Legal Project Management: April 2010 Archives

Blawgospheric Feedback on Requirements for E-discovery Project Management Positions

By Paul C. Easton on April 27, 2010 10:47 PM | Comments | 4 TrackBacks

There has been a bit of buzz about e-discovery project manager qualifications in the blawgosphere following my recent post about Kroll Ontrack's job requirements for Litigation Support Project Managers and Case Consultants, based on a recent discussion on the e-LEGAL group...

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Happy Birthday LPM!

By Paul C. Easton on April 27, 2010 10:00 PM | Comment | No TrackBacks

It was one year ago on this date that I posted my first blog post on legal project management. One year and more than 150 posts later, my mission remains the same: [T]o publish information on project management that is...

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LPM Wellness: RSI & Microsoft Voice Recognition

By Paul C. Easton on April 27, 2010 2:38 PM | Comments | No TrackBacks

This post is part of a new series that will document my efforts to create healthier working environment. The topics discussed in this series are not specific only to legal project management professionals. They are applicable to any sedentary, knowledge...

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LPM Tidbits 2010-04-24

By Paul C. Easton on April 24, 2010 10:00 PM | Comments | No TrackBacks

LPM Tidbits is my (mostly) weekly collection of items of interest to LPM not otherwise written up in another post. Mel Bost includes law firms in his ruminations on the sudden proliferation of Program Management Office (PMO) organizational structures in project-focused...

Continue reading LPM Tidbits 2010-04-24.

Study On Tech Adaption In Small Firms Suggests LPM in SmallLaw is a Long Way Off

By Paul C. Easton on April 22, 2010 10:00 PM | Comments | No TrackBacks

Liz Kurtz, in a recent article for Small Law, reports on the results of the University of Florida Levin School of Law's "2010 Perfect Practice Legal Technology Institute Study" (PP-LTI Study). Two findings from this study that stand out are: ...

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Law Firm PM Watch: Duane Morris on How LPM is Key to AFA

By Paul C. Easton on April 22, 2010 10:00 PM | Comments | 1 TrackBack

"Having more lawyers who are better at managing projects to a budget is the only way [alternative fee] arrangements will gain traction." In the second of an occasional series in on how law firms are implementing process/project management techniques, Gina...

Continue reading Law Firm PM Watch: Duane Morris on How LPM is Key to AFA.

Kroll Ontrack Prefers Its E-discovery Project Managers to be PMP Certified and Requires They Have a Business Degree

By Paul C. Easton on April 21, 2010 10:00 PM | Comments | 3 TrackBacks

Craig Blakeley, an e-discovery project manager at Kroll Ontrack provides Kroll's job requirements for Litigation Support Project Managers and Case Consultants in a discussion thread on the e-LEGAL group on LinkedIn. They are: Bachelors degree in Business or related field...

Continue reading Kroll Ontrack Prefers Its E-discovery Project Managers to be PMP Certified and Requires They Have a Business Degree.

ACC Law Department Management Committee Presents CLE Web Cast on Legal Project Management

By Paul C. Easton on April 21, 2010 3:58 PM | Comments | 1 TrackBack

On May 13th, the Association of Corporate Counsel's Law Department Management Committee will present a one-hour CLE program, sponsored by the Huron Consulting Group, that will discuss project management within the legal profession. Title: Applying Project Management to Legal MattersFormat:...

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Magic for Muggles: Embedding Analytical Power Into Everyday (Legal) Work

By Paul C. Easton on April 21, 2010 10:25 AM | Comments | No TrackBacks

Smart Planet published an interview[1] with Jeanne Harris this past Monday discussing her new book, Analytics at Work: Smarter Decisions, Better Results, [2] which she co-authored with Tom Davenport. The book follows their Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning.[3] Analytics at Work is intended for a...

Continue reading Magic for Muggles: Embedding Analytical Power Into Everyday (Legal) Work.

Keep Your Tomatoes Out of My Weekly Review

By Paul C. Easton on April 19, 2010 10:00 PM | Comments | No TrackBacks

I'm really starting to like Larry Port and his Rocket Matter Blog. I never met Mr. Port, but few company blogs, much less software blogs, keep my interest. Generally, I relegate them to a "software updates" folder in Google Reader, which...

