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

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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 | No Comments | No 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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In Search of the God Timer

By Paul C. Easton on July 29, 2010 10:00 PM | 2 Comments | 1 TrackBack
If there is some all-knowing, all-seeing deity out there entering my every step into the Book of Life, I wish said deity would give me access to its pages now and then to assist with my time entry duties. The money I spent, time I labored, and pain I endured in testing, configuring, and managing time-tracking systems should have earned me such a boon. Tracking time is a necessary evil for Legal Project Managers, especially if they are practicing attorneys. Even if you do not bill by the hour, it is still important to track your time to understand how long tasks...

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What Can Tax-Preparation Software Teach Legal Project Managers?

By Paul C. Easton on June 12, 2010 6:17 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
Wouldn't it be nice if when planning your legal project, your matter-management software prompted you with questions and suggestions that draw upon your firm's collective pool of experience and body of knowledge? Tax preparation software offers such functionality to assist people preparing tax forms, but this would clearly be impossible for the planning of an entire complex litigation...or would it?The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is currently developing software to help military-mission planners make better decisions. The mission-optimization software program is titled OBTW, initials for "Oh By The Way," and is inspired by the guided decision-making featured in tax-preparation software: OBTW is...

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Serengeti Law V.P. to Discuss How to Align Legal Budgets with Project Management

By Paul C. Easton on June 7, 2010 9:58 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
Blawger Hanna Hasl-Kelchner (of the Legal Literacy blawg) is presenting a complimentary teleseminar, "How to Control Outside Legal Spending," on June 16, 2010 at 8 pm Eastern.[1] She will interview Rob Thomas, Vice President, Strategic Development for Serengeti Law, a legal billing and matter management SaaS service.[2] They will discuss how to align legal spending with your budget, and your business goals. One of the main topics they will discuss is how to align budgets with project management.[3] Registration for this event is unconventional. To register you must visit askthenononsenselawyer.com, listen to a short audio recording, and "submit your single most important...

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Do You Know When You're Done?

By Paul C. Easton on May 17, 2010 10:00 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
D. Mark Jackson explains in a post to his Lean Law blawg how he modified his GTD-based task lists after reading The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right.[1] Atul Gawande, the author of that book, is a surgeon whose surgical checklists were inspired by aviation checklists. One common feature of aviation checklists is that they explain what "complete" means. Most people, Mr. Jackson points out, write out a brief description of the task with a little box to tick when they've completed it, but don't indicate what is required for that box to deserve the tick. TextMr. Jackson gives the...

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LPM Wellness: RSI & Microsoft Voice Recognition

By Paul C. Easton on April 27, 2010 2:38 PM | 2 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 worker. Due to years of spending far too much time on the computer, I've developed repetitive stress injuries for which I'm currently undergoing physical therapy.  As part of a holistic, long-term solution, I'm making in number of changes to my working environment, the equipment that I work on, and my work habits.  Among these changes is my attempt to once again...

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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 | 4 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 broader audience than Competing on Analytics and should be palatable to lawyers who want to improve their analytical capability.In the interview, Ms Harris expresses her skepticism about the value of real-time data and discusses the importance of bringing the power of information technology to bear on business decisions. About the current push for real-time data, Ms Harris says:  [T]he emphasis on...

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Keep Your Tomatoes Out of My Weekly Review

By Paul C. Easton on April 19, 2010 10:00 PM | No 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 I glance over in header-only view now and then. But I've noted that, more often then not, I'm opening and reading the Rocket Matter Blog, even though I am not a user of the product. So, today I've added it to my blogroll (a career highlight for Mr. Port, I'm sure).The Rocket Matter Blog is an eclectic mix of software updates, productivity...

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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 | No Comments | No TrackBacks
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 much we haven't heard before about Seyfarth Lean in this video, but one interesting nugget is that Seyfarth Shaw is rolling out a client feedback mechanism modeled off of the ACC Value Challenge that is tied to Seyfarth Lean, which will go out to all the firm's clients. Bill Henderson provides more detailed notes on the video on a post to his Legal Profession...

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

By Paul C. Easton on April 17, 2010 10:00 PM | No 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" between the IT and Legal departments who has a fine mix of legal experience and IT savviness to process eDiscovery and similar requests. He goes on to discuss the dangers of housing this role in the IT or legal departments, arguing that if the IT-legal liaison falls under IT or legal, he or she will come under pressure to further...

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