Driving Legal Leadership Through Disruption: Volkswagen Canada’s Rusty Juma on Risk, Trust, and Transformation

Juma:

My path to Volkswagen was not linear, and certainly unpredictable. I started in private practice, moved in-house at Deloitte, then became the first General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Eckler, which gave me the chance to build a legal function from the ground up and sit close to the business. Winning the Canadian General Counsel Award and completing the Rotman/CCCA business leadership program also gave me confidence that I could take on a larger platform. Volkswagen was a dream opportunity because it brought together several things I care about: governance, risk, transformation, and, candidly, a lifelong interest in cars. It also put me in an industry undergoing real disruption, which is where in-house lawyers can have the greatest impact.

Juma:

I used to think legal leadership was mainly about judgment, technical excellence, and responsiveness. Those things still matter, but as a CLO you quickly realize the role is much broader. You are leading people, helping shape culture, advising the board and executive team, and translating risk into business choices. The best legal leaders are not just the people who say whether something is legally permissible. They help the organization understand whether it is wise, sustainable, and aligned with its values.

Juma:

It starts with trust. The business has to believe that Legal understands the commercial objective and is trying to help get to a good outcome, not simply identify reasons why something cannot be done. That means being practical, available, and clear. It also means investing time to understand the business model, the pressures leaders are facing, and how revenue is generated. When Legal brings solutions, options, and judgment — not just legal analysis — the business starts to see the team as a partner.

Juma:

My goal is to give leaders a clear view of the risk, the consequences, and the practical options in a timely manner. In a fast-moving business, a long memo is not helpful. Sometimes the best legal advice is a short conversation that frames the issue clearly: here is what we know, here is what we do not know, here are the guardrails, and here is the recommended path. The key is not to remove risk entirely — that is rarely possible — but to make sure the risk is understood, intentional, and managed.

Juma:

Crisis moments test both judgment and relationships. What I have learned is that people need calm, clarity, and structure. The legal team has to help separate noise from what truly matters, establish decision-making discipline, and make sure the organization is preserving trust with employees, customers, regulators, dealers, and other stakeholders. In those moments, you cannot be theoretical. You need to be steady, practical, and prepared to make decisions with incomplete information.

Juma:

One of the most interesting parts of my career has been moving into automotive at a time when the sector is being transformed by electrification, digitalization, privacy, consumer protection, language laws, dealer relations, and changing expectations from regulators and consumers. The work is fascinating because it is never just a legal issue. It is usually legal, commercial, operational, reputational, and sometimes political all at once. That complexity is what makes the role challenging, but also incredibly rewarding.

Juma:

What is distinctive is the combination of global scale and local accountability. Volkswagen is a deeply established global organization with strong processes, engineering discipline, and a long-term view. But in Canada, we still have to operate in a very specific legal, regulatory, linguistic, and commercial environment. The role is to help connect those worlds: to make sure global strategy is understood locally, and that Canadian legal and market realities are understood globally.

Juma:

I try to approach cross-border work with curiosity and humility. Different jurisdictions can have very different expectations around decision-making, documentation, consultation, risk tolerance, and timing. Canada also has its own regulatory complexity, including federal and provincial rules, Quebec-specific requirements, privacy developments, competition law, consumer protection, and dealer-related considerations. The key is to avoid assuming that one approach automatically translates everywhere. You need to explain the local context clearly, build relationships with global colleagues, and find solutions that respect both global standards and Canadian realities.

Juma:

The sector is dealing with several major issues at once: electrification, new entrants, affordability, supply chain resilience, battery production, software and data, cybersecurity, privacy, dealer network evolution, and changing consumer expectations. There is also a broader industrial policy question about where vehicles, batteries, and critical components will be built. For legal leaders, the challenge is that these issues are interconnected. You cannot look at product, regulation, technology, government policy, and consumer demand in isolation.

Juma:

The EV transition is not just a product transition. It is a legal, commercial, infrastructure, affordability, and policy transition all happening at once. From a legal perspective, you are looking at vehicle safety, consumer protection, advertising, incentives, charging, battery supply chains, privacy, data, and environmental regulation. From a commercial perspective, the question is how to make the transition work for consumers, dealers, manufacturers, and governments. The opportunity is significant, but the transition has to be practical and credible for real people in real communities.

Juma:

Incentives and infrastructure are both important because they address two of the biggest barriers to adoption: affordability and confidence. Purchase incentives can help narrow the upfront cost gap, particularly for families who are interested in an EV but still price-sensitive. Infrastructure investment is equally important because people need to feel confident that charging will be available where they live, work, shop, and travel. The biggest gaps are consistency, predictability, and coverage — especially outside major urban centers and for people who do not have easy access to home charging.

Juma:

The next generation of CLOs will need strong legal judgment, but that will only be the starting point. They will need business literacy, technology fluency, comfort with data and AI, crisis management skills, regulatory awareness, and the ability to lead through ambiguity. They will also need emotional intelligence. In a complex organization, influence matters as much as authority. The CLO of the future has to be a lawyer, strategist, communicator, culture carrier, and enterprise risk leader.

Juma:

ACC has been valuable because it creates space for candid conversations with people who understand the realities of the CLO role. There are issues you can discuss with your team, your CEO, your board, or external counsel, but there is something different about speaking with peers who are facing similar pressures in different organizations. The roundtables are useful because they are practical, confidential, and grounded in real experience. They help you test your thinking, learn from others, and build a community of legal leaders who can support each other through complex moments. It is also a great way to make new connections and develop relationships with like-minded peers.