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Law Firm PM Watch: Seyfarth Shaw--Six Minutes on Six Sigma

By Paul C. Easton on April 18, 2010 10:00 PM | Comments | 1 TrackBack

Not sure how this one slipped past me. At the beginning of this month, American Lawyer posted a six-minute interview with J. Stephen Poor, Managing Partner of Seyfarth Shaw on how Six Sigma is working out for the firm.[1] There's not...

Continue reading Law Firm PM Watch: Seyfarth Shaw--Six Minutes on Six Sigma.

Law Firm PM Watch: McCarthy Tétrault Launches Home-baked Project Management System

By Paul C. Easton on April 18, 2010 10:00 PM | Comments | 1 TrackBack

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...

Continue reading Law Firm PM Watch: McCarthy Tétrault Launches Home-baked Project Management System.

IT-Legal Liaison, A Legal Project Manager By Another Name?

By Paul C. Easton on April 17, 2010 10:00 PM | Comments | 1 TrackBack

I recently read an interesting post by Barry Rozen on his Litscovery Blog about the emerging role of IT-legal Liason and its importance in effectively managing electronic discovery.[1]In essence, the purpose of such a position is to have a "middle person"...

Continue reading IT-Legal Liaison, A Legal Project Manager By Another Name?.

Mark Gerow Shares His First Impression of SharePoint 2010 on Legal Technology News

By Paul C. Easton on April 17, 2010 12:17 PM | Comments | No TrackBacks

Mark Gerow, Director of Application Development and Business Process at Fenwick & West, shares his first impressions of SharePoint 2010 in Law Technology News today (though the article is pre-dated for the 19th). [1] Of the "hundreds, if not thousands, of significant...

Continue reading Mark Gerow Shares His First Impression of SharePoint 2010 on Legal Technology News.

Lexician Answers Questions About Legal Project and Process Tools

By Paul C. Easton on April 16, 2010 10:00 PM | Comments | No TrackBacks

Steven Levy discusses tools for process mapping and Gantt charts in today's post to his Lexician blog.[1] As a once-ardent user of the Hipster PDA (between jobs, when I was blissfully free from a smartphone), I particularly like his suggested old-school...

Continue reading Lexician Answers Questions About Legal Project and Process Tools.

No Need to Monitor Legal Projects?

By Paul C. Easton on April 16, 2010 10:47 AM | Comments | No TrackBacks

UPDATE: When I first posted this, I failed to link to the original site. Very bad form on my part. Sorry. You may find the original content, from which I quoted, here: http://www.projectmanagementquestions.com/ Google Alerts found the following head scratcher...

Continue reading No Need to Monitor Legal Projects?.

Project Management a Market Differentiator for Legal Services

By Paul C. Easton on April 16, 2010 10:10 AM | Comments | 1 TrackBack

It seems that one of my recent posts has caused some of Toby Brown's suppressed memories related to mental abuse suffered while studying economics to resurface. I feel awful and will consider including a prominently displayed warning on my blog....

Continue reading Project Management a Market Differentiator for Legal Services.

E-discovery Certifications a "Must" for Legal Professionals?

By Paul C. Easton on April 16, 2010 8:04 AM | Comments | 1 TrackBack

Just after I noted that high-paying e-discovery project management jobs are not requiring law licenses, project management or other certifications, or even college degrees, I come across a post by David Kaufer on Teris's Sophisticated Litigation Support blog that claims that e-discovery certification...

Continue reading E-discovery Certifications a "Must" for Legal Professionals?.

Cowen Group: It's a Hot Job Market for E-discovery Project Management

By Paul C. Easton on April 16, 2010 4:27 AM | Comments | 3 TrackBacks

It look's like one of The Posse List's predictions for 2010 is proving is coming true: e-discovery project management is becoming a serious career choice. According a survey by The Cowen Group, a litigation-support staffing agency, the e-discovery job market...

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Project Management Experience Can Help You Get Into Law School

By Paul C. Easton on April 15, 2010 8:14 PM | Comments | No TrackBacks

I've been going over the recently leaked and just recently released U.S. News & World Report Law School Rankings and enjoying the annual brouhaha over their validity and the negative effect they supposedly have on U.S. legal education. It was the last...

Continue reading Project Management Experience Can Help You Get Into Law School.

