Legal Project Management: Thoughts, tips, and discoveries related to the management of legal projects.

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LPM 2012 and Beyond: Legal Project Management Grows Up

By Paul C. Easton on December 28, 2011 8:18 AM | Comments | 4 TrackBacks
It is that time of the year again: this is the time when the blawgosphere looks back at the past year and prognosticates what the year ahead holds for the legal industry. Those of you who follow this blog will know that I'm not generally one for reading tea leaves. This year, however, I have decided to share my thoughts on how I think LPM will develop over the next few years, based upon the experiences of other industries and the history of modern project management. I hope you find it interesting and I wish you and yours health, happiness,...

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Law Firm PM Watch: Lisa Damon of Seyfarth Shaw Profiled in ABA's Legal Rebels Column

By Paul C. Easton on September 24, 2011 1:01 AM | Comments | No TrackBacks
As one of the leaders in applying to process improvement and project management to legal work, Seyfarth Shaw has appeared on this blog many times (see the "related posts" section, below). Once again the firm is receiving media attention for its Seyfarth Lean program, which I've covered before. In this month's "Legal Rebels" column, the ABA profiles Lisa J. Damon, a member of Seyfarth Shaw's executive committee. The article highlights her role in promoting the Seyfarth Lean model, a version of Lean Six Sigma tailored for legal work, as well as the firms shift from hourly billing to alternative fee arrangements, and...

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ILTA 2011 - Legal Project Management Staff Roles Survey

By Paul C. Easton on September 15, 2011 9:01 PM | Comments | 3 TrackBacks
Kim Craig shared with me the results of the session survey from a presentation on LPM staff roles that she co-presented at the recent annual conference of the International Legal Technology Association. With her permission, I've made a PDF version available from this site. You can download it by clicking on the following link:pspg1Polls.pdfThe survey report does not state how many responses were submitted. Nor is there any information about how many organizations are represented. Also, the audience demographics may influence the results. Still, the results are interesting anecdotal evidence of LPM adoption.Unsurprisingly, given the event's technological focus, over half (64%) of...

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LPM Tidbits from February and March

By Paul C. Easton on March 31, 2011 10:00 AM | Comments | No TrackBacks
Juicy bite-sized morsels of legal-project management from February and March 2011. RECENT BUZZ ON E-DISCOVERY CERTIFICATIONS With the Association of Certified Electronic Discovery Specialists's announcement that hit has awarded its first batch of CEDS certifications, e‑discovery certification has once again started generating buzz in the blawgosphere. I wrote about my experiences taking the test in post to this blog. In the second post to his new blog, Rip Van Winkle of Litigation Support, "Frank" discusses whether e‑discovery certifications are "really worth it." His conclusion: [S]ome employers will take the certs seriously, some employers will not, but make the education...

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Off-topic Sunday: Legal-Project Management on Hub Pages

By Paul C. Easton on January 30, 2011 4:46 PM | Comments | 1 TrackBack
Hubpages now has a page on legal-project management. Unfortunately, its content is a rip off of the Wikipedia article on LPM, with some slight modifications to the wording, and no citations or links to primary sources. This serves as a good example of why I've long lost interest in sites like Hubpages. Hubpages seems to be modeled after Squidoo. Authors submit content. Hubpages helps monetize this content with ads, sharing a portion of the revenue with the authors. I was among the first users of Squidoo, which is better designed and more feature-rich than Hubpages. I made some pocket change from...

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ILTA White Paper and 2010 Survey on Legal Project Management

By Paul C. Easton on October 26, 2010 12:46 PM | Comments | 6 TrackBacks
The International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) recently released a white paper on legal-project management comprising eight articles by lawyers and technologists discussing various ways to leverage project-management practices and tools to improve legal work.[1] In conjunction with this publiction, the ILTA has released its 2010 Legal Project Management survey.[2] I'm dedicating the next few posts on to discussing these articles and the survey.  In Rethinking the Role of Technology in Legal Project Management, Pamela Woldow of Edge International discusses how "[l]egal technologists can reposition themselves as essential contributers to the LPM implementation process [and help them] redefine what it means to be 'indispensable'...

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LPM Career Advice: Getting Back in the Game

By Paul C. Easton on September 21, 2010 10:00 PM | Comments | 4 TrackBacks
I was recently asked a great LPM-career question and thought I would post it, and my answer, here. Feel free to add to or counter my advice in the comments section. The question is: I have over 20 years of experience in the legal arena on both the vendor and client side. I have been out of the market for about two years and will be returning. How do I quickly come up to speed on the technology side? Most of my experience has been client facing (which I enjoy the most) and some project management. I prefer to delegate...

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Jerry Kowalski on the Importance of Recruiting and Building LPM Talent

By Paul C. Easton on August 28, 2010 3:42 AM | Comments | 2 TrackBacks
The increasing importance of project-management skills to legal and legal-support careers is a common theme on this blog.[1] I was happy, therefore, to see this observation corroborated in Jerry Kowalski's new report for Managing Partner magazine, Navigating the Perfect Storm: Recruiting, Training and Retaining Lawyers.[2] The report, which serves as a law-firm-HR guide for the "Great Recession," includes project-management among the competencies law firms must acquire in the new economy. Jerry Kowalski is the principle and founder of Kowalski & Associates, a law-firm-management consultancy. Mr. Kowalski was gracious enough to share his thoughts on the lessons learned from the global recession,...

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Cowen Group Survey: Legal Project Management Has Increased in Importance

By Paul C. Easton on August 6, 2010 3:59 PM | Comment | 1 TrackBack
According to the recently released results of the Cowen Group's Critical Trends Survey for the second quarter of 2010, 65% of corporate respondents and 69% of law-firm respondents say that legal project management has increased in importance.[1] Over 53 corporations and 117 "major law firms" participated in the survey. Hopefully this translates into the LPM job growth predicted by earlier Cowen Group surveys,[2] the Project Management Institute,[3] and The Posse List.[4]  [1] Cowen Group, 2010 Q2 Critical Trends Snapshop, http://www.cowengroup.com/researchcenter/quarterly/2010-Q2.php (last visited August 6, 2010). [2] Paul C. Easton, Cowen Group: It's a Hot Job Market for E-discovery Project...

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The Chasm Between IT and Legal Widens

By Paul C. Easton on June 20, 2010 9:00 PM | Comments | No TrackBacks
According to a survey conducted by RecommindRecommind, an e-discovery-tool vendor, the disconnect between IT and legal is getting worse:  While legal and IT have been historically disparate, the exponential increase in content creation and the rising complexities and risks of eDiscovery and regulatory scrutiny have inexorably linked the needs and responsibilities of each department.... Recommind's survey reveals that communication between legal and IT has become decidedly worse in 2010.[1] It seems years of hand-wringing on this issue is doing little to move these two camps closer together. But, as I've discussed before, the growing trend of legal-project management provides our best...

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