Shift your Culture from 'That’s the way we’ve always done it' to 'This is how we can do it!'

December 2016

Abstract

Legal departments in every industry and of every size are increasingly focused on how they can drive innovation and creativity amongst their teams to achieve better outcomes. BMO Financial Group (BMO), celebrating its bicentennial in 2017, is a global financial institution headquartered in Canada with operations in the United States, Europe and Asia. Set out below are two initiatives we created and implemented to create a culture open to innovation and cooperative collaboration to drive better outcomes for our customers, employees and shareholders.

Author

Carla Goldstein

Associate General Counsel and Director of Strategic Initiatives, Bank of Montreal, Canada

Carla Goldstein is Associate General Counsel and Director of Strategic Initiatives for BMO Financial Group. Carla oversees the strategy and implementation of BMO’s Legal Excellence Program, which includes its outside counsel program. Based in Chicago, Carla works with the bank’s attorneys and outside counsel to drive innovative delivery models for legal services, including the use of technology, and pricing models not based on the billable hour. Carla brings a unique combination of experience as a corporate lawyer, a qualified project manager, a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and a founder of Seyfarth Shaw’s SeyfarthLean Program team. Prior to joining BMO in 2013, Carla was Chief Strategic Innovations Officer of SeyfarthLean Consulting and its parent Seyfarth Shaw. She holds an MBA in Business from the Kellogg School of Management and obtained her law degree from Northwestern University. Carla is frequently invited to speak at business and educational events on innovation. Her work in this area has garnered awards for the bank, including the 2016 Canadian Corporate Counsel Association Innovation Award and the 2015 Association of Corporate Counsel Value Champion Award.

Company

Bank of Montreal

Established in 1817, BMO Financial Group is a highly diversified financial services provider based in North America. With total assets of $692 billion as of July 31, 2016 and over 46,000 employees, BMO provides a broad range of retail banking, wealth management and investment banking products and services to more than 12 million customers and conducts business through three operating groups: Personal and Commercial Banking, Wealth Management and BMO Capital Markets.

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Shift your Culture from 'That’s the way we’ve always done it' to 'This is how we can do it!'

Abstract

Author

Company

Bank of Montreal

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