Audit of Paralegal Services

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Table of Contents

• Executive Summary
• 1. Statement of Conformance
• 2. Acknowledgement
• 3. Background
• 4. Audit Objective
• 5. Audit Scope
• 6. Audit Approach
• 7. Findings, Recommendations and Management Response and Action Plan
  • 7.1 Organizational Management
  • 7.2 Data and Performance Management
  • 7.3 Whole-of-Justice Approach
  • 7.4 Transformation Agenda
• 8. Audit Opinion
• Appendix A – Paralegal Services Centre’s Utilization in Hours
• Appendix B – Paralegal Full-time Equivalents by Portfolio or Sector
• Appendix C – Audit Criteria
• Appendix D – List of Acronyms

Executive Summary

Introduction

In alignment with the Clerk of the Privy Council’s Blueprint 2020 vision for a world-class public service, the Department of Justice (the Department or Justice) established its vision for Canada’s Legal Team in 2014. Building on the recommendations stemming from the Legal Services Review, the Department’s vision included such commitments as further leveraging the use of paralegals.

To fulfill this commitment, the Department undertook a number of initiatives, which included a national working group that studied increasing reliance on paralegals and issued a list of recommendations and an implementation plan, as well as a list of common paralegal tasks in 2014. These initiatives also included a Paralegal Services Centre (the Centre), which was launched in December 2015 and provides a central pool of 10 paralegals to support the Departmental Legal Services Units (DLSUs) and the Public Law and Legislative Services Sector. The Centre continues to promote and enable the use of paralegal services in the delivery of the Department’s legal services by offering a broad range of activities, including but not limited to: file preparation, legal research, drafting of legal opinions and legal risk assessments, and litigation support. In addition to these services, the Centre conducts, in partnership with DLSUs, pilot projects to develop areas of work that benefit from optimal use of paralegal resources.

During this same time-period, a departmental Paralegal Strategy was proposed, but never formally approved. The proposed Strategy highlighted four key elements:

1. Reallocate paralegals toward more low and medium complexity files.
2. Increase business intelligence on the client-funded resources supporting DLSU operations.
3. Develop a National Paralegal Training Plan.
4. Develop a Paralegal Recruitment Plan.

After these initial initiatives, and to better deliver results and support a culture of continuous change and innovation, the Department undertook a re-organization in April 2016. A major component of the re-organization was the creation of a National Litigation Sector (NLS). Under the new NLS, the Assistant Deputy Attorney General (ADAG) is responsible for the conduct of all litigation involving the Government of Canada. As of March 2017, NLS comprised approximately 82% of the Justice funded paralegals in the Department. Also, the Deputy Minister identified the ADAG, NLS as the Functional Authority for the Paralegal Strategy and the paralegal community.

In May 2018, the Legal Practices Sector joined the Management Sector and was re-named the Legal Practices Branch (LPB). LPB continues to be responsible for, among other things, encouraging and enabling reliance on paralegal services through the Paralegal Services Centre, as well as by other mechanisms.

In October 2018, a Steering Committee on Paralegal Excellence was created. A senior-level committee reporting to the ADAG, NLS and the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and ADM, Management Sector, the Steering Committee on Paralegal Excellence (SCOPE) mandate is to “support the building of a strong and engaged paralegal community – a community essential to the delivery of legal services within Canada’s Legal Team. This includes ongoing assessment of the Department’s paralegal workforce capacity; implementation of a national training and recruitment program; establishing horizontal mechanisms to promote the use of paralegals, determining performance indicators or targets for Sectors and Portfolios; build awareness on best practices and priorities for the National Paralegal Strategy. The Committee will take into consideration any impacts on paralegals employed by client-departments”.

In the context of the DM Vision, a strong, representative and engaged paralegal community supported by well-defined training activities and development programs is identified as key in the Recognizing and Building Expertise pillar. The key activities for the next fiscal year include the development of a network platform to engage and strengthen the paralegal community by enabling and promoting the building of new relationships, sharing legal knowledge and promoting paralegal expertise.

Strengths

Interviews confirmed that the value of paralegals as integral members of Canada’s Legal team is widely recognized throughout the Department. In addition, key performance indicators have been developed to track the effectiveness of the paralegal workforce. By undertaking foundational work to harmonize paralegal job descriptions and develop a training program, the Department has taken steps to enhance the professional excellence of its paralegal workforce. It has also engaged in sharing best practices regarding this enhancement using both formal and informal mechanisms.

Areas for Improvement

An opportunity exists to reaffirm the relevance of the departmental Paralegal Strategy through the recently created SCOPE, by clearly articulating its vision and the key elements related to the paralegal service delivery model.

An opportunity also exists to advance the Department’s data and performance measurement efforts by establishing the key performance indicators to track and inform the implementation of the departmental Paralegal Strategy, including the appropriate source(s) of information to support these indicators.

Finally opportunities exist to provide direction on and continue to professionalize the paralegal workforce and to utilize the SCOPE to better leverage best practices regarding the use of paralegals throughout the Department.

