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Legal Project Management –Working with Outside Counsel to Manage Budgets,
Timelines and Expectations
David A. Rueff, Jr.
Introduction:
Baker Donelson
• 630 attorneys and policy
advisors in 18 offices
• Attorneys licensed in 35
states
• Ranked 72nd in National
Law Journal
• Nationally-recognized health
and IP practices
• Listed as a "Go-To Law
Firm" in Directory of In-
House Law Departments of
Top 500 Companies
(Corporate Counsel and
American Lawyer Media)
since 2006
What are Clients Looking for from their Attorneys?
Efficiency and Predictability
Traditional Law Firm Practice
• Law Firm revenue has traditionally depended on generating billable hours,
and efficiency has not been a priority
• Setting the meter running at the beginning of the case and charging
whatever takes is at odds with good financial management
• Clients now prefer pricing models that encourage, rather than discourage,
efficiency
• 2 alternative pricing mechanisms to promote efficiency:
• Legal Project Management - developing and working with a reliable
budget
• Value Based Billing / Alternative Fees
Project Management for Lawyers, Boake and Kathuria, Ark (2011)
What are Clients Looking for from their Attorneys?
Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC)
ACC issued a Value Challenge – What is it?
• Promotes the adoption of management practices that allow all
participants to achieve their key objectives
• Challenge to outside counsel to increase value and reduce cost of
services
• based on the concept that law firms can reduce their costs to
corporate clients and still maintain strong profitability
• Challenge to inside counsel to collectively drive this change
• based on the concept that law departments can use
management practices that enhance the value of legal
service spending
http://www.acc.com/valuechallenge/about/index.cfm
What are Clients Looking for from their Attorneys?
Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC)
ACC Value Challenge – What it covers?
The ACC Value Challenge focuses on providing resources and training
— for law firms as well as law departments — on these key value levers:
• Aligning Relationships
• Value-Based Fee Structures - i.e. not based on the "billable
hour"
• Staffing and Training Practices
• Budgeting
• Project Management
• Process Improvement
• Use of Technology
• Data Management
• Knowledge Management
• Change Management
What are Clients Looking for from their Attorneys?
Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC)
In February of 2012, the ACC conducted a Legal Service Management
Workshop and identified the following traits of the “Perfect Law Firm”:
• Ask before making a change in the matter
• Be responsive
• Plan the work and work to the plan
• Design the representation to align with our business needs
• Prepare budgets and provide estimates for briefing and research
• Provide accurate and timely billing
• Provide appropriate staffing and alternate staffing solutions
• Perform a post mortem and analyze with the team what went right and
what went wrong
What are Clients Looking for from their Attorneys?
Legal Project Management - How can it help?
• In today's economic climate, being a legal expert is not enough
• Exceptional legal service includes being a good steward of our client's
resources and providing predictable costs
• For years, other industries such as manufacturing, construction and
engineering have seen the efficiencies that can be realized by
implementation of project management processes and developing a
detailed plan for scope, tasks, schedules and budgets before beginning
the project
• Baker Donelson identified that these same benefits can be derived in
the delivery of legal services and developed its own, patent pending,
LPM System - BakerManage
Introduction:
What is Legal Project Management?
• LPM draws upon traditional project management
• Improves planning, monitoring and communications to ensure that an
engagement adheres to a set of defined objectives for scope, cost,
and time
• Coordinating scope, cost and
time is sometimes referred to as
the triple “constraint”
• If scope remains the same, but time is reduced, cost and necessary
resources increase; likewise, if costs and resources are reduced, time
is increased
Baker Donelson’s LPM Solution:
BakerManage – Technology and Implementation
• Baker Donelson’s Project Management Information System was developed in SharePoint
• Communicates with Firm’s financial
system (Aderant – CMS), time entry
system (DTE)
• Patent Pending for both the process
and integration with other Firm systems
• In Edge International’s 2011 publication, Staying Power: Legal Project Management Update - the BakerManage system was described as follows:
“Among the best is Baker Donelson’s BakerManage system, a model of singular clarity, simplicity and utility. BakerManage serves as a one-stop information shop, neatly integrating project information, budgeting, team selection and communication in a format that echoes the classic project management activity sequence.“
Introduction:
How can the Client benefit from LPM?
Planning the Work:
• Promotes predictable results, expenses and fees
• Encourages client / legal team collaboration
• Confirms that all stakeholder expectations are incorporated
• Allows the client to make decisions prior to starting the work
• Confirms appropriate resource allocation to the task
• Promotes the development of a reliable budget
• Communication plans gives the client alternatives to a 30 day bill
• Elaboration of tasks identifies opportunities for process improvement
Introduction:
How can the Client benefit from LPM?
Managing to the Plan:
• Estimated time for completion sets hourly constraints for the legal team
• Daily time entry allows real time updates on actual to budget
performance
• Legal team’s activities are transparent and accountable to the Client
• Client has real time access to completed tasks, matter status and budget
• Data collection allows automated alerts regarding deadlines and budget
Reporting Performance
• Client has access to real time performance metrics
• Client has access to matter data which can be exported to reports
• Tracking performance encourages lessons learned
• Collection of historical case information promotes alternative fee
solutions
Baker Donelson’s LPM Solution:
BakerManage – Technology and Implementation
Example of a BakerManage Client / Matter Site in SharePoint 2010: