Legal Project Management: An Inside and Outside View

1. Legal Project Management:
An Inside and Outside View

3. Legal Project Management:
An Inside and Outside View

4. Project Management as
Municipal Counsel

5. Clio
Agenda
•Basics of Project Management
•Yourself as a Client
•Tools for the In-House

6. Basics of Project Managment

7. Clio
Basics of Product Management
1. integration management
2. scope management
3. time management
4. cost management
5. quality management
6. human resource management
7. communication management
8. risk management and
9. procurement management

8. Clio

9. Clio

10. Clio
Project Management Cycle
Assess
Plan &
Design
Implement
Evaluate

11. Clio
Project Management Cycle
Assess
Plan &
Design
Implement
Evaluate

12. Clio
Kanban

13. Yourself as a Client

14. Clio

15. Clio

16. Clio
What’s your plan?
•Expect emergencies
•Source tools and vendors early
•Seek partners
•Require planning sessions
•Track deliverables
•Lessons learned for each stage

17. Tools for the In-House

18. Clio
Tools for the In-House
1. Tracking
2. Collaboration
3. Reporting

19. Clio
http://www.acc.com/valuechallenge/resources/

20. Clio
Tracking
•Due Dates and Deadlines

21. Clio
Collaboration
•Work Product

22. Clio
Reporting

23. Clio
Thank You
Joshua Lenon
joshua@goclio.com
@JoshuaLenon
Linkedin.com/in/joshualenon

24. RUN YOUR LEGAL DEPARTMENT LIKE A BUSINESS UNIT –
HOW TO MAKE A SUCCESSFUL TRANSITION
PATRICK JOHNSON, SENIOR PRODUCT MARKETER
SERENGETI LAW – A THOMSON REUTERS COMPANY

25. 25
CORPORATE LAW DEPARTMENTS –
THE INTERSECTION OF LAW & BUSINESS
Managing a legal department

26. 26
TODAY’S GOALS
• Managing the work of your legal department like a business
unit – with effective project management techniques
– Define scope, select the best team, create a plan
– Require fiscal discipline, budget
– Track progress regularly, adjust the plan/budget
– Assess performance/results, capture lessons learned
• Use metrics to quantify the value your law department
brings to the municipality

27. ADOPTING A PROCESS
•Incorporate project management techniques into legal
department operations.
PLAN
• Early case assessments
• Establish appropriate
staffing
• Establish budget
MONITOR
• Track spending
against budget
• Receive periodic
status reports
ASSESS
• Review outcomes
• Analyze management
reports
• Apply lessons learned

28. 28
SCOPE THE PROJECT
 This problem is important to our business because
_______________.
 The best possible solution is __________.
The most likely solution is _________.
 We expect this matter to be resolved by __________(time
frame).
 In similar matter, the results were __________.
 Key stakeholders: __________
 Primary phases, including tasks/deliverables: __________

29. 29
E-BILLING CAN TURN LEGAL BILLS INTO
POWERFUL TOOLS & REPORTS
Reports Tools
• Cost control
• Benchmarking and analytics
• Attorney hourly rate management
• Budget management
• Workload management
• Allocation of work to outside
firms
• Billing guideline management
• Metrics proving savings and
efficiency

30. 30
OPTIMIZE STAFFING ON PROJECTS
• Project success depends on assembling the right team and
monitoring allocation of work.

31. 31
MONITOR COMPLIANCE

32. 32
TRIAGE MATTERS THAT
NEED BUDGET ATTENTION

33. 33
MONITOR AGGREGATE LAW DEPARTMENT
BUDGET & SPENDING
Budget to Actual Report

34. 34
ELIMINATE SURPRISES:
PERIODIC STATUS UPDATES, SHARED CALENDARS
• Foundation of legal project management: more communication, not
less
• Require periodic status reports
• Use shared calendaring tool; automatically sends reminders
to in-house/outside counsel legal team
• Adjust the plan as necessary

35. EVALUATE OUTSIDE COUNSEL
PERFORMANCE

36. TRACK OBJECTIVE PERFORMANCE

37. 37
ASSESSING YOUR LEGAL LANDSCAPE:
BEGINS BY GETTING IT ALL IN ONE PLACE
MATTER
INFORMATION
LIT, TRANS, IP,
INTERNAL/
EXTERNAL
LEGAL
PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
TECHNOLOGY
BUDGETS/
FINANCIAL
SHARED
CALENDARS
DOCUMENTS REPORTS & TRENDING

38. NUMBERS AND LAWYERS –
LEARNING THE LANGUAGE OF BUSINESS

39. Value of Legal
Function
Defend current
staff, budget,
structure
Better manage
legal resources
DATA
Triage matters
Control costs
Aid “make vs.
buy” decisions
Act/think/speak
like a CEO/CFO
39
USING DATA TO QUANTIFY SUCCESS/VALUE

40. 40
MULTIPLE DATA POINTS BUILD ACCURATE
ASSESSMENTS
MONTH YTD 2011
Total Matters 595 -152 747
Total Spending $672,024 $4,974,492 $9,084,047
Total$/$M Sales .19% .16% .21%

41. DESCRIBING THE LEGAL PORTFOLIO

42. 42
UNCOVERING THE PRIMARY DRIVERS OF
LITIGATION

43. DEMONSTRATING
TRANSACTIONAL EFFICIENCY
43
No. of review requests
No. of contracts
reviewed and
executed
Average turn-around
time
Total contract revenue
Cost to have outside
counsel review
Number of trainings
(self-service)

44. 44
EFFECTIVE ASSESSMENT OF RATE REQUESTS
FROM FIRMS
• Use industry benchmarks to make better decisions regarding
outside counsel rates

45. QUESTIONS?

46. 46
CONTACT INFO / RESOURCES
Patrick Johnson
Senior Product Marketer
Serengeti Law– a Thomson Reuters company
Phone: 425-732-5549
pat.johnson@thomsonreuters.com
Additional Resources:
How to Run Your Department Like a Business Unit -
http://author.acc.com/legalresources/publications/topten/ttwtryldlabu.cfm
Top Ten Metrics Your Legal Department Should Be Tracking -
http://author.acc.com/legalresources/publications/topten/ttmtyldsbt.cfm