Audit Opinion and Conclusion

In our opinion, the Department has leveraged a number of different mechanisms such as the Paralegal Services Centre and the NLS Paralegal Strategy Working Group to promote the use of paralegal resources in the delivery of its legal services to the Government of Canada. With the identification of a Functional Authority for the departmental Paralegal Strategy, as well as the recent creation of the SCOPE, the Department has taken measures to strengthen the governance structure and is well-positioned to reaffirm the relevance of the departmental Paralegal Strategy by clearly articulating its vision and the key elements related to the paralegal service delivery model in order to further integration.

Management Response

Management is in agreement with the audit findings, has accepted the recommendations included in this report, and has developed a management action plan to address them. The management action plan has been integrated in this report.

1. Statement of Conformance

In my professional judgment as Chief Audit and Evaluation Executive, the audit conforms to the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing, as supported by the results of the Quality Assurance and Improvement Program.

Submitted by:

Anne Patenaude
Chief Audit and Evaluation Executive
Department of Justice Canada

2. Acknowledgement

The Chief Audit and Evaluation Executive would like to thank the audit team and those individuals who contributed to this engagement and particularly, employees who provided insights and comments as part of this audit.

3. Background

In alignment with the Clerk of the Privy Council’s Blueprint 2020 vision for a world-class public service that is innovative, agile, collaborative and open, the Department of Justice (the Department or Justice) established its vision for Canada’s Legal Team in 2014. Building on the recommendations stemming from the Legal Services Review (i.e. 2014-2017), the Department’s vision included such commitments as investing in new processes and technology; better aligning human resources with priorities; and further leveraging the use of paralegals. This transformation agenda was being implemented within a constrained fiscal environment that impacted both the Department and its partner departments.

The Department’s efforts to further leverage the use of its paralegals was also reflective of trends in the external environment. Within the legal profession, the paralegal community has become more widely recognized as a professional legal services provider. For example, Ontario was the first province to regulate its paralegals in 2007. The Law Society of Ontario regulates licensed paralegals in Ontario by ensuring that they meet appropriate standards of learning, professional competence, and professional conduct. Paralegals’ qualifications include completion of an approved legal services program in Ontario, and completion of the Law Society’s Paralegal Licensing Process, including Licensing Examinations.

Departmental Paralegal Strategy

To promote the use of paralegals, the Department’s efforts have centred on two main initiatives: Process Optimization and the Legal Services Review (LSR). Under Process Optimization, a national working group studied increasing reliance on paralegals and issued a list of recommendations and an implementation plan, as well as a list of common paralegal tasks in 2014. Process Optimization was extended under the LSR, and a new Paralegal Services Centre (the Centre) was launched in December 2015. It now reports to the Department’s Legal Practices Branch (LPB).

By providing a central pool of 10 paralegals to support the Departmental Legal Services Units (DLSUs) and the Public Law and Legislative Services Sector, the Centre is committed to promoting and enabling the use of paralegal services in the delivery of the Department’s legal services. Its mandate is focused on serving those DLSUs that do not have sufficient access to paralegals and to also respond to surges in demand for paralegal work from all DLSUs in the National Capital Region. Aligned with its mandate and the commitments from the LSR, the Centre continues to offer a broad range of services on a cost recovery basis which include, but are not limited to: file preparation, legal research, drafting of legal opinions and legal risk assessments, litigation support, supporting the establishment of legal knowledge management systems, and legal project management.

The table in Appendix A summarizes, for fiscal years (FY) 2016-17 and 2017-18, the utilization (in hours) of the Centre’s paralegal resources by departmental Portfolio and Sector. For each of these fiscal years, the table illustrates that the highest utilization of these paralegal resources comes from the Department itself followed by the Business and Regulatory Law Portfolio (BRLP).

Under the direction of the Assistant Deputy Minister (ADM) responsible for Change Management, the ADM, Tax Law Services and the champion of paralegals, a departmental Paralegal Strategy, which defined the way forward to increase the use of paralegals in the Department, was proposed to the Department’s Executive Committee in December 2015. An update to this Strategy was presented to the Management Committee in March 2016. Although not formally approved by either of these senior management committees, the intent of the proposed Strategy was to articulate the Department’s paralegal service delivery model. By doing so, the Department would renew its efforts to optimize reliance on paralegals. This proposed Strategy highlighted four key elements:

1. Reallocate paralegals toward more low and medium complexity files:

   Through the establishment of the 1400-hour standard in 2015, and by increasing the percentage of paralegals achieving it, time could be re-allocated to legal work with existing resources. In addition, implementing the use of expedited document review and e-litigation technology would further increase the time paralegals have available for work on other files. This element also included conducting data analytics by Portfolio and Sector on the current use of paralegals and proposing targets based on work and resource mix.

