Legal Project Management: December 2009 Archives

Bierce & Kenerson's E-discovery RESOURCE Model

By Paul C. Easton on December 31, 2009 2:00 PM | 9 Comments | No TrackBacks

Bierce & Kenerson, P.C. share their version of the electronic-discovery process in a recent post to the firm's Outsourcing-Law.com blog,[1] which they refer to as the "Electronic Discovery Resource Model, not to be confused with the Electronic Discovery Reference Model ("EDRM"). Bierce & Kenerson's diagram provides another way of looking at the e-discovery process and may be more user friendly for some lawyers. [1] Bierce & Kenerson, P.C., E-Discovery and Legal Process Outsourcing: ESIM Process Design and Choices between Outsourcing vs. Insourcing, Periodical Name, Dec. 21, 2009, available at http://www.outsourcing-law.com/2009/12/e-discovery-and-legal-process-outsourcing-esim-process-design-and-choices-between-outsourcing-vs-insourcing/ (last visited on Dec. 31, 2009).(Note, the title when I originally...

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Law Librarians Adding Project Management to their Survival Kits

By Paul C. Easton on December 30, 2009 3:12 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Carol Watson, Associate Director for Information Technology at the University of Georgia School of Law, refers to project management as a "survival skill" in a recent article published on LLRX.com, a popular Web journal dedicated to the legal research community.[1] Ms. Watson's article provides a high-level overview of standard project management, focusing on defining the project scope, developing a work breakdown structure and communication plan, and closing out the project with a "debriefing" (i.e. a lessons-learned exercise).I was a bit disappointed that the article doesn't provide examples of law-library projects. Ms. Watson states that "[m]any of the techniques librarians intuitively use...

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Project Managers Would Make Terrible Bakers

By Paul C. Easton on December 29, 2009 11:00 AM | 5 Comments | No TrackBacks

A recent post to the Discerning E-discovery Blog by Aaron Pippen, a Senior Project Manager at Fios, got me thinking about about gold-plating again.[1] By gold-plating I'm not referring to the dental procedure I've been saving up for, but rather the practice of enhancing a product or service beyond a customer's requirements. Mr. Pippen asks whether gold plating on e-discovery projects is necessary, concluding that while e-discovery project managers should provide value, delivering more than what is asked for is generally unwise and "can lead to undesirable issues." For example, if a client asks for a specific report, they...

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Greater Atlanta HBA to Host Legal Project Management for Business Owners Lunch & Learn

By Paul C. Easton on December 29, 2009 1:05 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Owners of successful businesses are generally adept at controlling costs, managing risk, verifying quality, and increasing proficiency. When it comes to their legal matters, however, that is not always the case. The main reason law firms have been slow to adopt project management and process efficiency best practices, I believe, is that clients haven't demanded it. This is changing, especially with the recession causing companies to cinch their belts even tighter and looking for new areas to squeeze out inefficiency. Smart business owners are not only pressuring outside counsel to lower bills and offer alternative billing options, they are also...

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Steven Levy's Book on Legal Project Management Now Available

By Paul C. Easton on December 28, 2009 4:32 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

The physical version of Steven Levy's book on legal project management, titled, uh, Legal Project Management, is now available from Amazon.com. There is currently no Kindle version, unfortunately. Since Mr. Levy has stated that he expects there to be a Kindle version, I'll hold out a bit before ordering and reviewing it. Given the quality of Steven's writing on the subject at his Lexician blog, I expect it to be well worth the price in any format. You can learn more by clicking on the Amazon link below. If you purchase the book via this link, it'll throw a few...

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The Posse List Predicts E-discovery Project Management Gets Serious in 2010

By Paul C. Easton on December 21, 2009 9:30 PM | No Comments | 2 TrackBacks

Today the Posse List published its list of seven trends in e-discovery for contract attorneys for 2010. Trend number four is "project management gets serious."[1] [L]itigation support costs will continue to be reduced with the combining of document review services with more traditional litigation support services. Merrill Corporation, Fios/Ajilon and other companies are doing this, and quite successfully. It offers new roles and more opportunities for contract attorneys. And the key to all of this is project management, often a misused phrase in this industry. [2] I believe that the Posse List is spot on in this prediction. After years...