Jim Hassett Discusses Perfectionism as Scope Creep

By Paul C. Easton on April 15, 2010 6:42 AM | Comments | No TrackBacks

Jim Hassett has posted the fourth installment of his five-party series on legal project management today at his Legal Business Development blog.[1] In it he discusses the importance of trade-offs and why perfectionism is often just an excuse for scope creep...

Continue reading Jim Hassett Discusses Perfectionism as Scope Creep.

Rocket Tomato: RocketMatter Blog Posts Part II in its "Legal Pomodoro Series"

By Paul C. Easton on April 15, 2010 4:15 AM | Comments | No TrackBacks

Larry Port posted the second installment in a series on the "Pomodoro Technique" at the Rocket Matter Blog today.[1] Simply put, the Pomodoro Technique is the practice of using a kitchen timer to force yourself to focus on one task for...

Continue reading Rocket Tomato: RocketMatter Blog Posts Part II in its "Legal Pomodoro Series".

When Working With Virtual Teams, Select Members Wisely to Avoid Managerial Work Load

By Paul C. Easton on April 14, 2010 5:44 AM | Comment | No TrackBacks

In a recent post to his Law Department Management blog, Rees Morrison shares an observation made by an unnamed speaker at a recent Ark Conference that choreographing the work of several firms and vendors, rather than hiring one firm to handle everything, need...

Continue reading When Working With Virtual Teams, Select Members Wisely to Avoid Managerial Work Load.

Lexician on the Only Business Metric That Really Matters

By Paul C. Easton on April 14, 2010 4:42 AM | Comments | No TrackBacks

Steven Levy challenges the conventional wisdom represented by a couple of project-management cliches related to metrics:You Can't Manage What You Can't MeasureYou Get What You MeasureThe first he dismisses as "doubly bogus" and the second he claims is "honored more...

Continue reading Lexician on the Only Business Metric That Really Matters.

Red Bridge Strategy Includes Legal Project Management in its "Expanded Global Legal Process Management Boot Camp"

By Paul C. Easton on April 13, 2010 7:09 AM | Comments | No TrackBacks

Red Bridge Strategy, an LPO consultancy, will include Legal Project Management as one of the topics covered at its 2010 Global Legal Process Management Boot Camp, which will take place in Mumbai and New Delhi, India, May 18-20.[1] I couldn't...

Continue reading Red Bridge Strategy Includes Legal Project Management in its "Expanded Global Legal Process Management Boot Camp".

Legal Project Management, Let It Shine, Let It Shine, Let It Shine

By Paul C. Easton on April 13, 2010 6:13 AM | Comments | No TrackBacks

Oh! The HERESY! In response to a recent post on this blog, Steven Levy suggests that Legal Project Management is not a panacea.[1] Dr. Feel-not-so-good Mr. Levy claims you can't just swallow the LPM pill and find that all your practice-management...

Continue reading Legal Project Management, Let It Shine, Let It Shine, Let It Shine.

If Not Basecamp, Then a Legal Pad

By Paul C. Easton on April 11, 2010 5:17 AM | Comments | No TrackBacks

Lawyer-turned-social-media-consultant Jim Turner discusses how professionals should use project management tools to manage their social-media projects.[1] He particularly likes Basecamp, by 37 Signals. If you aren't ready to implement a project management tool just to manage your on-line social networks,...

Continue reading If Not Basecamp, Then a Legal Pad.

If an AD AGENCY Can Do It, So Can Law Firms

By Paul C. Easton on April 11, 2010 4:43 AM | Comments | No TrackBacks

I missed this little gem of a post by Patrick Lamb on his In Search of Perfect Client Service blog.[1] Mr. Lamb discusses how an ad agency (Partners & Napier) was forced to analyze and document its processes, and find ways...

Continue reading If an AD AGENCY Can Do It, So Can Law Firms.

Project Management the Panacea for Troubled Law Firms?

By Paul C. Easton on April 10, 2010 7:45 PM | Comment | 1 TrackBack

According to Jordan Furlong in a recent post to his Law21 blog, project management is the closest thing there is to a panacea "[f]or a profession suffering from aggravated clients, shrinking revenues, competitive inertia, archaic business practices and system waste."[1] "If it...

Continue reading Project Management the Panacea for Troubled Law Firms?.