2. Increase business intelligence on the client-funded resources supporting DLSU operations:

   The Department has a hybrid paralegal service delivery model in place, with paralegals employed by the Department and by partner departments in support of the legal work performed in DLSUs. This element focused on gathering information on the resources being provided (e.g. classification and level) as well as the work being performed (e.g. legal research, document review, etc.) to better understand the type of support the Department received from partner-funded paralegal resources.

   Data analytics undertaken for the purposes of this audit indicated that as of March 31, 2018, there were approximately 302 paralegal full-time equivalents (FTEs) that were funded by the Department, and approximately 109 FTEs funded by partner departments in support of the legal work performed by the DLSUs. The table in Appendix B shows that there has been an increase in the number of paralegal FTEs across the Department by sector and/or portfolio over the past two years, with the exception of the Public Law and Legislative Services Sector where the number of paralegal FTEs decreased slightly.

3. Developing a National Paralegal Training Plan:

   To further enhance the professional excellence of the Department’s paralegals and ensure that the paralegal workforce was equipped to meet the needs of the Department, this element of the proposed Strategy focused on the development and implementation of a National Paralegal Training Plan, that would be available to all paralegals (in both the Department and partner departments).

4. Developing a Paralegal Recruitment Plan:

   Recognizing that formal paralegal training has become increasingly available throughout Canada (with the exception of Manitoba and Saskatchewan) and includes remote education programs, this last element of the proposed Strategy aimed at ensuring that the Department remains competitive in being able to attract and retain paralegal talent. To this end, the recruitment plan would include such aspects as a process to collaborate with educational institutions to offer paralegal work placements, along with consideration of minimum education and experience requirements for new paralegals.

Departmental Re-organization

To better deliver results and support a culture of continuous change and innovation, the Department undertook a re-organization, effective April 1, 2016. A major component of the re-organization was the creation of a National Litigation Sector (NLS).

Under the new NLS, the Assistant Deputy Attorney General (ADAG) is responsible for the conduct of all litigation involving the Government of Canada, with Regional Director Generals (RDGs) reporting directly to the ADAG. Portfolios continue to be accountable for the management of the law and for liaising with partner departments. Litigation performed in the DLSUs continues, with functional direction being provided by the ADAG, NLS.

By managing litigation services nationally, it is expected that the NLS will achieve the following outcomes aimed at providing a more consistent and efficient approach in delivering litigation services:

• Clarified accountability structures;
• Improved coherence and consistency of litigation service delivery at the national level;
• Greater flexibility in the use of resources;
• Increased analytical and strategic capacity for litigation services;
• Increased efficiency in the management of litigation operations and the ability to speak with one-voice (i.e. whole-of-Justice approach); and
• Institutionalized continuous improvement and innovation in litigation practices.

There were approximately 232 Justice paralegal FTEs in NLS, as of March 31, 2017, thus representing approximately 82% of the Justice funded paralegals in the Department. In March 2017, the Deputy Minister, identified the ADAG, NLS as the Functional Authority for the Paralegal Strategy to ensure an integrated and nationally coordinated approach. The requirements of this role are as follows:

• Provide leadership and a management voice for the community, including coordination and communication of the activities among key stakeholders and with the Deputy Minister’s Office;
• Approve organizational changes within the community; and
• Approve content of new or revised national standardized job descriptions to be applied to the community as a whole.

Since its establishment in April 2016, the LPB strives to support a whole-of-Justice approach by promoting consistency, efficiency, continuous improvement and innovation in legal practices through the development of policies, tools and analytics. This includes:

• Leading and coordinating the Justice change and innovation agenda;
• Providing a business analysis function to support evidence-based decisions;
• Delivering a legal education program that supports Justice’s priorities;
• Keeping up with leading edge practices and leveraging strategic legal knowledge; and
• Encouraging and enabling reliance on paralegal services through the Paralegal Services Centre, as well as by other mechanisms.

Steering Committee on Paralegal Excellence

In October 2018, a Steering Committee on Paralegal Excellence (SCOPE) was created. A senior-level committee reporting to the ADAG, NLS and the CFO and ADM, Management Sector, the SCOPE is considered to be cross-functional by including representatives from each direct report to the Deputy Minister, as well as key partners (i.e. Human Resources Branch (HRB) and LPB). This representation is intended to ensure that a coordinated departmental approach is used to promote the use of paralegals across all of the Department’s business lines.

The SCOPE’s mandate is to “support the building of a strong and engaged paralegal community – a community essential to the delivery of legal services within Canada’s Legal Team. This includes ongoing assessment of the Department’s paralegal workforce capacity; implementation of a national training and recruitment program; establishing horizontal mechanisms to promote the use of paralegals, determining performance indicators and targets for Sectors and Portfolios; build awareness on best practices and priorities for the National Paralegal Strategy. The Committee will take into consideration any impacts on paralegals employed by client-departments”.

4. Audit Objective

The objective of the audit was to provide assurance on the mechanisms to promote the use of paralegals in the delivery of legal services to the Government of Canada.