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Julian Ackert on the Key to Successful E-discovery Project Management

By Paul C. Easton on December 19, 2009 2:19 AM | No Comments | 1 TrackBack

What is the key to being a successful e-discovery project manager? It is a topic that I've written on before. Julian Ackert , Director of Washington, DC based Intelligent Discovery Solutions, Inc ("iDS"), shares his analysis on Georgetown Law's E-discovery Law Blog (hat tip to the Electronic Discovery Reading Room).[1] So what is the key to successful end-to-end e-Discovery project management? In my experience, it is an equal balance of practice, methodology, and technology. Consider involving at least one project manager familiar with e-Discovery challenges during every phase in the lifecycle. This direct experience "in the trenches" is key to ensure that...

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Will Lawyers Complete or Break the STEM

By Paul C. Easton on December 18, 2009 10:37 PM | 1 Comment | 1 TrackBack

I wasn't going to post today. I've had a rare breathing space this Friday and have enjoyed cleaning out my in-boxes. But Steven Levy wrote a short post on his Lexician blog yesterday that created a small spark I wanted to capture, perhaps to think and write about more in a future post.His post, entitled "Project Science, Project Heart," shares a pair of acronyms that summarize the attributes of effective project management. They are: STEM = Science, Technology, Engineering, Math. IDEA = Intuition, Design, Emotion, Art.[1] From these acronyms he draws the following observations: Every project manager understands the former. Too...

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ALI-ABA CLE Course on Legal Project Management Now Available on Demand

By Paul C. Easton on December 15, 2009 12:36 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

If you missed the ALI-ABA CLE course on Legal Project Management, you can now purchase it on demand. You can read my review of the course here: http://legalprojectmanagement.info/2009/12/today-i-attended-via-web.htmlAs I had attended the web cast live, I was provided with complimentary access to the on-demand version. I was curious whether the on-demand interface would be an improvement over the streaming Web cast. I was disappointed. The Adobe flash player window was small and did not permit resizing. I chose the option to attend the on-demand version NOT for MCLE credits (I already had my credits from the live version), but still was stuck...

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The Project Management in Law Department Management

By Paul C. Easton on December 14, 2009 10:43 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

If you are interested in legal project management, you've probably figured out by now that there are few resources available that provide you timely information and informed opinions on the topic. Sharing helpful resources about, and cross-pollinating ideas among bloggers interested in, legal project management directly supports my blog's mission. One of the busiest of the bees in the hive is Rees Morrison. Rees Morrison's Law Department Management Blog was one of the first added to my Blog Roll and is a must-follow resource on trends in law department management. I've written about Ree's posts in the past, but this post provides an end-of-year...

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Balanced Scorecard for Legal Departments

By Paul C. Easton on December 14, 2009 5:53 AM | 6 Comments | No TrackBacks

During my morning Google Alerts check, I came across a study that looks at the application of the Balanced Scorecard measurement system to legal departments. The article is titled Balancing Legal Scorecard - A Performance Management Tool for Corporate Excellence and is authored by Dr. R.Srinivasan, an associate professor at the Bharathidasan Government College for Women (Muthialpet, Puducherry, India).[1] The article defines a "Balanced Scorecard" as follows: The Balanced Scorecard (introduced by Kaplan and Norton) is a set of financial and non-financial measures relating to a company's critical success factors. It is an attempt to capture the essence of the organization's critical...

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Legal Project Management MCLE Courses

By Paul C. Easton on December 13, 2009 9:31 AM | 2 Comments | No TrackBacks

As the legal community increasingly accepts the importance of legal project management, providers of continuing legal education courses fill the void left by law schools and training programs,which typically do not cover this topic. For lawyers looking to learn more about legal project management and meet their state's CLE requirements at the same time, I've compiled a short list of CLE courses focused on legal project management. I'll post additional course as I come across them. Please post of any you know of in the comments.The In-house Attorney As Project ManagerFormat: audio, podcastOrganization: Association of Corporate CounselHost: West LegalEdcenterDate: 21 October 2009Description: Given today's...

