“How do you manage an information
company’s legal function in
the age of globalization?”
“Use a multi-layered, subtle and
risk-sensitive approach.”
It’s now commonplace to observe that markets are global. Even businesses that do not themselves
purport to be global must embrace this fundamental fact of life. For businesses like Thomson
Reuters, which are inherently global—the market for information is worldwide and many of our
customers operate internationally—there are very real and immediate consequences for the
services that our legal department provides.
While markets are global, law is local. Of course, there are general principles that are global,
regional and often cultural which shape national and local laws. But compliance with law must
take into account the actual rules of the specific jurisdiction, as well as how those rules are enforced
locally. Our approach to the law, therefore, must be multi-layered, subtle and risk-sensitive.
In our legal department, globalization impacts us in three major areas:
First, we have a complex corporate structure due to our incorporation in two countries—Canada
and the U.K.—and our listing on four stock exchanges in three countries. While there is
substantial overlap in securities regulation and stock exchange rules across these jurisdictions,
there are substantive differences as well. A big part of our job as corporate counsel is the
harmonization of our practices to achieve compliance in each country and with the rules of
each stock exchange.
Second, our business is information intensive and technology driven. Aspects of our information
products can be subjected to different legal requirements in different parts of the world. Data
privacy and data protection, for example, are hot issues in many of our key jurisdictions. Our
legal function works with our businesses to ensure that the marketing and content of our products
are sensitive to the relevant legal requirements in the countries in which those products are
sold. Similarly, we must stay attuned to subtle differences in intellectual property law and its
enforcement in multiple jurisdictions.
Third, we emphasize an ethical culture throughout our company. But globalization complicates
this because ethical behavior should incorporate compliance, and the specifics of compliance
Deirdre Stanley
Executive Vice President and
General Counsel
Thomson Reuters
New York, New York
with laws in multiple jurisdictions may not always be intuitive. So our job as corporate counsel
is to provide the training and guidance that helps our businesses navigate the maze of law,
ethics and culture, all within the day-to-day commercial reality in which we live.
Events of the past year have made it abundantly clear that no part of the global economy lives
in isolation. This reality heightens the significance of a globalized approach to managing the
corporate legal function.
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