trusted adviser to my clients. By working in-house, I have developed a strong understanding of a few things in particular. For example, issues the external lawyer is working on are not always what the client is focusing on. Thus, I am taking this knowledge and applying it to interactions with my own firm’s clients as a lawyer in private practice. With busy schedules, voicemail, and e-mail, clients and lawyers are not always on the same page. It is important to stop and spend an extra moment ensuring they are.
Working in-house versus private practice is also different in terms of balancing files. In any given week at Shibley Righton, I am working on several different matters and am constantly jumping from file to file and client to client. Of course, each client has a different personality.
Sometimes, because of tight time commitments, it is difficult to get acquainted with a client’s identity. At GreenField, I work within the corporate mindset that I have gotten to know very well. Getting so well acquainted with GreenField’s corporate mindset reminds me that, for a lawyer in private practice, each client has its own specific identity. GreenField has reminded me how important it is to learn as much as I can about a client and advise accordingly.
Many lawyers who work as in-house counsel have prior experience with a law firm, but gaining general counsel experience while you are in private practice is the kind of opportunity that doesn’t come along all the time. I consider myself lucky to have it and it has really opened my eyes by giving me a good perspective on what the client looks for.
Michael Stern is a senior associate with the Toronto office of Shibley Righton LLP. He has a bachelor’s degree in medical ethics from the University of Toronto, a civil law degree from the University of Ottawa, and a common law degree from the University of Montreal. He also holds a Canadian securities course certificate.