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New York City Bar Offers CLE Course on Legal Project Management

By Paul C. Easton on December 12, 2009 7:49 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

On December 14th, the New York City Bar is presenting a CLE course entitled "Project Management & Teamwork for Lawyers," which will "will address the skills of effective delegation and communication with colleagues and staff. Learn to balance multiple projects through planning, weekly review, daily review, and scheduling of tasks," and the agenda includes an hour on the "Application of the Project Management Process to Legal Work."[1] The instructor is Irwin Karp, a consultant with Productive Time in Sacramento, California.[2] Sorry for the late notice, but I didn't catch this until today. The good news is that walk-in registration is available. There...

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Legal Billing Requirements that Demand Legal Project Management

By Paul C. Easton on December 12, 2009 2:39 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

The value of legal project management is not lost on clients. Corporate consumers of legal services increasingly demand accurate estimates, alternative billing, and transparency. To help ensure these requirements are met, some clients require that outside counsel provide detailed project plans for each legal matter they work on for the corporation. I've been looking for public examples of such requirements and will post them here as I come across them.Most recently, I came across the Legal Billing and Case Management Requirements of the he Association of Bay Area Governments Pooled Liability Assurance Network Corporation (ABAG PLAN).[1] Reading the following requirements it is easy...

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Margaret Dixon on Legal Project Management

By Paul C. Easton on December 10, 2009 5:07 AM | 3 Comments | 3 TrackBacks

Today I attended, via Web cast, the American Law Institute and American Bar Association (ALI-ABA) continuing legal education course on project management for lawyers.[1] The instructor was time-management-for-lawyers guru Margaret Spencer Dixon.[2]Ms Dixon's two-hour lecture provided a crash course in project management, tailored for a legal audience. I had predicted that this would not be a standards-based course, but rather a discussion of general principals of "project management" as the term is loosely defined.[3] I was wrong. Although Ms Dixon kept the presentation lawyer-friendly, I was surprised at how much standard project-management terminology and practices she covered. Unlike most project-management-for-lawyers courses...

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Clearwell's E-Discovery Predictions for 2010 Forecast Increased Role for Project Management

By Paul C. Easton on December 8, 2009 5:23 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Clearwell Systems predicts an increased focus on project management in e-discovery staffing in 2010: 3. Staffing roles will continue to evolve with a newfound focus on project management. The role of an in-house e-discovery coordinator will emerge as more of a project manager across the entire e-discovery process and has expertise in both, legal and IT. This shift will become increasingly necessary as e-discovery evolves into a standard business process that is repeatable, measurable, and defensible.[1] For more about the role of E-discovery Project Manager, click here to see an earlier post on the topic.[2] [1] Press Release, Clearwell Systems,...

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Steven Levy's Book on Legal Project Management to be Available in Late December

By Paul C. Easton on December 8, 2009 4:57 PM | 3 Comments | No TrackBacks

Steven Levy, principal at Lexician, blawger, and frequent commenter on this blog, has a book coming out, titled: Legal Project Management: Control Costs, Meet Schedules, Manage Risks, and Maintain Sanity. It will be published by Day Pack Books and will be available by the end of this month for $29.95 on Amazon.com. This is the first book that I'm aware of that is specifically focused on the topic of legal project management and I'm excited to get my hands on a copy. There is no way to pre-order at this time, that I'm aware of, but I'll be sure to...

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Law Firm PM Watch: SeyfarthLean Featured in iSixSigma Magazine and the Profit Through Process Pod Cast

By Paul C. Easton on December 7, 2009 4:30 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Seyfarth Shaw is featured in the cover story of the current issue of iSixSigma Magazine. Lisa Damon, Managing Partner; Andrew Perlstein, Partner; and Carla Goldstein, Director of Strategic Management, discuss the firm's Seyfarth Lean program.[1] Seyfarth Lean is the firm's adoption of Six Sigma methodologies to the practice of law.This is the most detailed explanation of Sayfarth Lean that I've seen to date and is well worth a read for any firm considering Six Sigma. I took away two tips for successfully implementing Six Sigma in a law firm: adopting a less statistics-heavy training for attorneys, and making sure that implementation is a top-down, firm-wide initiativeFor the...

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Will Project Management Become a Casualty in Law-firm Culture Wars?

By Paul C. Easton on December 7, 2009 4:27 PM | 2 Comments | No TrackBacks

Those of us who promote better project management in the practice of law sooner or later stumble into the debate over whether project management is a transplant from the business world that will eventually sap the professionalism out of law. Is running a law firm like a business antithetical to law as an honorable profession? Last week the ABA Journal's News blog published a post about William Lancaste, a Seyfarth Shaw partner who is suing the firm after they demoted him to non-equity status. Mr. Lancaste claims that although he had a productive practice, he was a victim of the firm...

