the lpm maturity model: five steps to transform your law firm into a client-focused business
DESCRIPTION
You understand that LPM is critical to the future of your law firm, but you don’t know where to start. Or, your firm has pricing processes in place, but has hit a project management roadblock. Prosperoware’s LPM Maturity Model provides a framework to work with your individual practice and guides you through this critical transition. Presented at ILTA 2014 in Nashville.TRANSCRIPT
The LPM Maturity Model
Five steps to transform your law firm into a client-focused business
Keith Lipman, presidentProsperoware
Founded 2009
Legal process experts
Deep understanding of Sharepoint, WorkSite and other DMS
Offices: Philadelphia, Chicago and London
Who is Prosperoware?
We solve problems
WorkSite add-ons
SharePoint
Information governance
Electronic file (Matter Centricity)
Remote access for email and DMS
Legal Process Management and Pricing
U.S. CUSTOMERS
40% are Prosperoware
customers
U.S. CUSTOMERS
31% are Prosperoware customers
Total customers
130+
A sampling of our partners
MILANOur WorkSite add-ons improve administration and empower users
ZONEEnjoy secure email management on your mobile device with the Zone Mail app; Zone Remote Access brings the FileSite experience to your web browser
ASCERAEasily integrate your DMS with your SharePoint intranet and extranet
UMBRIATransform your firm into a client-focused business through Legal Process Management
Four product families, four focus areas
A Roadmap for LPM and Pricing Success
Where is your firm or practice area?
The LPM Maturity ModelFive steps to transform your firm into a client-focused business
Drivers of change:
• Price, client, competition• Pressure maturity drives
maturity
Maturity will be different based on practice
`
Step 1: Budget and Monitor at the Matter Level
Understand effort to cost
• Building a budget creates familiarity
• Addresses the problem that billing takes place a long time after work
• Budgeting avoids duplicative tasks
Step 1 – Building your budget
Opportunity or
matter
Top down – start with an
amountMonitor only – select a total dollar amount
per phase
Bottom up – start with
task or hours
• Lawyers typically quote in dollars
• Challenge is do not know many hours they get for the amount
• Need this data to know that they can deliver the work
• Building a template with resources makes this easy to determine
Start with top-down: amount budgets
Why is Step 1 budgeting important?
It raises awareness in your organization
• Builds familiarity with cost & effort
• Commonality of processes
• Use of personnel
• Measure it, manage it
Progress reports and KPIs
• At least weekly progress reports to measure against budget
• Minimum set of KPIs at matter level:
• Leverage (e.g. non-partner hours vs. partner hours)
• Realization ( achieved or target revenue ÷ hours at current rate)
• Matter profitability (e.g. cost per hour ÷ revenue per hour)
Step 2:Matter type and phase
development
Going deeper for monitoring and pricing
• First level of breaking down matter types and phases
• The most important step in LPM journey
Goals of Step 2
• More granular budgets and monitoring
• Leverage past experience for pricing future matters
• Two critical tasks:• Define the services the firm delivers• Define the discrete phases within each matter type• Matters can contain multiple services
Understand key metadata
Matter Types • Uber type of work
• Litigation, Transaction, Advisory, Regulatory
Area of law• Subject area• Employment, Finance, bankruptcy
Matter Sub-type• Specific work being performed
• Employment discrimination, M&A, Chapter 11
Breaking down to phases is critical
• ABA/UTMBS Codes are not rich enough
• Need break down the work so that you derive meaning
• Enables comparison of work and measure efficiency
• More effective monitoring
Step 3:Monitor and identify
your obvious inefficiencies
Paying attention pays off
Unmonitored, simple and complex issues can driveup the cost of a matter
• “Stupid stuff” or low-hanging fruit• More complex issues
• Consulting partner expansion of the scope
• Failure to assign tasks properly
Step 4:Identify common tasks
across matter types and build a budget using these tasks
• Define repetitive tasks across matter types and subtypes
• Answering a complaint• Taking a deposition
• Once steps in tasks are identified, quantify the amount of time each step should take
• Once you determine tasks & time, it is easy to build a budget from the bottom up
• Advanced task with significant payoff
Know your verbs
Step 5:Manage your matters
with checklists
Sweet spot of LPM process
• Build a plan. Deliver to plan.
• Phases and tasks are broken down
• Inefficiencies are gone and budget templates are built
• Use task templates to drive work process
• Level of detail allows continuous process improvement
• Multi-year process
• True competitive advantage
Tools to transform your firm into a client-focused business through Legal Process Management
Budget, Pricing, Experience, Analytics, and Monitoring
Links the budget of a matter to the cost of delivering the work
Questions?
Visit www.prosperoware.com/umbria
At ILTA 2014, visit us at booth 428
or Ryman Studio Q.