Arguably the biggest change in the legal profession’s “New Normal” is the extent to which it demands and rewards collaboration to manage scale and complexity. Today’s client-driven demand for greater collaboration is leading us away from the days when rampant individualists thought that everything they did was unique but disconnected, and that every lawyer should… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Legal Project Management tools
Subscribe to Legal Project Management tools RSS FeedWell, Isn’t That Predictable? Using Legal Project Management To Improve Client Satisfaction
Posted in General Counsel, Law firm practices, Legal Project Management, Legal Project Management tools, Legal SpendWhether you are planning to climb Mt. McKinley or to provide well-managed legal services to a key client, assaying the possible and probable changes to your plan is key to success. Recent headlines in Alaska told a tragic story about four climbers on Mt. McKinley, the highest peak in North America. Because the weather had… Continue Reading
A Case Study at the Cutting Edge: Legal Project Management in Australia
Posted in General Counsel, Law firm practices, Legal Project Management, Legal Project Management tools, Legal Spend, New Normal, Outside CounselThe legal profession, sad to say, rewards its denizens with relatively few breakout moments, a dearth of challenges that allow its movers and shakers to break new ground. All the talk about law’s “New Normal” notwithstanding, the legal landscape is a pretty conventional place, populated by more “first followers” than “first movers.” That’s why it… Continue Reading
You Can’t Make Lawyers into Techies: 3 Lessons About Legal Project Management
Posted in Law firm practices, Legal Project Management, Legal Project Management toolsAs a result of a conversation I had this week with David Rueff, a partner at Baker Donelson and an ardent advocate of Legal Project Management (LPM), right now I am particularly mindful of the adage, “never try to teach a rhino to dance. The results are generally unsatisfactory and it annoys the rhino.” Mind… Continue Reading
Extreme Magical Thinking: Technology Won’t Take You Off the Hook
Posted in Law firm practices, Legal Project Management, Legal Project Management toolsOn the eve of LegalTech, I have been encountering a lot of magical thinking recently when talking with law firm partners about Legal Project Management. One partner, hoping that the IT and KM folks can simply buy a tech solution so that he could avoid making any real changes to the way he manages matters,… Continue Reading
A General Counsel’s Take On Legal Project Management & Foreseeability
Posted in Alternative Fee Arrangements, General Counsel, Law firm practices, Legal Project Management, Legal Project Management tools, Legal Spend, Outside CounselGuest Post by Russ Dempsey, Vice President and Chief Legal Officer United Retirement Plan Consultants Pam Woldow’s recent blog post, Putting Some Pepper Into Legal Project Management, called to mind my own recent successful use of Legal Project Management (LPM) to manage the risks and foreseeability issues in an engagement with one of our… Continue Reading
More Eureka Moments in Legal Project Management
Posted in General Counsel, Law firm practices, Legal Project Management, Legal Project Management tools, Midsize firms, Outside CounselWelcome to the new site for At the Intersection. We are settling in to our new address and relationship with Lexblog, and are delighted to commence the kickoff with a GUEST POST. Proving that great minds and great firms think alike, I’m pleased to share a guest post contributed by Sheri Palomaki, Director of Practice… Continue Reading
Call Me INDISPENSABLE
Posted in Law firm practices, Legal Project Management, Legal Project Management tools(Part 5 of 5, LPM in Transactional Practices) This is the last in our series of posts about conversations with Lex, who heads a large New York law firm’s transactional practice and is an avid supporter of using Legal Project Management (LPM) to plan, manage and assure consistent quality in the deals he leads. An… Continue Reading
KM Triumphs at the Lex & Larry LPM Showdown
Posted in Law firm practices, Legal Project Management, Legal Project Management tools(Part 2 of 5, LPM in Transactional Practices) Welcome Back, Lex In our last post, we introduced you to “Lex,” head of a large firm’s transactional practice group and a powerful spokesman for the benefits of applying legal project management (LPM) principles to transactional legal work. What Lawyers Should Do Lex learned — and now… Continue Reading
Legal Project Management Momentum: The Dechert Experience
Posted in Alternative Fee Arrangements, Law firm practices, Law Firm Profits, Legal Project Management, Legal Project Management tools, Legal SpendIn 2009, Dechert established itself as a committed first-adopter in the burgeoning Legal Project Management (LPM) trend by offering LPM training to every partner in its U.S.and European offices, certainly a major undertaking. I was retained to design and facilitate LPM training that included scores of workshops for hundreds of partners over a 9-month period…. Continue Reading
Legal Project Management Tools: Let Rube Goldberg Rest in Peace
Posted in Law firm practices, Legal Project Management, Legal Project Management toolsAsked how he likes his “next generation” automatic dishwasher, the disgruntled purchaser’s voice drips with disdain: “Totally useless,” he says. “I’ve had it a week now, and it hasn’t even cleared the table yet.” I’ve heard similar responses from law firms that thought their Legal Project Management (LPM) implementation would be effortless if only they… Continue Reading
