Rusty Juma lives his dream as Volkswagen's new general counsel

Rusty Juma has spent his entire in-house career with professional services firms; he’s also been a car aficionado all his life.

So, his new job as general counsel and corporate secretary to Volkswagen Group Canada Inc. and Audi Canada is a dream come true.

“I’m 42 years old and had a bit of a mid-life crisis that made me wonder whether I’m going to be pigeonholed in professional services for the rest of my career,” he said. “I also wanted to do something that resonates with my personal interests, so when the VW job came up, I remember thinking how cool it would be to act as general counsel for an automotive firm.”

Called in 2008, Juma first worked in Fraser Milner Casgrain’s (now Dentons Canada LLP) oil and gas group, then joined now-defunct Heenan Blaikie LLP’s mining and securities practice in Toronto.

When Heenan collapsed, Juma moved in-house. In 2013, he joined Deloitte’s legal department and, in 2016, became the first in-house lawyer and GC at Toronto-based Eckler Ltd., Canada’s largest privately-owned actuarial consulting firm. He capped his career there last June when he was cited for mid-market excellence at the Canadian General Counsel Awards.

“The CGCA award was the pinnacle of my career because it signalled that my peers and colleagues recognized my contributions,” he said. “And no doubt it had a fair bit to do with my landing the job at VW.”

Juma believes his pragmatic approach to practice went a long way to winning the award.

“People don’t want pages of legal analysis and a memo every time. They want actionable, quality advice and availability that allows you to talk to them, get their trust, and build relationships – which is the most important thing.”

As it turns out, a career in-house may have been inevitable.

“I’m the first lawyer in my family, and my only concept of lawyering was in-house,” he said. “I went to the University of Waterloo before law school and worked with various companies as a student, including the legal department at Bell. At that point, I decided that in-house was where I wanted to practise.”

However, law school at the University of Western Ontario introduced him to private practice.

“But my end goal was always in-house,” he said. “As a transactional lawyer in private practice, I only got to see a deal from a certain perspective; in-house, I’m involved from concepts to cash, from the birth of an idea to its revenue-generating potential and form.”

Moving from an actuarial consultancy and a long career in professional services to the knock-on world of car manufacturing may seem like a quantum leap, but Juma doesn’t quite see it that way.

“With professional services becoming so commoditized, especially in Canada, innovation and thinking about monetizing new service offerings has been a theme throughout my in-house career,” he said. “That’s equally true at VW, which has committed (C$265 billion) through 2027 for electrification and digitization.”

Indeed, Juma lists the ESG phenomenon as among the challenges that are top of mind for him.

“Meeting that mandate is not an easy task, especially given today’s supply chain constraints.”

Especially when part of his job is ensuring that VW, whom he joined in February, stays ahead of the curve.

“Whereas Tesla used to be the only game in town, the electric vehicle market has become much more competitive,” Juma said.

Other top-of-mind challenges for Juma are dealing with labour markets and human relations issues, including gender inequities, mental health in the workplace and succession planning; relations with global manufacturers, especially in Japan and Germany; lobbying governments for green tech initiatives; and working with a dealer network facing huge waiting list production issues.

Then there’s the new battery plant VW just announced for St. Thomas.

“I’m not sure quite what our involvement will be, as VW’s strategy is to keep the battery and other supply chain manufacturing that we do at arm’s length from the car brand,” Juma says.

While Juma won’t speculate on what’s behind that strategy, VW may be looking to be a supplier to other manufacturers.

As was the case at Eckler, Juma is mandated to build a legal team at VW. To that end, he’s looking to hire two lawyers as soon as possible. The group consists of Juma, two government relations people, a law clerk and a legal assistant.

“My philosophy regarding a team is that people come first,” he said. “Key to that is a collaborative, consultative approach that plays to people’s strengths and ensures they’re growing personally and professionally.”

There’s a lot to do, but – methodical as always – Juma has developed 30, 60 and 90-day plans.

“The idea is to ensure that I’m set up for success, which is the first step in ensuring that my team is set up for success,” he said.