lpm-a-framework-for-inproving-client-satisfaction-and-the-economics-of-legal-services-white-paper.pdf...

8/12/2019 LPM-A-framework-for-inproving-client-satisfaction-and-the-economics-of-Legal-services-white-paper.pdf

http:///reader/full/lpm-a-framework-for-inproving-client-satisfaction-and-the-economics-of-legal-services-white-pape 1/6

2012, QLex Consulting Inc. August 2012

WHITE PAPER

Legal Project Management:

A Framework for Improving Client Satisfaction

and the Economics of Legal Services

Aileen Leventon, JD, MBA

President and FounderQLex Consulting Inc.

www.qlexconsulting.com

Cell: (917) 860-7043

[email protected]



Legal Project Management: A Framework for Improving Client Satisfaction and the Economics of Legal Services page1

By Aileen Leventon

2012 QLex Consulting Inc. www.qlexconsulting.com Cell: (917) 860-7043 [email protected] August 2012

Legal Project Management:

A Framework for Improving Client Satisfaction

and Economics of Legal Services

By Aileen Leventon1

Law firms and legal departments are moving quickly to compensate for a gap in lawyer

trainingskills in managing how legal work is done. Legal education focuses primarily on

substantive legal skills. Topics such as marketing, client relationship management and law

firm economics have crept into the continuing legal education curriculum as those skills

became more important to the commercial success of law firms.

The essential new skill is managing legal work; getting it done is no longer good enough.

With clients refusal to pay for work deemed inefficient or excessive, it is critical for

lawyers to concur on the scope of work and to execute well. Leave-no-stone unturned is

not synonymous with quality. Legal project management (LPM) is a framework foranalyzing and communicating about legal work as it is initiated, planned, carried out,

monitored, completed and evaluated to improve lawyers overall effectiveness.

First Principles

To lay the groundwork, consider the following first principles with respect to lawpractice:

1. Legal work is undertaken to achieve a clients business goal; it is not a professionalpursuit in a vacuum.

2. The clients goaland the importance of itanchors decision-making in handlingthe matter and the legal strategy.

3. Although lawyers serve a critical advisory role, other stakeholders requirementsand objectives are usually foremost.

4. How the work is done is almost as important to clients as results; substantive skill isassumed when a client retains a lawyer or firm.

1 Aileen Leventon, JD, MBA, is President and Founder of QLex Consulting Inc., an organization that focuses onthe application of business principles and practices to law practice and client satisfaction. She founded QLex

in 2006 after serving as a partner at Blaqwell Inc., a law firm strategy consulting firm, and

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, and nearly 20 years of law practice. She was a transaction lawyer with

litigation management experience in New York City at both an AMLaw 50 firm and a leading financial services

organization. She is a graduate of Columbia Business School, Cornell Law School and Stony Brook University.

Among her other activities as a member of the Bar, she is participating the ABA Task Force on Legal Project

Management in Transactions.




By Aileen Leventon


progresseswhether it is a transaction, litigation or any other matternew facts,

circumstances and legal issues emerge. The prevalence of uncertainty and unknowns have

led lawyers to deem planning impracticalor to abandon plans in the

face of change. LPM keeps bringing the team back to a shared planning framework to

confirm working assumptions about the matter. The discipline and structure of the

communication plan reduces surprises and unnecessary work while protecting the

matters economics and fee structures. It fosters a shared understanding among all key

participants.

Constraints of Legal Projects

Throughout the matter, constant communication is necessary to balance the

interrelationship among the constraints inherent in all projects: scope, cost and time. In

legal work the constraints are:

1. The scope of matter, based on the clients and other stakeholders goals2. The people or other resources (such as technology and budgets) required to do the

work; and

3. Deadlines to complete the work, whether imposed by a client or a third party suchas a court.

If any of these constraints is initially fixed and then changes, then LPM requires deliberate

adaptation of the other elements to that change. For example, if the scope is well defined

and the time for completion of the work is determined by the clients business

requirements (such as the fiscal year), then the lawyer has to deploy an appropriate level of

resources to achieve the clients goal within the timeframe. When scope changes, the team

needs to understand the impact on the time constraint and whether the resources are

appropriate for the matters economics. And when the scope and time both change, what is

the impact on cost?

An ongoing communication plan with a client reduces surprises. Think how often a law

firm renders a bill reflecting higher-than-expected resources deployed to achieve theagreed-upon scope of work within the clients time frame. Informal communication should

never be replaced with bureaucratic formality, but specific tools at each phase of a matter

keeps team members and clients aligned.




By Aileen Leventon


Communication Tools

LPM recognizes six broad phases of a matter: Initiation/Engagement; Launch; Monitoring;

Revision/Refinement; Close; and After-Action Review. Consider the relevance of the

following eight tools as a basis for communication during the different phases of a matter.

Tools useful at the Launch phase and during the subsequent Revise/Refinement Phases:

1. Kick Off Meeting: To set the tone for the management of the work, go over theteam leaders/partners discussions with the client about the goals and objectives

for the matter, the legal work that needs to be done and the ground rules for how

the core legal team will function and relate to the client.

2. Scoping Tool: To identify stakeholders, objectives, constraints, assumptions andwork necessary to complete the project.

3. Work Plan: To outline the broad categories of legal work to be done and identifythe people who are responsible and otherwise involved. It should be updated as the

action items for team members change significantly, particularly at the beginning of

a new phase of work (e.g., after making a motion for summary judgment in a

litigation; at the start and completion of due diligence in a transaction).

4. Time Line: To set out the schedule, sequence, milestones and dependencies and toserve as a crosscheck again the Work Plan and working assumptions reflected in the

Scoping Tool.

Tools useful during the Monitor and Refinement Phases during which the Scope, Work Plan

and Time Line may have to be adjusted:

5. Status Reports: These are templates and plans to ensure that team members andthe client are informed, aligned, and aware of changed circumstances and/or that

efforts are on track to achieve the clients goals within cost, time and resource

constraints.

6. Client Communication Checklist: Who will communicate about what to whom? When will communication occur? (Weekly; quarterly; daily) How will communication take place? (E-mail, meetings, conference calls).




By Aileen Leventon


Tools useful during the Close and After-Action Review phase to assess how the matter

evolved and constraints were managed, and to document lessons learned:

7. Closing Report: To compare the outcome to the original scope of work and toacknowledge how and why plans changed.

8. After-Action Review / Agenda: To identify the successful elements of the mattermanagement and those that could be improved.

An After-Action Review or Debrief is most effective if the participants know they will be

doing it at the outset of the matter. Nevertheless, even if no other tools are used, great

benefits may be derived from a well-structured Debrief that reflects on lessons learned and

how they will be shared and syndicated.

LPM tools should be simple and practical and adapted for each matter and team. Theyshould be calibrated to address the interrelationship among the constraints of scope, cost

and time for the particular matter.

Conclusion

How many lawyers lament that others expect them to read minds or that they dont

understand the context of what they are doing or how their work will be used? How many

clients are surprised by how long the work takes, the demands on them, and thecircumstances that drive the cost of the work?

Legal project management is the communication and analytical framework that allowslawyers to apply their legal know-how with greater focus on context and client service to

improve the satisfaction with and economics of legal services.

lpm-a-framework-for-inproving-client-satisfaction-and-the-economics-of-legal-services-white-paper.pdf...

Documents