Dean’s Council Chair recognized internationally for corporate practice excellence

Photo by Dressel-Martin MediaWorks

Daniel Fitz, past chair of the Association of Corporate Counsel, presents the Excellence in Corporate Practice Award to David Allgood, Law '74, at the ACC's annual meeting in Boston on October 19, 2009.

David Allgood, Law ‘74, Chair of Queen’s Law’s Dean’s Council, received the 2009 Excellence in Corporate Practice Award from the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) for his outstanding achievement in service to the legal profession. The award, which is the highest honour bestowed to an individual by the ACC, the world’s largest organization serving the professional and business interests of in-house counsel in more than 70 countries, was presented at its annual meeting in Boston on October 19.

Allgood, the Executive Vice-President and General Counsel of the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), was honoured specifically for his contributions to the profession, leadership, service to clients, public service and pro bono work.

“David is clearly one of the most innovative leaders in law department management,” said Fred Krebs, President of the ACC. “As General Counsel at one of the largest and most respected legal departments in Canada, David has spearheaded best practices and surrounded himself with top-notch legal talent – always a sign of a great CLO.”  

In Allgood’s case, he had built the RBC legal department into a cutting-edge legal team. His department made RBC the first firm to introduce a corporate pro bono policy in Canada, and Allgood has been working with the Law Society of Upper Canada to ensure that lawyers otherwise exempt from insurance can perform pro bono work. He has also been heavily involved in knowledge management, creating a specific Knowledge Management Officer position to achieve extra cost effectiveness.

Two of the more important accomplishments of Allgood and his team at RBC have been the Canada Call to Action and RBC’s Designated Counsel Initiative, where RBC has taken the lead in developing best practices. In the case of Call to Action, the RBC team took a stance on diversity.

“In the United States ten years ago, a group of general counsel from Fortune 500 companies began to put pressure on external law firms to improve their diversity in their firms’ makeup,” Allgood said. “This is relatively new to Canada – we were one of the first to sign the Call to Action in Canada, and we have told all our external law firms that we view diversity as important, and that it is aligned with our corporate values.”

“It’s personally very satisfying to be recognized in this way,” said Allgood, who credits his whole RBC law group for the award. “I have a tremendous group of lawyers here, and they’ve been implementing and supporting our leading edge and innovative practices. It’s a recognition of the leadership the whole group has been showing.”

Part of the key to Allgood's success was his degree from Queen's Law, not just because it started his career in law, but also because of the school's collegiality.

“I think Queen’s had and has a very collaborative environment, and effective collaboration is a key element to being successful in the corporate world,” Allgood said. “The Law Group is viewed as a very collaborative partner with the businesses, which is in line with my philosophy, which was influenced by the collaborative environment of Queen’s Law.”