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Duane Morris Implements iFramework for Litigation Support Project Management

By Paul C. Easton on December 5, 2009 6:39 AM | No Comments | 2 TrackBacks

Laura Bandrowsky, Practice Support Director at Duane Morris, writes about her firm's search for a project-management solution for their litigation-support department and why they selected iFramework.[1] Like many firms, Duane Morris was using spreadsheets and a homegrown MS Access database to manage their litigation-support projects. Although these tools had served them well, as the firm began moving from traditional processes to electronic ones, their Litigation Support Department made a necessary move away from using multiple systems, such as paper, e-mail inboxes and folders and/or Excel files, and began implementing centralized, online, real-time technologies that include integration with processing tools and online review platforms that...

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Can Project Management Training Improve Attorney Negotiation Skills?

By Paul C. Easton on December 4, 2009 4:33 AM | 1 Comment | No TrackBacks

A recent post to the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation's Daily Blog draws an analogy between project management and the negotiation technique of "backward mapping."[1] The post is an adaption of an article the Program's monthly newsletter, Negotiation, by Harvard Business School professor James K. Sebenius. Where conventional wisdom teaches that "when entering a negotiation, you should get your allies onboard first," Professor Sebenius argues that backwards mapping provides a more effective approach to negotiation sequencing. This approach involves "envision[ing] your preferred outcome and think[ing] in reverse about how to get there." Basically, it is a project management approach to negotiation: To better understand...

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Michael Hatfield Dings Agile

By Paul C. Easton on December 3, 2009 10:30 PM | 2 Comments | No TrackBacks

In a post last month to PMI's Voices of Project Management blog, PM expert and author Michael Hatfield dismisses Agile and Scrum as excuses for scope creep: The Biggest (in my opinion) Myth: Agile and scrum are novel improvements to traditional project management, tailored for the software industry. Truth: Agile and scrum were developed to allow IT projects to indulge in all the scope creep they wanted..[1] Mr. Hatfield argues that the IT industry developed Agile and Scrum in response to easy-to-miss, seemingly small, changes to software that led to "configuration management nightmares." This led, according to Mr. Hatfield, to: ...the...

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LPM Jobs Listings

By Paul C. Easton on December 3, 2009 3:05 AM | No Comments | 1 TrackBack

In addition to this blog, I also maintain a Linked In group by the same name. While the group's activity levels remain only light to moderate, membership continues to grow. One benefit of the Linked In group is the jobs board. If you are looking for legal project management job, I suggest you join the legal project management group on Linked In. Also, going forward, I'll be posting jobs listed on the Linked In group to this blog. In addition to helping get the work out about new jobs, I'm also doing this to focus on what project management experience,...

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Project Management in Legal Staffing Companies

By Paul C. Easton on December 2, 2009 6:10 PM | 3 Comments | 3 TrackBacks

Legal staffing agencies that also stage and manage document reviews have long highlighted their project management expertise to differentiate their services from competitors who only provide warm bodies. In an interview published Tuesday on the Metropolitan Corporate Counsel Web site, Meron I. Hewis, Account Manager at Kelly Law Registry, notes that "law firms are looking for cost savings for their clients with project management expertise by introducing them to [outsourced discovery solutions]," such as those provided by Kelly Law Registry at their Litigation Discovery Center in Troy, Michigan.[1] Increasingly, legal staffing agencies are touting their project management expertise as a way to distinguish themselves...

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The Importance of Project Management to Attorney Job Satisfaction

By Paul C. Easton on December 2, 2009 11:47 AM | 1 Comment | No TrackBacks

Jeremy, a mid-level associate at a large New York law firm (Firm A), thought he had a bad cold. One night while toiling on a brief due in a week, his condition worsened. "I couldn't breathe, and I thought I was going to pass out." He called the partner, notorious for working her teams hard even in the absence of deadlines, and told her he was seriously ill, and that he thought it best to leave. She told him to "tough it out," and stay to finish the brief. Jeremy stayed all night and left the office the next morning....

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December 2009 Archives