5. Audit Scope

The audit scope included the mechanisms established to promote the use of paralegals from FY 2016-17 to 2017-18. As such, the scope targeted the initiatives, practices and processes implemented by the Department’s sectors, portfolios and branches to leverage paralegals in the delivery of legal services; implementation of the departmental Paralegal Strategy; and the services provided by the Paralegal Services Centre.

For the purposes of data and trend analysis, the scope focused on paralegal resources employed by Justice sectors, portfolios and branches, including paralegals employed in the regions, from FY 2016-17 to 2017-18. For insight and informational purposes during the same time period, paralegals employed by partner departments in support of the DLSUs were also considered, where possible.

6. Audit Approach

The audit team carried out its mandate in accordance with Treasury Board’s Policy on Internal Audit and the Institute of Internal Auditors’ International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing. The audit employed various techniques including a risk assessment of the audit entity, interviews, and the review and analysis of documentation.

7. Findings, Recommendations and Management Response and Action Plan

This section provides the findings and recommendations resulting from the audit work carried out. The audit was conducted based on the lines of enquiry and audit criteria identified in the planning phase, which are presented in Appendix C.

7.1 Organizational Management

By identifying a Functional Authority for the Paralegal Strategy and the EC paralegal community, as well as the recent creation of the SCOPE, the Department has taken measures to strengthen the governance structure over the strategic direction related to the mechanisms to promote the use of paralegals and oversee progress against objectives. Interviews confirmed that the value of paralegals as integral members of Canada’s Legal team is widely recognized throughout the Department. However, there is an opportunity to reaffirm the departmental Paralegal Strategy by clearly articulating its vision and the key elements related to the paralegal service delivery model, while considering the environment in which legal services are delivered to the Government of Canada.

Vision and Objectives to promote the use of paralegals

The departmental Paralegal Strategy, initially developed in 2015, was never formally approved by either of the Department’s senior management committees. Nonetheless, by leveraging commitments from the Department’s LSR, its vision as Canada’s Legal Team, and the expected outcomes from the departmental reorganization, there were efforts throughout the Department to further optimize and promote the use of paralegals based on the environment in which these legal services were delivered.

For example, the DLSU responsible for the Department of Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) and Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) increased the reliance on paralegals to prepare and present lower risk litigation cases before the Social Security Tribunal of Canada. Launched as a pilot project in 2015-2016 in partnership with the Paralegal Services Centre, this paralegal service delivery model was adopted in 2016-2017, following the positive results achieved during the pilot project. By undertaking this approach, this DLSU has enabled its counsel to dedicate themselves to the delivery of legal services of a higher complexity/risk.

The NLS also enhanced the use of paralegals in litigation files through its own project initiatives launched in 2016, which targeted resource allocation and the development of its own paralegal strategy. This enabled NLS to respond to the departmental reorganization as well as its own operational needs. As such, these initiatives were directly linked to the expected outcomes set for the NLS to provide a consistent and efficient approach in delivering litigation services with clearer accountability.

While various individual efforts throughout the Department have been undertaken to enhance and promote the use of paralegals, there remains a need for the Department to reflect on what remains to be done from a departmental perspective to move forward to further optimize and promote the use of paralegals, recognizing the environment in which it is delivering its legal services to the Government of Canada.

Governance Structure and Oversight

The Department has taken measures to strengthen its governance structure over the strategic direction related to the mechanisms to promote the use of paralegals and oversee progress against objectives. This includes identifying a Functional Authority for the Paralegal Strategy and the EC paralegal community, as well as creating the SCOPE.

Although the oversight related to the Department’s earlier efforts to achieve its objectives as part of its departmental Paralegal Strategy was limited to the Department’s Management Committee until October 2016, it is anticipated that the newly created SCOPE will now fulfill the oversight role. The SCOPE convened its inaugural meeting in late November 2018, which focused on reviewing its mandate, the work that has been completed on defining paralegal key activities and will subsequently be used to standardize the paralegal job descriptions, and establishing the SCOPE’s forward agenda. The newly created SCOPE will provide high-level guidance related to the development and implementation of a departmental Paralegal Strategy; however, its effectiveness in doing so cannot be assessed as part of this audit given its early stage of implementation.

Although it is too early to assess the SCOPE’s effectiveness, its governance structure has been established in such a manner to position it for success in achieving its mandate to support the building of a strong and engaged paralegal community that is essential to the delivery of legal services to the Government of Canada. More specifically, in addition to the SCOPE reporting to the Functional Authority for the Paralegal Strategy and the Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Deputy Minister, Management Sector, its two Co-Chairs are considered to be functional experts in leading and promoting continuous improvement and innovation in legal practices. This includes optimizing the use of paralegals in the delivery of legal services. For instance, one of the Co-Chairs is the Lead for the NLS’ project to develop and implement its own paralegal strategy. The other Co-Chair is responsible for leading and coordinating the Department’s change and innovation agenda, which includes encouraging and enabling the reliance on paralegal services.