Hildebrandt to Offer Project & Process-Improvement Program in New York

By Paul C. Easton on April 10, 2010 4:31 PM | Comments | No TrackBacks

Hildebrandt Baker Robbins, a professional services firm management consultancy, is offering a three-day program on legal project management and process improvement, starting on June 9th at the Downtown Conference Center at Pace University, New York, NY. CLE is not...

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Is Project Management Industry Specific?

By Paul C. Easton on April 9, 2010 10:00 PM | Comments | No TrackBacks

I ripped that title off from Josh Nankivel's recent post to his PM Student blog.[1] in which he responds to a reader who asks whether project management is industry specific." I've written on this topic before (see here and here),[2] so I was interested...

Continue reading Is Project Management Industry Specific?.

Many Companies Only Seriously Considering PMP-certified Project Managers

By Paul C. Easton on April 8, 2010 10:00 PM | Comments | 2 TrackBacks

An article in the Wall Street Journal last week notes that "[m]any companies ... are encouraging employees to sit for certification exams--and some are flat-out requiring the effort." [1] The article devotes most of its attention to the Project Management Institute's (PMI)...

Continue reading Many Companies Only Seriously Considering PMP-certified Project Managers.

Gregory Balestrero, President & CEO of PMI, Announces Plans to Retire

By Paul C. Easton on April 8, 2010 2:43 AM | Comments | No TrackBacks

Gregory Balestrero, the President and CEO of the Project Management Institute has announced plans to retire so he can spend more time with his family. An e-mail announcement was sent out to all PMI volunteers yesterday, but it was filtered...

Continue reading Gregory Balestrero, President & CEO of PMI, Announces Plans to Retire.

Hootsuite for Project Team Collaboration

By Paul C. Easton on April 7, 2010 8:53 PM | Comments | No TrackBacks

As anyone who follows me on Twitter (@paulceaston) knows, I'm a big fan of Hootsuite (@hootsuite), a Web application for managing your status updates. I use it to read and manage my Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn feeds, but I've never thought...

Continue reading Hootsuite for Project Team Collaboration.

LPM Responsibilities Being Allocated Downwards to Whom?

By Paul C. Easton on April 7, 2010 7:51 PM | Comments | No TrackBacks

Rees Morrison reports in his Law Department Management blog on a study that finds law firms have steadily allocated responsibilities lower.[1] This prompts Mr. Morrison to point out that "if the pattern has been for law firms to move work down...

Continue reading LPM Responsibilities Being Allocated Downwards to Whom?.

Gleanings from the LPM Blogosphere (A/K/A Regurgitating a Couple Months of Content from People Smarter than Me)

By Paul C. Easton on April 7, 2010 5:27 AM | Comments | No TrackBacks

There have been a lot of good posts on legal project management (LPM) in the Blogosphere over the past couple of months that I've starred, tagged, taken notes on, and then neglected because other things have taken my attention hostage....

Continue reading Gleanings from the LPM Blogosphere (A/K/A Regurgitating a Couple Months of Content from People Smarter than Me).

Corcoran on Legal Project Management

By Paul C. Easton on April 6, 2010 9:00 PM | Comment | 1 TrackBack

While doing a little digging into Altman Weil Inc. after reading about their being hired by Dechert LLP to provide legal project management (LPM) training to all of the law firm's partners and associates, I discovered a new blog that...

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Altman Weil Offers Legal Project Management Training on CD

By Paul C. Easton on April 6, 2010 12:16 AM | Comment | No TrackBacks

As part of my background snooping for my recent post on the Dechert LLP's firmwide project management initiative, I discovered that Altman Weil's Legal Project Management Webinar is available for purchase as a flash presentation on CD. I assume...

Continue reading Altman Weil Offers Legal Project Management Training on CD.

Law Firm PM Watch: Dechert's Firmwide LPM Initiative

By Paul C. Easton on April 5, 2010 12:58 PM | Comments | 1 TrackBack

Another sign that Legal Project Management is coming of age (or at least coming out of the wilderness): Dechert LLP is has begun a firmwide initiative to train every partner and associate in legal project management (LPM), eschewing specific process-improvement...

Continue reading Law Firm PM Watch: Dechert's Firmwide LPM Initiative.

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