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

Recently in Trends Category

SharePoint "Killers"

By Paul C. Easton on January 10, 2010 10:00 PM | 2 Comments | 1 TrackBack
In a recent post, I showed how SharePoint is a powerful tool for legal and litigation support teams to manage their legal projects.[1] I began using SharePoint five years ago, which is a lifetime in social-media development. In this post I look at a number of applications that may become SharePoint Killers.  I exaggerate. I say "SharePoint Killer" in the same way folks throw around the term "iPhone killer." These are viable alternatives to the SharePoint platform, giving much of the same functionality, and they will keep/take some marketshare away from SharePoint in the legal environment, but they'll no more kill SharePoint in law firms and corporate...

Continue reading SharePoint "Killers".


Bookmark and Share

Project Management an Important Legal Recruitment Trend

By Paul C. Easton on January 7, 2010 6:35 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
An article by Anne Jennings, a managing director with Kelly Law Registry, in last week's Connecticut Law Tribune looks at "trends expected to shape legal recruitment throughout 2010."[1]  In addition to discussing the merits of onshoring services and document review staging capabilities, Ms. Jennings discusses the growing importance of project management capabilities as a competiive advantage for legal staffing agencies:  There is a growing need for project management services across corporate legal departments and law firms nationwide.... For those firms without a paralegal manager or similar employee to take on large document review projects, specialized recruiting agencies offer experienced legal...

Continue reading Project Management an Important Legal Recruitment Trend.


Bookmark and Share

Dennis Lamb Predicts that "Project Management" are the Watchwords for 2010

By Paul C. Easton on January 7, 2010 6:06 AM | 2 Comments | No TrackBacks
Patrick Lamb predicts on his In Search of Perfect Client Service blawg that "[t]he watchwords for 2010 are project management."[1]  [1] Patrick J. Lamb, Watchwords for 2010? Project Management, In Search of Perfect Client Service, Jan. 5, 2010, http://www.patrickjlamb.com/archives/commentary-watchwords-for-2010-project-management.html (last visited on Jan. 7, 2010)....

Continue reading Dennis Lamb Predicts that "Project Management" are the Watchwords for 2010.


Bookmark and Share

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 | No 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...

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


Bookmark and Share

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...

Continue reading Will Lawyers Complete or Break the STEM.


Bookmark and Share

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,...

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


Bookmark and Share

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...

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


Bookmark and Share

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...

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


Bookmark and Share

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...

Continue reading Michael Hatfield Dings Agile.


Bookmark and Share

Project Management in Legal Staffing Companies

By Paul C. Easton on December 2, 2009 6:10 PM | 3 Comments | 1 TrackBack
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...

Continue reading Project Management in Legal Staffing Companies.


Bookmark and Share
« Training | Main Index | Archives | Webinars »

Search

About this Archive

This page is an archive of recent entries in the Trends category.

Training is the previous category.

Webinars is the next category.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.