The NLS has established its own governance structure to provide strategic direction to oversee progress against objectives related to the increased use of paralegals on litigation files. This governance structure includes the NLS’ Board of Directors, a NLS Paralegal Working Group, and sub-Working Groups that were formed to examine key themes from the proposed departmental Paralegal Strategy.

Recommendation 1

It is recommended that the ADAG, NLS (as the Functional Authority for the Paralegal Strategy) and the CFO and ADM, Management Sector continue their collaboration to:

1. Reaffirm the relevance of the departmental Paralegal Strategy by clearly articulating its vision and key elements related to the paralegal service delivery model while considering the environment in which the legal services are delivered to the Government of Canada.

7.2 Data and Performance Management

The Department has taken steps to ensure that there are data and performance indicators available to support ongoing monitoring and decision-making to demonstrate the impact of the mechanisms to promote the use of paralegals. However, opportunities exist to further evolve the data and performance indicators currently in place, and to advance the Department’s efforts regarding the Paralegal Strategy itself, by establishing the key performance indicators (KPIs) to track and inform the implementation of the Strategy, including the appropriate source(s) of information to support these indicators.

Data

Timekeeping

One of the main ways the Department collects data is through mandatory timekeeping practices, which are governed by the National Timekeeping Protocol (NTP). The NTP helps to ensure that complete and reliable timekeeping information is available to support the effective planning, funding and management of departmental activities. It is mandatory for all counsel and paralegals that work for the Department or in support of the Department to record time in accordance with the NTP. Time is tracked through the Department’s timekeeping and legal case management system (iCase, which is currently being replaced by LEX).

In 2015, the Aboriginal Affairs Portfolio (AAP) saw an opportunity to expand the data available on advisory work and executed a pilot project for timekeeping and this was subsequently adopted by all Portfolios and Sectors providing advisory legal services. This increased the Department’s timekeeping activities and improved associated data related to advisory legal services. By doing so, those responsible for the delivery of advisory legal services were better informed on how all staff, including paralegals, were capturing their time as a means of identifying cost-drivers and potential areas for efficiencies.

However, there is still a significant gap for partner department-funded paralegal resources. Data analytics undertaken for the purposes of this audit confirmed that not all FTEs employed by partner departments track their time in iCase as required by the National Timekeeping Protocol (NTP); and therefore, fulsome information is not readily available. As a result, the Department does not have an overall picture of how resources employed by partner departments, in support of the legal work performed by DLSUs, are capturing their time.

Partner Department-Funded Full Time-Equivalent Count

The Department records employee information using two tools: the Salary Forecasting Tool and PeopleSoft. This information, when combined with the information from iCase into the Department’s Business Analytics tool (Explore), can provide detailed analytics on key management information.

Data for the Department’s paralegal resources is captured in the systems feeding Explore, and some timekeeping data for partner department-funded paralegal resources is captured in iCase. However, because human resource information for partner department-funded paralegals is held in their respective departments’ Human Resources systems, which are not connected to Explore, the system is unable to provide a fulsome FTE count of partner department-funded paralegals.

To bridge the gap in both timekeeping and FTE data, the Administrative and Technological Support Requirements worksheet, which is included in the Department’s Memoranda of Understanding Related to the Provision of Legal Services (MOU) was considered. This worksheet is a tool that can be used by partner departments to assist them in the completion of their annual planning and forecasting requirements for legal services that are defined in Annex B of the MOU. Interviews and analysis indicated that, in many cases, the worksheet had not been completed by partner departments.

Performance Management

1400 Standard

As part of the Department’s commitments originating from the LSR to increase time spent delivering legal services, the Department implemented a 1400 hour standard (Standard) in 2015 that requires those hours to be spent on client or legal work, as opposed to corporate work. The Standard continues to be applied to all of the Department’s counsel (Law Practitioners (LPs)) and paralegals (ECs), including those in the Paralegal Services Centre, as per the NTP.

As a departmental performance indicator applicable to all of the Department’s paralegal resources, this Standard is actively tracked and monitored. For partner department-funded paralegal resources, the Department determined that these resources would be exempt from the Standard; however, they are still subject to mandatory timekeeping as per the NTP. Interviews with selected paralegals from the Department and partner departments revealed that they generally had no difficulties in meeting the Standard, and in those rare cases where the Standard was not met, it was justified (e.g. extended medical leave, maternity leave, etc.).

Analytical Framework

Although the 1400-hour standard identified how many hours are spent on legal work by position function (e.g. LP, EC, etc.) it was determined that in order to further assess how the Department delivers on results, a more targeted focus was needed to describe the nature of the legal work being performed. As such, the Department’s Committee on Agenda, Advice and Results (CAAR) approved the development of an Analytical Framework to provide internal KPIs for legal services in the Department in August 2017.

