Legal Project Management is more than just project management done by or for lawyers - it is a discipline which provides lawyers with the skills to be more effective and efficient. Legal project management techniques promote profitability and predictability, improved risk management and client satisfaction, more successful business development efforts (including responses to RFPs), professional development, and improved overall "quality of life".
Although this may sound like a panacea or the next management fad, our programs are based on successful personal experience over 30 years as a lawyer (both at large and small firms and in-house), a business operations manager, a practice group leader in a global professional services firm and a management consultant to the legal industry.
We show lawyers how to use skills that they already have - analytical and critical thinking, "to do" lists, and some basic software applications - to develop practical plans, budgets and communication programs. Although lawyers may resist formal planning by saying "it depends," we show them techniques that take their concern about uncertainty into consideration. In fact, unknowns and dependencies - as well as articulating assumptions - are part of successful project management. When lawyers express frustration about inconsistent information from clients or firms as a basis for dissatisfaction, we show them some easy-to-use tools that help overcome such concerns.
