Author: Onit

It was the bastion of a successful, busy lawyer as little as 15 years ago. It sat on desks, was cradled by counsel, paralegals and secretaries and, undoubtedly, caused many backaches.

I am writing of the humble Redweld – that brown, expanding folder that housed nearly every aspect of a matter from motions to correspondence to billing. During the heavy-paper heydays, Redwelds ruled legal offices.

And they had a good run.

Now, with smartphones, iPads, laptops, email and the Internet (or the Interweb if you’re truly old school), a lot of information is electronic and it’s not quite as easy to build a comprehensive view of an ongoing matter.  Information is fragmented, with electronic documents, conversations and billings anchored to various legal contributors and programs within the law department.

The Redweld isn’t enough. Having something to unite electronic information – say a portal or SharePoint – is not enough. Today’s successful law department needs processes and tools to effectively manage all aspects of their matters – from budgeting to performance to time management to spend … and beyond.

Sunsetting Redweldian Processes

Like the rapidly retiring Redwelds, the processes used to manage matters 15 years ago no longer support the business principles that are prevalent in law departments today. There’s a fundamental difference between the business of law and the practice of law. The business aspect creates a succinct overview of matter performance – versus only the outcome of the matter itself on the legal side.

Building off of these basic business principles is the growing adoption of legal practice management.  Matters are no longer opened, worked and closed. They are evaluated, budgeted, measured, reported on and compared to similar matters and industry benchmarks.  Project management supports these efforts with disciplined, task-based and systematic approaches towards the legal work process. In many ways, it can help to “standardize” the process by:

• Establishing manageable and clear protocols for managing various legal projects, including the process of budgeting, reporting and communication
• Defining objectives
• Identifying potential constraints and building up a plan that will help in creating a working map for clients and lawyers
• Analyzing bills to help understand the costs, budgets and potential alternative fee arrangements

The New Tools

New disciplines necessitate new tools. In order to surpass Redweldian expectations, a law department needs to have software that not only supports project management best practices, but supports it for the legal environment. It’s not enough to have a shared portal of information (don’t get us wrong – if you’re migrating from a pure-paper Redweldian environment, this is still a huge first step. However, it’s only helpful in uniting information, not true project management.)

Here are some questions to ask when evaluating legal project management software:

• Can it support specialized or standardized billing codes?
• Can it appropriately associate documents with the correct matter?
• Is it showing – and have the capacity to report on – the information that corporate counsel need on a day-to-day basis?
• Does the software offer the security that is mandatory for you, your clients and your corporation, non-profit, organization or university?
• Can you look at one screen and see an accurate overview on the matter’s status, budget and progress?
• Does the software play nice with the technology you already have? For example, does it integrate with Outlook?

Curious about legal project management? Start gathering information by viewing some of these demos. They’ll help you get a feel for the process and tools available today.

Have more questions? Reach out to us at [email protected].

Preparing for a project today led me to an interesting article (thank you, Twitter): The Eight Most Secure Places in the World. Naturally, the article covered places such as the United States Bullion Depository (often referred to as Fort Knox), Colorado’s ADX Florence Supermax Prison and NORAD. Unexpectedly, it included a vault that protects more than 250 million seeds and a parking garage.

What unites these juggernauts is not necessarily the independent security measures each took to secure its premises, but the uniform thoughts that drove the creation of these processes.

For example: Battening down the hatches at Fort Knox includes resources such as gates, cameras, armed US Mint Police, artillery support from the nearby Army base, a 22-ton vault door and a combination split between 10 separate people who must all be present to unlock the vault.

Clearly, prior to building the depository and setting up these tactics, the government needed to create the plan and its desired outcome, agree on a project plan, resources, goals and deliverables, execute and monitor on these principles and then drive the project to completion. This includes everything from site evaluations, budgets, building plans and a tight oversight to ensure a timely and exact execution. After all, they were building this to protect more than 4.6 thousand tons of gold bullion.

So how does this relate to legal project management?

Like the development of these fortresses, there are basic components for successful legal project management.

The Right People – The Project Management Institute blogged about what qualities good project managers have and these are definitely relevant in legal project management. The best candidates have long-term vision balanced with an eye for detail and the drive to ensure projects stay on time and within budget. The project manager needs to have a strong commitment to see projects through to the end and the patience to methodically plot them out and assign deliverables.

And then there is communication. Yes, we hear this skill paired with almost every profession but in this case it rings especially true. An individual who is handling a project that spans an entire corporate legal department – and often includes participants from multiple departments and outside counsel – requires the ability to alternate communication styles like a switch hitter.

Experience is important. Does your project manager know the processes that comprise the planning and execution of this particular project? Does the project manager know your unique needs as a corporate legal department that must be taken into account? Is your legal project manager credentialed (PMP, CAPM, etc)? Has your legal project manager handled projects such as this successfully? If there is no one that suits these requirements within your organization, consider hiring a consultant or outsourcing your project management needs. Another option is to identify your department’s budding project managers and arrange for professional development opportunities for them.

The Right Tools – Did they bore out the Cheyenne Mountain for NORAD HQ with spoons? Did they use paper mache to build fences for Area 51? Of course not! In order to ensure quality results, you must have the right tool to help you plan, collaborate, execute and measure your projects. In this case, I’m talking project management software. First and foremost, ensure that the software you choose is specific to legal project management.