In March 2018, the CAAR then approved, the 12 KPIs identified in the following areas: Cost, Nature of work, Workforce, and Effectiveness. At the time of the audit, the KPIs were in varying stages of development. Of the KPIs that were available, two (2) support the ongoing monitoring and decision-making related to the mechanisms that promote the use of paralegals. Specifically, these are:

• Workforce Ratios, which targets workforce comparisons in the form of ratios to highlight the key areas of interest related to supervision (i.e. managers to staff), legal professional (i.e. paralegals to counsel), and administration (i.e. administrative staff to remaining employees); and
• Resource Mix on Files, which measures the total time spent on files by resource classification level (e.g. LP-01, LP-02, EC-03, etc.) and the files’ complexity or risk.

While the Department has made great strides in developing an Analytical Framework to provide the Department’s senior management team with timely information on the efficiency and effectiveness of the delivery of its legal services and policy work, because of the gaps in data on partner department-funded paralegals, the results generated by the KPIs that refer to paralegals are currently incomplete. In addition, the oversight mechanism that governs the frequency in which the results from the KPIs will be monitored and assessed has not yet been determined. Finally, the resource analysis currently in place does not consider the impact that paralegals are having on the delivery of legal services from a viewpoint that includes such factors as, cost of each legal file, and time spent on each legal file.

Paralegal Integration into Departmental Priorities

Though there is no formal departmental directive requiring Portfolios and Sectors to integrate paralegal resources into initiatives stemming from the Minister’s Mandate Letter and other departmental priorities, interviews with senior management and counsel determined that paralegals are being widely used on these files.

While timekeeping data for the Department’s paralegal resources is being maintained in iCase and LEX, the ability to monitor and report on the time spent related to a specific Departmental initiative or priority is not readily available unless the Portfolio and/or Sector has identified the priority on the file in the legal case management system. In those cases where the initiative has not been identified, advanced analytics are required to retrieve and report on data. In addition, there is still a gap in the availability of the information related to partner department-funded FTEs.

Leveraging Timekeeping Data

Where departmental data on paralegal resources is complete, interviews determined that using it to support ongoing monitoring and decision-making has evolved and that it enables Portfolios and Sectors to perform fulsome analyses.

For example, to support NLS’ human resources and financial planning, NLS conducted a comprehensive evidence-based needs analysis of its resources in 2016. This has resulted in the creation of Long Term Reference Levels for each Region/NCR Unit as well as performance indicators that target specific ratios by resource (i.e. minimum ratio of 1 paralegal to 4 counsel). This evidence-based analysis has resulted in an increase of approximately 60 paralegal FTEs in the NLS Long Term Reference Levels. In addition, these indicators support NLS’ ongoing monitoring and decision-making by demonstrating the impact of the mechanisms that it has adopted to promote the use of paralegals. Furthermore, these indicators are in alignment with the KPIs identified in the Analytical Framework.

For the remaining Portfolios and Sectors, performance indicators have not yet been established, as the focus is on the work the paralegals are actively engaged in or could be doing rather than focusing on a specific ratio.

Recommendation 2

It is recommended that the ADAG, NLS (as the Functional Authority for the Paralegal Strategy) and the CFO and ADM, Management Sector continue their collaboration to:

1. Determine the KPIs required to track and inform the implementation of the Department’s Paralegal Strategy.
2. Determine if specific resource ratios or target reference levels for each Portfolio and Sector should be established as organizational performance indicators.

7.3 Whole-of-Justice Approach

Harmonizing paralegal job descriptions, outreach, and developing a training program are among the foundational measures that have been undertaken by the Department to enhance the professional excellence of its paralegal workforce. By doing so, the Department has taken positive steps to ensure that it has the required capacity to meet its needs and deliver its legal services in a consistent and efficient manner. However, to ensure continued momentum, work on these initiatives requires continued engagement and direction at the departmental level.

In recognition of the comments received by members of the Department’s senior management committees when the departmental Paralegal Strategy was initially proposed, steps were taken by key partners (i.e. NLS, HRB, and LPB) to enhance the professional excellence of the Department’s paralegals and ensure the workforce is equipped to meet the needs of the Department. For instance, the Department developed an integrated talent management vision and strategy as the cornerstone of its Human Resources Management Plan for 2017-20. As such, the use and role of paralegals across the Department was expanded by undertaking such activities as:

• Harmonization of the job descriptions for paralegal resources and Statement of Merit Criteria through a comprehensive assessment of paralegal key activities by category and type of legal service (e.g. litigation, advisory, etc.);
• Collective staffing processes to establish pools of qualified candidates for more efficient staffing;
• Outreach with colleges and universities to support field placements and post-secondary recruitment;
• A draft training plan that considers such elements as potential course offerings, paralegal audience, type of legal service, etc.; this plan will be reviewed following approval of the updated paralegal work descriptions; and
• Performance management, which includes, among other things, clearly defined performance objectives.

NLS has adopted all key elements originally developed in 2016 as a part of its paralegal strategy and is continuing to implement all elements. Focus at the departmental level by LPB, NLS and HRB has been on harmonizing job descriptions based on key paralegal activities across all Portfolios and Sectors; collective staffing processes; and outreach with colleges and universities.

