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The Office Administrator s Role in Supporting Legal Project Management Presented by: Terri Pepper Gavulic Director of Legal Support Fisher & Phillips LLP A Quick Poll Have you heard the term Legal Project Management? Do you have a formal LPM program? If not, is it under consideration? Pricing professionals? LPM staff? Your role: Strategy and development Implementation Staff supervision 1
What s All The Hoopla About LPM And Why Should You Care? Applying PM to legal Response to market and client pressures Pricing Budgets Process Improvement Staffing What s All The Hoopla About LPM And Why Should You Care? Create or weaken competitive advantage Not a fad it s how we ll do business from now on EVERY firm has some LPM in place, whether or not it s called that 2
Why? What s Driving LPM? Shrinking demand Competition growing and changing Significant pricing pressure Commoditization requires efficiency Technology is a game changer Transparency Why Should Your Firm Consider LPM? Benefits Abound Knowledge sharing Opportunities to train 3
How Does LPM Work? Align with critical business functions: Set and adhere to budgets Clarify what s in or out of scope Develop project plans Share knowledge and information Stay within fixed fee limits Uncover optimal ways to work Facilitate better communications with clients Facilitate better communications among teams Simple to complex approaches How Does LPM Work? Four or five stage models Plethora of tools 4
Proposal language Tools To Support LPM: Defining and Engaging Engagement letters Stakeholder analysis Matter timeline and schedule Detailed Scope of Work Tools To Support LPM: Planning and Budgeting Communications plans Budgets Staff and resource assignments Matter change plan Project plan Work products list 5
Tools To Support LPM: Executing and Working Out of scope discussions RACI charts Decision trees Budgets to actuals software Timekeeping systems and protocols Scope change analysis Change orders Tools To Support LPM: Evaluating and Learning Final budgets-to-actuals reports Reusable work product End of matter debriefings Client feedback KM systems 6
What s An OA To Do? Make a compelling business case Staff effectively (existing and new resources) Program managers Technology support Project managers KM specialists Pricing specialists What s An OA To Do? Training, training, training Buy or build technology? 7
What s An OA To Do? Encourage and support good business practices Time entry Appropriate staffing Billing & Collections Good Business Engagement Letters/Scope Data at intake Task codes Overcoming Challenges Resistance to learning new processes Fiefdoms lack of collaboration Inter-departmental Lawyer to lawyer Staff to staff Lawyer to staff Office to office Practice group to practice group Firm to clients 8
Overcoming Challenges Insufficient / unshared client feedback Lack of knowledgeable personnel No budget or supportive technology Unclear goals and roles No top down support Questions? Contact With Additional Questions: Terri Pepper Gavulic Director of Legal Support Fisher & Phillips LLP 404-240-4268 tgavulic@laborlawyers.com 9
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ALA Presentation: The Office Administrator s Role in Supporting Legal Project Management Presented by Terri Pepper Gavulic, Director of Legal Support, Fisher & Phillips LLP Additional Resources Ready to learn more about Legal Project Management? Here are some resources. The Power of Legal Project Management (Susan Raridon Lambreth and David A. Rueff, Jr.) ABA Publishing (www.shop.americanbar.org) Smarter Pricing, Smarter Profit (Stuart J. T. Dodds) ABA Publishing (www.shopamericanbar.org) Legal Project Management Institute (http://lpminstitute.net) LegalBizDev (www.legalbizdev.com) Legal Marketing Association Client Value SIG (www.legalmarketing.org) P3 Conference (www.legalmarketing.org/p3conference) Association of Corporate Counsel Legal Resources (www.acc.com/legalresources/quickcounsel/lpm.cfm) Project Management Institute (www.pmi.org)