There are many tools out there that address the needs of project management in general but if they are not tailored specifically to legal project management then you’re starting out your project with an unnecessary deficit. What good is your software if you can’t use it to plan or track important elements of your project such as e-invoicing, alternative fee arrangements or matters, tasks and timekeeper management? It should also serve as a centralized repository of information for authorized participants – a home for your documents and conversations around the project that can easily establish processes, players, deliverables, next steps and reports.

Finally, consider cloud-based applications. Cloud-based software gives you the agility and collaboration capabilities of in-house applications without them being leashed to your computer or including expensive, department-wide implementations.

The Right Resources – Project management is an evolving discipline for the legal industry, one that requires corporate legal departments to learn the ropes while also adapting the process to meet their unique needs. If legal project management is a new concept for your department, then turn to the right resources to help you develop it successfully. Here are a few ways to help you acclimate:

• Attend legal project management seminars such as these that can address the practice from a beginning to an advanced level.
• Look outside the legal industry to find inspiration of other project management success stories. Although the exact execution of a software development project may not speak to your legal projects, the vision and outcomes may provide helpful references.
• Go to professional organizations to catch up on the latest news and events within the industry. Great examples of project management organizations include the Project Management Institute and the International Project Management Association.
• Ask your peers how they are implementing project management in their corporate legal departments and what successes they are hearing of.
• Turn to industry experts to learn more about project management and its trends and applications in the legal industry.

So build your own Fort Knox of legal project management by ensuring you have the right people, tools and resources. Your gold bullion will thank you.

Do you need to reduce legal costs?

Do you need better transparency into your legal matters?

Are Microsoft Outlook and Excel your primary tools for matter tracking and reporting?

Would automating your legal processes make you more productive?

Today is your lucky day!

We want to model one of your process for FREE!! We want to show you how Onit Premium can give you the tools your corporate legal department needs to simplify project management, automate legal processes and demonstrate your legal department’s value to the rest of the organization.

How do you get started? Simply choose one of the processes below or think of a legal or business process you are struggling with internally.

• Incident or accident report

• Ethics violation

• Employee termination

• Litigation

• Loan modification

• Trademark

• NDA

• Contact negotiation

Next, email me and I’ll schedule a time to discuss the process you’d like us to model in Onit Premium. Don’t worry, you don’t have to buy anything! Within a few days, you’ll get to see what your process looks like in the application.

It’s that simple. Oh, and more thing – feel free to tell all your corporate colleagues about this special promotion. It’s only available for a limited time.

It is with great pleasure that I am announcing we have successfully completed our open beta. During the twelve-month program, we secured a few thousand subscribers from a cross section of industries including, associations, consulting firms, corporation legal departments, government agencies, law firms, non-profit organizations, vendors, and universities. Nearly 41% of the participants were employed with corporate legal departments or law firms. Interesting enough, 8 of the top 20 highest grossing law firms, (AmLaw200), were participants.

When we officially launched the beta last February at LegalTech NY 2010, we couldn’t anticipate how many users would actually register. More than a year later and a couple thousand users, we would like to personally thank all of the legal and business professionals that participated. This enthusiasm tells us two things — 1. users are willing to embrace new technology and 2. legal project management is here to stay.

We believe that the legal industry is at a critical tipping point, especially related to the procurement of legal services. When legal project management tools like Onit are implemented effectively, legal and business professionals can not only yield better outcomes but they see significant cost savings. LPM tools can also significantly increase project transparency, simplify business collaboration and enhance overall team communication.

Even though the beta is officially over, all of the existing collaboration and project management functionality will remain FREE. If you still haven’t signed up for an account, register today. All you need to get started is an email address. Watch this short video tour to see a quick overview of the application.

If you are managing a legal matter, then you will realize that irrespective of whether it is a transaction or a dispute, it can be equally important as doing the actual legal work. Attention to both the planning of the project as well as its execution will ensure that the expectations and needs of the clients are met in a timely and cost effective manner. Recent surveys, however, have concluded that the majority of in-house counsel is usually dissatisfied with their outside law firms.

Some of the main reasons behind this point of disagreement are poor communication, lack of responsiveness and high cost. As a result, clients are addressing their dissatisfaction through various measures including task-based budgets, scheduled reviews and the creation of clearly-defined scopes of work.

If you are managing a legal project, then you need to first understand that it is not very different from managing a construction project and development program. Focus of these activities is mainly directed on monitoring, controlling, planning and closing a scope of work within a certain time period and within a specific budget. These professionals often refer to the schedule, scope and budget as the three main constraints of any project.

Legal project management is mainly concerned with monitoring the project and it does not focus much on the execution of the work. Efficient and effective management involves business tools and skills that are slightly different from the legal tools and skills that are used by legal attorneys or professionals.

Legal project management tools are important for many reasons but primarily because they allow lawyers to spend less time doing administrative activities and more time doing their core competency — practicing law.

Scope of work in legal project management is basically the project plan. It acts as a road map to show how a legal matter or project is going to be executed. It defines the overall objectives and goals and asks questions like, How will the work be conducted? Who will do the work? How will changes in the scope of work be addressed? How will status updates be reported? How often will we communicate about the project?

Efficient legal project management requires a mix of tools, techniques, knowledge and skills. But that’s not all. A project manager can truly only be successful with open and frequent communication. Without this basic concept firmly in place, no online tool, widget or application will make a difference.