From a human resource management perspective, the harmonization of the job descriptions through a comprehensive assessment of the paralegal key activities is considered foundational work, as it identifies the mandatory minimum requirements (i.e. education and experience) that a candidate must meet to competently perform the work as defined by the Treasury Board’s Qualification Standards. This foundation forms the basis in which other human resources activities are established, such as recruitment, staffing, training, etc. To advance this work, consultations with Portfolios and Sectors, including the DLSUs, have taken place, and the work plan governing this initiative anticipates that the modifications needed to ultimately harmonize the job descriptions will be completed and approved by the end of Q1 2019-2020.

The development of competency-based management tools that will assess the level of competence required for a paralegal resource to successfully perform the paralegal key activities requires these job descriptions and key activities to be approved. Research is underway to determine the best approach for the Department to develop its tools.

Furthermore, partner departments need to seek agreement from the Department in order to use the paralegal job descriptions to employ their own paralegal resources. As such, it is recognized that the job descriptions for these resources will also need to be shared with partner departments following the completion of the Department’s harmonization of its job descriptions.

While this work is ongoing, it is understood that operational needs requiring human resources’ input (e.g. staffing, training, etc.) must continue for the Department to successfully deliver its legal services. Sectors and Portfolios have therefore been working with HRB in a variety of ways, spanning from college recruitment to using the Paralegal Services Centre to develop pools of qualified candidates.

While the measures taken by key partners (i.e. NLS, HRB, and LPB) have further improved the professional excellence of the Department’s paralegal workforce, there is still a need to complete the initiatives underway. Furthermore, there is a need for the Department to collectively determine the way in which it would like to move forward regarding the mobility and alignment of paralegal resources (i.e. Department resources and partner-funded resources). It is recognized that the SCOPE’s mandate includes these aspects in its support towards building a strong and engaged paralegal community.

Recommendation 3

It is recommended that the ADAG, NLS (as the Functional Authority for the Paralegal Strategy) and the CFO and ADM, Management Sector continue their collaboration to:

1. Further enhance the professional excellence of the Department’s paralegal workforce by completing the initiatives underway (e.g. harmonizing the paralegal job descriptions, training plan, etc.).
2. Determine as part of reaffirming the departmental Paralegal Strategy, the strategic direction related to such issues as mobility (i.e. internally and externally) and alignment of paralegal resources (i.e. Department resources vs. partner-funded resources).

7.4 Transformation Agenda

The Department has used a number of different mechanisms to promote the use of paralegal resources in the delivery of its legal services. An opportunity exists to leverage the newly created SCOPE to determine the appropriate mechanisms that will be used to communicate and share best practices in a transparent and cohesive manner that supports the Department’s vision to enhance the role for and reliance on paralegals in the delivery of its legal services.

Building Awareness and Sharing Best Practices to Promote the Use of Paralegal Resources

Communication is a fundamental component to building awareness and sharing best practices. To build awareness, key messages and initiatives directly linked to the proposed departmental Paralegal Strategy were communicated to all staff through departmental communiques up until September 2017. These messages, from as high as the Deputy Minister level, demonstrated a strong tone at the top by emphasizing that paralegals are an extremely important asset within Canada’s Legal Team, and supported the enhanced role for and reliance on paralegals in the delivery of the Department’s legal services.

In conjunction with these communiques, several other mechanisms were used to further build and promote a strong and engaged paralegal community. For example, the Paralegal Network and the Paralegal Practice Group are forums, which are still in existence today, that were organized by paralegals for paralegals as a means of encouraging networking and knowledge-sharing between both the Department’s resources and partner-funded resources. In addition, the Paralegal Services Centre has contributed to promoting awareness and the sharing of best practices regarding the use of paralegal resources by responding to requests for its services from the DLSUs as well as the Department.

The Department’s Portfolios and Sectors have also undertaken their own projects and/or initiatives to further increase awareness and share best practices for the delivery of their legal services. For instance, through NLS’ project to develop its own paralegal strategy, awareness and the sharing of best practices was achieved through ongoing monitoring by the NLS’ Board of Directors and internal consultations related to the work performed by the NLS Paralegal Working Group. It is understood that through these forums, NLS employees were informed that the ADAG, NLS had been identified as the Functional Authority for the Paralegal Strategy. Other Portfolios, such as AAP and BRLP, have used mechanisms such as information sessions and lunch and learns, to both share best practices and provide key insights into the value of paralegals.

While the sharing of information regarding the advancement of paralegal services and best practices has occurred more informally in the past two years, the establishment of the SCOPE provides an opportunity to convey this information through its planned communication activities that will target all of the Department’s employees, as well as the paralegal resources employed by partner departments. In addition, the SCOPE can better facilitate the sharing of best practices across Portfolios and Sectors as this has primarily taken place on an ad-hoc basis through presentations made at senior management committees.

