A recent trend in law firm management is to bring the practice of project management and law together.\u00a0 The motivation for this appears to be to maintain firm profitability in fixed fee arrangements.\u00a0 If a firm\u2019s lawyers spend too much time on a matter, it reduces the firm\u2019s profitability.\u00a0 The goal is to maintain quality in the shortest time possible.\u00a0 To do this, many law firms are looking to project management to improve efficiency.<\/p>\n
If you think your law firm might benefit from project management tools and techniques, here are some ideas on how you might incorporate project management in your practice.<\/p>\n
Project management is a discipline where a project manager uses a series of tools and techniques to efficiently manage a project.\u00a0 A project is an endeavor that has a discrete beginning, middle and end. [RMC Crash Course in Project Management] A piece of litigation could be thought of as a project as could the purchase of a business or the drafting of a will.\u00a0 In fact, given the nature of the practice of law, project management is well suited for use by lawyers in managing their practice.<\/p>\n
Project management got its start the first time somebody tried to build something.\u00a0 \u00a0Some say it started with the pyramids.\u00a0 As project management grew and developed it became more complex and document intensive.<\/p>\n
In early 2001 some software developers, frustrated by what they saw as the over bureaucratization of project management created what they called the Agile Manifesto.\u00a0 This manifesto emphasizes individuals and interactions over processes and tools; working software over comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiation and responding to change over following a plan.<\/p>\n
Over the years agile has expanded into other areas and is not exclusively used in software development.\u00a0 It also has become more document and process intensive to the point where some types of agile (there are many) are almost indistinguishable from traditional project management.\u00a0 There are also hybrid approaches which incorporate aspects of traditional and agile project management.<\/p>\n
An important project management domain is called \u201cBusiness Environment<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 As the name indicates, this is the ecosystem in which the business operates.\u00a0 It includes the competitive environment, corporate culture, business governance and the regulatory environment in which the business operates.<\/p>\n This is especially relevant to a law practice.\u00a0 The above elements of the business environment all apply to a law firm.\u00a0 By its nature, a law practice needs to be especially sensitive to the regulatory aspects of a business environment since it is the focus of the work \u2013 the work of a lawyer is to deal in that regulatory environment.<\/p>\n Litigated matters are governed by the rules of civil or criminal procedure.\u00a0 The purchase or sale of a business is governed by a myriad of rules and regulations, including tax, corporate and business law, intellectual property law and others, all of which play intricate and essential roles.\u00a0 Estate practices must deal with probate law \u2013 procedural and substantive.<\/p>\n In many ways, the business environment will dictate the project management process used by the firm.\u00a0 As lawyers we would tend to gravitate to more predictive types of project management.\u00a0 The linear process approach to project management could fit with the nature of the laws and regulations governing most legal matters.<\/p>\n However, in some areas a more agile approach would be appropriate.\u00a0 I could see this in situations where the firm is dropped into the middle of a situation where it doesn\u2019t have a lot of information or is required to move quickly. An example would be where the firm represents a client a legal action involving a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction.\u00a0 I could also see an agile or hybrid approach used in situations involving a hostile takeover or an unforeseen enforcement proceeding.<\/p>\n Planned or predictive project management is very linear and planning intensive.\u00a0 It is broken down into five knowledge areas:\u00a0 Initiation, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing.\u00a0 The most time-consuming knowledge area is planning.\u00a0 There are over a dozen process groups within that knowledge area.\u00a0 They include scope management plans, stakeholder management plans, risk management plans, quality management plans, communication management plans and a long list of others.\u00a0 This type of project management is most often used in areas where there is a well defined scope such as building a bridge or factory.<\/p>\n Intensive planning simply didn\u2019t work in the software industry.\u00a0 Plans were often outdated before there was ever an attempt to implement them.\u00a0 Agile was created by software developers to allow for change oriented project management.\u00a0 Projects were conducted through a series of \u201csprints,\u201d which typically lasted to weeks.\u00a0 After a sprint, the project was re-evaluated.\u00a0 Work completed, hopefully resulted in the creation of something useful.\u00a0 The results of the sprint formed the basis for a new sprint.\u00a0 The results of a sprint required changes in scope of the project along with a new set of tasks to be performed during the next sprint.\u00a0 Tasks that were not completed in the prior sprint were usually carried over to the next sprint.<\/p>\n In terms of firm efficiency, while you may not know how long an entire matter will take, an experience lawyer can have a good understanding how long particular tasks will take.\u00a0 In putting together the number of tasks to be performed during a sprint they can estimate the total amount of time necessary to perform the work necessary for that sprint.\u00a0 Granted, it will be a rough estimate, but it could be a basis for a lawyer giving the client an estimate of the cost of performing a certain amount of work.<\/p>\n An agile approach may be better in dealing with situations where, for example, a client walks into a firm with a pile of papers, advising that someone is seeking to enjoin their sale of a new product and that they are seeking something called a preliminary injunction that is set down for a hearing in a couple of days.<\/p>\n You call opposing counsel, ask for a delay (continuance or adjournment depending on where you are).\u00a0 They agree provided you consent to cease and desist selling the product pending the hearing.\u00a0 Your client refuses.<\/p>\n Now you have your first sprint.\u00a0 It will last two days instead of two weeks.\u00a0 If you\u2019re using agile, you are writing notes, which in the agile world are called work packets or tickets, as you read.\u00a0 These work packets are discrete pieces of work that can be assigned to lawyers and paralegals.\u00a0 They can relate to fact investigation, legal research, or obtaining information from third parties. The agile process also calls for daily, check-ins to determine where people are with respect to their work packets and where they will be going.\u00a0 Given the tight deadline, you may want to have check-ins more than once per day. \u00a0In the agile world these would be stand-up meetings or scrums.\u00a0 \u00a0The point is, in this kind of situation, where you need to move fast, you can\u2019t sit down and put together a project charter or detailed planning documents.<\/p>\n Agile may not be appropriate in other situations where there is ample time to plan.\u00a0 The purchase or sale of a business or a merger come to mind.\u00a0 A legal audit of a client could also be a good application for a planned or predictive project management approach.<\/p>\n The point is, project management can help attorneys more efficiently manage their work.\u00a0 Using these tools, a lawyer can gain predictability of the time and effort necessary to complete a matter.\u00a0 This will benefit the firm as well and the firm\u2019s clients in the long term.<\/p>\n Interested in bringing project management skills to your work? You could hire a project manager and build their legal understanding. Another option is to dedicate a member of team, such as a paralegal or a managing partner, to develop project management skills and bring those to key projects.<\/p>\n RMC PM Crash Course in a book<\/a> guides the non-project management professional through predictive and agile concepts to give you a practical foundation in the predictive and agile project management methods. \u00a0This content is also available in an online interactive PM Crash eLearning course<\/a> with games and exercises to learn at your own pace.<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n
Choosing Planned Project Management<\/h2>\n
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Consider An Agile Approach<\/h2>\n
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Bring Project Management And Your Law Practice<\/h2>\n