Jim Middlemiss reports in the National Post [1] that the law firm of McCarthy Tétrault has launching its own home-baked project management system. 18-months in development, the system is intended to help the firm's lawyers "with planning and estimating legal projects."
The Microsoft Excel-based system builds "on information in the firm's knowledge-management centre, which includes precedents and checklists lawyers use when carrying out legal tasks" and consists of two parts:
One allows lawyers to create a customized work-plan template. Lawyers use that to agree with clients on how they will proceed on a matter.... The second is a staffing tool, a database of the firm's professionals, which includes everything from expertise to billing rates on the firm's more than 600 lawyers. It's information that can be tapped to populate the work plan and provide costing estimates.I couldn't find anything on the law firm's Web site that discussed the system or the firm's project management savvy. What a lost marketing opportunity.
[1] Jim Middlemiss, McCarthys' Project Management Plan, National Post, Apr. 14, 2010, http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=8858b4a6-6211-4a06-9f42-e7fff2bff260.
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