When Shelley Wrean joined Kwantlen Polytechnic University as general counsel in April 2012, she was the first in-house counsel in its history.
“When I joined Kwantlen, there was no legal department here,” she said. “I joined as the first in-house counsel. And the decision was made to structure the university secretariat … so that it all falls under the office of general counsel. So, I oversee those functions within the organization.”
The university secretariat includes positions related to judicial affairs, freedom of information and governance and policy, among others. A daunting task perhaps, but Wrean was up for the challenge.
“Having done this before – set up a legal department from the ground up, established a new department – was experience that was really an asset coming into this position,” Wrean said. “I had done it at my previous job at the Fraser Health Authority and I looked forward to the opportunity to do it again,” she said. Wren’s years working for Richards Buell Sutton LLP in Vancouver also proved to be an asset. In fact, she feels it’s vital for all in-house counsel to have law firm experience.
“The one piece of advice I always give universally is to spend some time in private practice before you go in-house,” Wren said. “I think it’s very helpful to have both sides of those types of those experiences, to have been a private practitioner and also to be in-house counsel, because generally, as in-house counsel, you will be interacting with external counsel.”
Wrean went on to explain why external counsel would be used by an organization with its own in-house counsel. “Often, in an in-house counsel position, the department is not resourced enough to handle every piece of legal work that comes in, either because of specialized expertise that is required or because of the volume.”
Though she sometimes misses the professional support that comes with working at a law firm filled with other lawyers, Wrean enjoys the work she does now.
“I like belonging to an organization where you actually are a part of the team as opposed to being an external provider to the organization.”
Harry Gray, vice-president, finance and administration, at Kwantlen, is quick to point out what an asset Wrean has been in her year as a member of the executive team.
“The board changed its governance process, and Shelley and some of her staff have put in a lot of work, developing a new board manual,” he said by way of example.
According to Gray, since becoming a full university in 2008, Kwantlen has become a $140 million-per-year operation.
“The kind of contracts that we get into, the kinds of arrangements that we have, the sorts of issues that roll our way just were getting to the point where we thought that having an internal legal counsel guide us through … would be a very good idea,” he said, explaining the university’s decision to bring an in-house counsel.
“There are times when an organization, without an internal legal counsel, is doing things that they really should be getting legal advice on, were they only to have someone point that out to them. Shelley has been very good at doing that for us.
“She is a great resource for us in terms of being able to both tell us when she sees matters that really need to have more attention paid to them from a legal point of view and also to be able to help us with some of the contacts with legal counsel,” Gray said. “I certainly spend a lot of time [working] with Shelley and it’s great to have her here.”