Recommendation 4

It is recommended that the ADAG, NLS (as the Functional Authority for the Paralegal Strategy) and the CFO and ADM, Management Sector continue their collaboration to:

1. Determine as part of reaffirming the departmental Paralegal Strategy, the appropriate mechanisms to communicate and share best practices related to the Department’s vision to support the enhanced role for and reliance on paralegals in the delivery of its legal services.

8. Audit Opinion

In our opinion, the Department has leveraged a number of different mechanisms such as the Paralegal Services Centre and the NLS Paralegal Strategy Working Group to promote the use of paralegal resources in the delivery of its legal services to the Government of Canada. With the identification of a Functional Authority for the departmental Paralegal Strategy, as well as the recent creation of the SCOPE, the Department has taken measures to strengthen the governance structure and is well-positioned to reaffirm the relevance of the departmental Paralegal Strategy by clearly articulating its vision and the key elements related to the paralegal service delivery model in order to further integration.

Appendix A – Paralegal Services Centre’s Utilization in Hours

Data Source: Information on the Paralegal Services Centre’s utilization in hours by file type and complexity was provided by Explore.

Appendix B – Paralegal Full-time Equivalents by Portfolio or Sector

Data Source: Information on Justice’s funded paralegal full-time equivalents (FTEs) was provided by Explore. Information on partner-funded paralegal FTEs was obtained from each Departmental Legal Services Unit through their respective Portfolio or Sector.

Appendix C – Audit Criteria

Line of Enquiry 1 – Organizational Management

• Criterion 1.1 - An effective governance structure is in place to provide direction and vision on the mechanisms to promote the use of paralegals and oversee progress against objectives.
  • Sub-Criterion 1.1.1 - The Department’s objectives and vision for the mechanisms to promote the use of paralegals are updated to respond to changes in the environment.
  • Sub-Criterion 1.1.2 - The governance structure has a clear mandate to provide oversight related to the Department’s objective to promote the use of paralegals.

Line of Enquiry 2 – Data and Performance Management

• Criterion 2.1 - Data and performance indicators to support ongoing monitoring and decision-making demonstrate the impact of the mechanisms to promote the use of paralegals.
  • Sub-Criterion 2.1.1 - Performance indicators are established for all sectors, portfolios and branches, where appropriate, that are aligned with the Department’s objective to promote the use of paralegals.
  • Sub-Criterion 2.1.2 - Performance against indicators is reported and monitored by senior management (including oversight body(ies) and/or a designated authority) to make course corrections.
  • Sub-Criterion 2.1.3 - Departmental data (operational and financial) demonstrating the impact of the mechanisms to promote the use of paralegals is available and communicated to support ongoing monitoring and decision-making.

Line of Enquiry 3 – Whole-of-Justice Approach

• Criterion 3.1 - The delivery of effective and cost-efficient legal services is supported by practices and a paralegal workforce that meet the needs of the Department.
  • Sub-Criterion 3.1.1 - Capacity of the Department’s paralegal workforce has been assessed and is supported by national training and recruitment programs.
  • Sub-Criterion 3.1.2 - The mechanisms to promote the use of paralegals have been integrated into the Department’s horizontal initiatives and operation.
  • Sub-Criterion 3.1.3 - Paralegal Services Centre resources perform legal work in line with the Centre’s mandate and Legal Services Review commitments.

Line of Enquiry 4 – Transformation Agenda

• Criterion 4.1 - The Department supports the mechanisms to promote the use of paralegals in legal services delivery.
  • Sub-Criterion 4.1.1 - Mechanisms to build awareness and promote the use of paralegals are in place.
  • Sub-Criterion 4.1.2 - Mechanisms to identify and share best practices to model the successful use of paralegals have been established and communicated.

Appendix D – List of Acronyms

AAP

Aboriginal Affairs Portfolio

ADAG

Assistant Deputy Attorney General

ADM

Assistant Deputy Minister

BRLP

Business and Regulatory Law Portfolio

CAAR

Committee on Agenda, Advice and Results

Centre

Paralegal Services Centre

CFO

Chief Financial Officer

Department

Department of Justice

DLSU

Departmental Legal Services Unit

EC

Economics and Social Science Services Classification

ESDC

Department of Employment and Social Development Canada

Explore

The Department of Justice’s Business Analytics System

FTE

Full-Time Equivalent

FY

Fiscal Year

HRB

Human Resources Branch

iCase

The Department of Justice’s timekeeping and legal case management system

Justice

Department of Justice

KPI

Key Performance Indicator

LPB

Legal Practices Branch

LP

Law Practitioner

LSR

Legal Services Review

MOU

Memoranda of Understanding Related to the Provision of Legal Services

NLS

National Litigation Sector

NTP

National Timekeeping Protocol

RDG

Regional Director General

SCOPE

Steering Committee on Paralegal Excellence

Standard

1400-hour standard

VAC

Department of Veterans Affairs Canada