Best Practice: Using legal project management to improve law firm profitability

By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC Q. I am the managing partner of our firm of 17 attorneys. Our practice is concentrated in insurance defense litigation. In an effort to provide the best services possible and differentiate ourselves we have been discussing whether we should implement a project management system. I have been reading more lately about legal project management and hearing more about it. Do you have any thoughts along this line? A. Legal project management has become the hot topic of late and we are seeing articles, workshops, and seminars on the topic. Over the years project management has evolved into its own discipline with its own jargon, tools, methodologies, software, etc. Project management as a discipline can become quite technical and complex. Many of the techniques such as PERT and CPM came from the department of defense and were initially utilized to manage projects such as the Polaris Submarine and space projects. The construction industry makes extensive use of project management techniques. Considering that a legal matter is a project, particularly a large litigation matter, with many moving parts there has been a push by clients and an effort by law firms to look for ways to improve the management of matters and related resources, costs, timelines, etc. and to improve and streamline the overall process. Legal Project Management is a customized approach to matter management borrowing and applying some of the principles of project management and incorporating into a simpler and leaner model. Numerous workshops, training seminars, and publications are being offered on the topic. The Hildebrandt Institute is offering a workshop in Chicago on June 21-22, 2011. Here is a link to more information on the workshop. Here is a link to more information on the workshop. Ark Group also has a new publication out called - Project Management for Lawyers as well. Another good book, which can be ordered from Amazon, is Legal Project Management: Control Costs, Meet Schedules, Manage Risks, and Maintain Sanity, by Steven Levy. As more clients push for improved processes and outcomes in the area of matter management and force various forms of fixed-pricing - law firms will find they need to utilize more sophisticated tools to ascertain matter risks, price services, and manage matters. So I suggest you at least begin to evaluate some of the tools and approaches being used and get educated on them. However, be careful of getting into overly complex approaches and methods that are simply trying to push generic project management for its own sake. Click here for our blog on law firm strategy Click here for articles on other topics John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC, (www.olmsteadassoc.com) is a past chair and member of the ISBA Standing Committee on Law Office Management and Economics. For more information on law office management please direct questions to the ISBA listserver, which John and other committee members review, or view archived copies of The Bottom Line Newsletters. Contact John at jolmstead@olmsteadassoc.com.