Alumnus wins national award for career work as in-house counsel

Photo by Tyler Anderson, National Post

David Allgood, Law '74, is presented the CGCA Lifetime Achievement Award by Sean Weir, national managing partner at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP on May 31, 2010.

David Allgood, Law ‘74, received the 2010 Canadian General Counsel Award for Lifetime Achievement on May 31. The award, recognizing his leadership and innovation throughout his distinguished career as a general counsel, was presented at a black-tie event at the Four Seasons hotel in Toronto.

Allgood, the executive vice-president and general counsel of the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), as well as the chair of the Dean’s Council of Queen’s Law, began his career as a tax lawyer at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP. He joined RBC in 1998 during an attempted merger with the Bank of Montreal. When the merger failed, he stayed on, and began to rise in the ranks.

“During his nearly 10 years as general counsel at Royal Bank, David has built -- and integrated into RBC’s various business units -- a world-class legal team,” says Matt Cockburn, a partner at Torys LLP who helped prepare Allgood’s nomination for the award. “Focused on combining strong legal advice with efficiency, David has made RBC's Legal Group an important and value-added part of RBC's business around the world."

“David was an acknowledged leading tax practitioner with a long list of achievements,” adds former colleague Dale Ponder, managing partner at Osler, who also nominated Allgood for the award. “In his role as general counsel he has continued to be a leader, contributing to the development of the profession in a number of respects, including in the areas of diversity and the promotion of greater collaboration between inside and outside counsel.”

Photo by Tyler Anderson, National Post

David Allgood, the Canadian General Counsel Awards Lifetime Achievement winner for 2010.

Co-sponsored by the National Post and ZSA Legal Recruiting, the Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to a senior member of the in-house bar who has made a major difference both inside their company and with the outside counsel who work with them.

Allgood has faced a number of challenges during his career at RBC. When he arrived there, the legal department required a major reworking. Numerous outside law firms were being used with little centralized control, and in-house lawyers were reporting through business lines rather than the legal department. He took the chaotic system, reorganized it, and streamlined it, centralizing the system while ensuring that his staff was spread across the business to prevent an “ivory tower” from forming. Today he manages 155 lawyers across 11 countries, and has dealt with issues as controversial as the Enron bankruptcy.

“While this award is an individual one, I really believe that it is a testament to the great legal team that we have built over the last 10 years,” Allgood says. “The innovative spirit that all the lawyers bring to the table has made the RBC Law Group one of the leading in-house practices in Canada.”

The CGCA Lifetime Achievement Award is Allgood's second major award in the last seven months. Last October, he received the 2009 Excellence in Corporate Practice Award from the Association of Corporate Counsel. Read the story “Dean’s Council Chair recognized internationally for corporate practice excellence” at http://law.queensu.ca/news/archives/october2009/allgoodAwardACC.html.

Read the Financial National Post articles:
“Allgood takes CGCA lifetime achievement award,” by Bruce Gillespie, published on June 4, 2010, at http://www.financialpost.com/Allgood+takes+CGCA+lifetime+achievement+award/3110171/story.html

“Allgood gets nod for career work: RBC lawyer rewarded as general counsel,” by Jim Middlemiss, published on May 05, 2010, at http://www.financialpost.com/working/story.html?id=2987054