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Three-Way Stop: Project Management, Technology and Process Improvement

By Micah Ascano
September 01, 2016

Legal Project Management has seen an explosion of interest from the legal industry in recent years. It has been touted as the key to efficient legal work and a cure-all for the woes of fixed fees, fee caps, and lawyers who blow budgets. However, I think there has become a disconnect with understanding why legal project management has been beneficial in creating efficiencies, to the point where it isn't understood why it doesn't or won't create efficiencies in certain situations.

Legal Project Management (LPM) consists of conducting legal matters with project management principles; Initiating, Planning, Managing/Monitoring, and Review. Initiating is focused on the opening of the matter and clearing identifying client goals as well as the scope of the matter. Planning focuses on both an initial timeline of work, what work will be done, and who will be doing it. Many lawyers get hung up on the idea that they can't have a plan because you can't see months, if not years, into the future of litigation. However, a plan is meant to be based on the best information available combined with reasonable assumptions, and should be updated and modified as more information is available. Managing/Monitoring is doing the work that was planned and monitoring that the plan is being followed as well as monitoring that the budget is on track. Last, Reviewing takes place at the close of a matter to see how the matter went in regard to how accurate the initial plan was, how closely the budget was followed, how satisfied the client is, and what can be done better next time.

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