Legal Project Management: December 2009 Archives

Bierce & Kenerson's E-discovery RESOURCE Model

By Paul C. Easton on December 31, 2009 2:00 PM | 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")....

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Law Librarians Adding Project Management to their Survival Kits

By Paul C. Easton on December 30, 2009 3:12 AM | Comments | 1 TrackBack

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....

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Project Managers Would Make Terrible Bakers

By Paul C. Easton on December 29, 2009 11:00 AM | 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...

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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 | 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...

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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 | 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...

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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 | 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...

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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 | 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...

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Will Lawyers Complete or Break the STEM

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

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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 | 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...

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The Project Management in Law Department Management

By Paul C. Easton on December 14, 2009 10:43 PM | 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...

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Balanced Scorecard for Legal Departments

By Paul C. Easton on December 14, 2009 5:53 AM | 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...

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Legal Project Management MCLE Courses

By Paul C. Easton on December 13, 2009 9:31 AM | 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...

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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 | 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...

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Legal Billing Requirements that Demand Legal Project Management

By Paul C. Easton on December 12, 2009 2:39 AM | 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...

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Margaret Dixon on Legal Project Management

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

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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 | Comment | 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...

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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 | 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...

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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 | Comments | 1 TrackBack

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...

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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 | 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...

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Duane Morris Implements iFramework for Litigation Support Project Management

By Paul C. Easton on December 5, 2009 6:39 AM | 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...

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Can Project Management Training Improve Attorney Negotiation Skills?

By Paul C. Easton on December 4, 2009 4:33 AM | Comments | 1 TrackBack

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...

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Michael Hatfield Dings Agile

By Paul C. Easton on December 3, 2009 10:30 PM | 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...

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LPM Jobs Listings

By Paul C. Easton on December 3, 2009 3:05 AM | 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...

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Project Management in Legal Staffing Companies

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

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The Importance of Project Management to Attorney Job Satisfaction

By Paul C. Easton on December 2, 2009 11:47 AM | 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...

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December 2009 Archives