In the aftermath of Laurentian University’s file for CCAA protection (otherwise known as bankruptcy), the Auditor General of Ontario undertook a detailed analysis and investigation: (https://www.auditor.on.ca/en/content/specialreports/specialreports/LaurentianUniversity_EN.pdf).
They notably found that Laurentian’s Board of Governors was ‘ineffectual’ and ‘lacked key operational and governance oversight practices and expertise’ (p.5). In their recommendations, they provided several suggestions to Laurentian specifically, but also noted that other universities might benefit from their implementation.
One that strikes a chord for us at SMU is their suggestions related to legal counsel:
Formally assess the costs and benefits of engaging external legal counsel and, based on the results of the assessment, procure external legal counsel using a fair and transparent process.
So that external legal fees are minimized by reducing reliance on external counsel, hire an in-house counsel who is able to address the more frequent legal matters faced by the University through its normal operations.
SMUFU recently FOIPOP’ed our external legal expenses over the past 5 years, learning that we have spent nearly $1.5M. Given that the annual exponential growth in legal costs also coincides with our employer hiring a full-time in-house legal counsel, one wonders what is going on.
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