Project Management for Lawyers

Part One: Legal Project Management Best Practice - A Framework, Tools and Techniques Chapter 1: The business case for project management.3 The shift in the balance of power from seller to buyer.3 Embracing business realities.3 The growth of in-house legal departments.4 The fragmentation of the legal services market.5 The increasing demand for alternative fee arrangements (AFAs).6 The business case - Six compelling reasons.6 Chapter 2: Project management foundational principles.9 What is project management?.9 What is a project?.9 Project management versus process management.10 The triple constraints.10 The project sponsor.12 The project manager.12 Project management processes.13 The project life cycle.13 The importance of 'process assets'.14 A few rules to live by.14 Chapter 3: A simple legal project management framework.17 Legal mandates are projects.17 Legal mandates have four project stages.17 Each project stage has two project management tasks and one project management deliverable.18 Your client participates at every stage of the project.18 A project manager's responsibilities can be delegated.19 Designing a framework that works.19 Chapter 4: Defining a project.21 Establishing project objectives.21 A word about quality.21 Understanding and managing client expectations.22 Prioritising the triple constraints.23 Active listening.23 The scope document.24 A project definition model.25 Chapter 5: Planning a project.27 A word about planning.27 Planning tasks - The work breakdown structure.28 Estimating costs - The certainty factor.29 A word about contingency.30 The importance of assumptions.30 Staffing - The benefits of mindfulness.31 Example of a project plan.31 Establishing a schedule - Understanding the critical path.31 Establishing a baseline - Discussing the plan with your client.34 Identifying and addressing risks.35 A planning model.37 Chapter 6: Project execution.39 Project kick-off.39 Subsequent team meetings.41 A team meeting model.41 Chapter 7: Monitoring a project.43 Keeping projects on track.43 Earned value.43 The monitoring worksheet.44 Monitoring with phase and/or task codes.48 Status reports.48 Managing change requests.48 Addressing cost variances.49 Addressing schedule variances.50 Managing client expectations.51 The monitoring model.51 Chapter 8: Evaluating a project.53 Leveraging your work product.53 Exploiting process assets.53 Obtaining client feedback.53 Saving project documents.54 Project Management for Lawyers The lessons learned meeting.55 The evaluation model.56 Chapter 9: Linking project management to pricing strategies.59 Basic practice economics.59 Maximise profitability through efficiency and leverage.61 Managing AFAs.62 Chapter 10: Developing your own framework - A project plan.65 Threshold decisions.65 Setting objectives.65 Scope.66 The project plan.66 The timeline.66 Creative scheduling.67 Risks.67 Assembling a project team.68 Finding champions - The steering committee.68 Administrative support.69 The communication plan.70 Part Two: Case Studies Case study 1: McCarthy Tetrault LLP - Legal project management - A strategic priority for the firm.73 A strategic initiative.73 Keeping it simple.73 Dialogue Project ManagementTM.74 The role of the project manager.74 Tools.75 Training.76 Consulting with clients.76 External communications - Branding.76 The importance of internal communication.76 Dialogue Project ManagementTM in practice.77 Case study 2: Dechert LLP - Developing best practice in legal project management.79 The six lessons learned.79 The value of support departments.82 Project management - A department in itself?.84 Case study 3: Eversheds LLP - Achieving certainty in cost, scope and time.87 Project management origins in litigation.87 Training.88 The end result.88 Using project management in non-contentious work.89 The project management resources.90 Benefits for the client.90 Case study 4: Seyfarth Shaw LLP - Building an effective service delivery programme for clients.91 The history of the programme.91 Applications of 'SeyfarthLean'.92 Results.94 Case study 5: Royal Bank of Canada - A client's perspective on law firm pricing.95 Working with external counsel to manage costs.95 Alternative Fee Arrangements (AFAs).96 The right pricing model for RBC.97 Innovative ways of working - Using portals and 'Lean Six Sigma'.97 Outsourcing.98 The importance of communication.98 A mutually-beneficial partnership.99 Part Three: Appendices Appendix 1: An asset purchase Gantt chart.103 Appendix 2: A generic work plan.105 Appendix 3: A work plan for an asset purchase.107 Appendix 4: A completed monitoring worksheet.109 Appendix 5: A sample staffing profile.111 Appendix 6: A sample change request form.113 Index.115