Legal Project Management Working with Outside Counsel to Manage Budgets, Timelines and Expectations David A. Rueff, Jr.
Introduction: Baker Donelson 630 attorneys and policy advisors in 18 offices Attorneys licensed in 35 states Ranked 72 nd in National Law Journal Nationally-recognized health and IP practices Listed as a "Go-To Law Firm" in Directory of In- House Law Departments of Top 500 Companies (Corporate Counsel and American Lawyer Media) since 2006
What are Clients Looking for from their Attorneys? Efficiency and Predictability Traditional Law Firm Practice Law Firm revenue has traditionally depended on generating billable hours, and efficiency has not been a priority Setting the meter running at the beginning of the case and charging whatever takes is at odds with good financial management Clients now prefer pricing models that encourage, rather than discourage, efficiency 2 alternative pricing mechanisms to promote efficiency: Legal Project Management - developing and working with a reliable budget Value Based Billing / Alternative Fees Project Management for Lawyers, Boake and Kathuria, Ark (2011)
What are Clients Looking for from their Attorneys? Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) ACC issued a Value Challenge What is it? Promotes the adoption of management practices that allow all participants to achieve their key objectives Challenge to outside counsel to increase value and reduce cost of services based on the concept that law firms can reduce their costs to corporate clients and still maintain strong profitability Challenge to inside counsel to collectively drive this change based on the concept that law departments can use management practices that enhance the value of legal service spending http://www.acc.com/valuechallenge/about/index.cfm
What are Clients Looking for from their Attorneys? Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) ACC Value Challenge What it covers? The ACC Value Challenge focuses on providing resources and training for law firms as well as law departments on these key value levers: Aligning Relationships Value-Based Fee Structures - i.e. not based on the "billable hour" Staffing and Training Practices Budgeting Project Management Process Improvement Use of Technology Data Management Knowledge Management Change Management
What are Clients Looking for from their Attorneys? Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) In February of 2012, the ACC conducted a Legal Service Management Workshop and identified the following traits of the Perfect Law Firm : Ask before making a change in the matter Be responsive Plan the work and work to the plan Design the representation to align with our business needs Prepare budgets and provide estimates for briefing and research Provide accurate and timely billing Provide appropriate staffing and alternate staffing solutions Perform a post mortem and analyze with the team what went right and what went wrong
What are Clients Looking for from their Attorneys? Legal Project Management - How can it help? In today's economic climate, being a legal expert is not enough Exceptional legal service includes being a good steward of our client's resources and providing predictable costs For years, other industries such as manufacturing, construction and engineering have seen the efficiencies that can be realized by implementation of project management processes and developing a detailed plan for scope, tasks, schedules and budgets before beginning the project Baker Donelson identified that these same benefits can be derived in the delivery of legal services and developed its own, patent pending, LPM System - BakerManage
Introduction: What is Legal Project Management? LPM draws upon traditional project management Improves planning, monitoring and communications to ensure that an engagement adheres to a set of defined objectives for scope, cost, and time Coordinating scope, cost and time is sometimes referred to as the triple constraint If scope remains the same, but time is reduced, cost and necessary resources increase; likewise, if costs and resources are reduced, time is increased
Introduction Baker Donelson s Uniquely Designed Process BakerManage an LPM Process
Baker Donelson s LPM Solution: BakerManage Technology and Implementation Baker Donelson s Project Management Information System was developed in SharePoint Communicates with Firm s financial system (Aderant CMS), time entry system (DTE) Patent Pending for both the process and integration with other Firm systems In Edge International s 2011 publication, Staying Power: Legal Project Management Update - the BakerManage system was described as follows: Among the best is Baker Donelson s BakerManage system, a model of singular clarity, simplicity and utility. BakerManage serves as a one-stop information shop, neatly integrating project information, budgeting, team selection and communication in a format that echoes the classic project management activity sequence.
Introduction: How can the Client benefit from LPM? Planning the Work: Promotes predictable results, expenses and fees Encourages client / legal team collaboration Confirms that all stakeholder expectations are incorporated Allows the client to make decisions prior to starting the work Confirms appropriate resource allocation to the task Promotes the development of a reliable budget Communication plans gives the client alternatives to a 30 day bill Elaboration of tasks identifies opportunities for process improvement
Introduction: How can the Client benefit from LPM? Managing to the Plan: Estimated time for completion sets hourly constraints for the legal team Daily time entry allows real time updates on actual to budget performance Legal team s activities are transparent and accountable to the Client Client has real time access to completed tasks, matter status and budget Data collection allows automated alerts regarding deadlines and budget Reporting Performance Client has access to real time performance metrics Client has access to matter data which can be exported to reports Tracking performance encourages lessons learned Collection of historical case information promotes alternative fee solutions
Baker Donelson s LPM Solution: BakerManage Technology and Implementation Example of a BakerManage Client / Matter Site in SharePoint 2010:
Legal Project Management Working with Outside Counsel to Manage Budgets, Timelines and Expectations The single best payoff in terms of project success comes from having good project definition early. RAND CORPORATION David A. Rueff, Jr.