Building a strong legal case is central to the success of a law firm. And yet, many lawyers struggle with managing their daily workflow and tasks. Business issues can interrupt legal matters with a drive for profitability and better client experience.
As the IT executive, you implement a technical strategy that efficiently supports both sides of these operations. Sound legal project management principles offer the blueprint for managing complex litigation without compromising client expectations.
Along with increased spending on technology, project management is expected to become a practical solution for legal teams. Key drivers of LPM include approaches that are:
• Client-centric: To manage expectations around efficiency and costs
• Market-driven: To withstand the competition
• Focused on internal initiatives: To achieve acceptable profitability levels
A greater focus on pricing predictability and staying within budgets has prompted more firms to adopt legal project management tools. The tools, technologies, processes, and techniques should synergize to ensure the legal department remains focused on meeting client expectations.
Fundamentally, LPM is about applying project management principles to what paralegals and other legal professionals already do in cases. Doing so ensures deliverables align with client outcomes.
This provides the opportunity to maintain client value and business objectives while protecting the profitability of your law firm. Some primary elements to consider for your LPM processes include:
• Clearly defining the scope of work based on client objectives and expectations
• Improving communication skills with all stakeholders
• Capturing feedback to identify improvement areas for future litigation cases
Using a project management approach is best for law firms that emphasize collaboration among team members. With capable project management software, team leads can have real-time case status updates.
Collaboration benefits your firm’s operational and economic performance. In addition to an improved bottom line, a collaborative approach can enhance innovation and encourage staffing retention.
Using a project management methodology for legal work is most effective when all team members commit to having a structured workflow. You should consider adopting this for legal matters if you want to:
• Optimize case workflow
• Improve teamwork and collaboration
• Understand time spent on different cases
• Identify costs associated with all cases
• Efficiently and effectively manage cases
• Have a competitive advantage
Generally, project management skills for legal services center on four core principles. First, it is necessary to define objectives and the scope of work. Gathering information about the client’s needs and expectations informs this step in the process.
During a meeting with the client, the legal team agrees upon deliverables and desired outcomes for the case. Also included are discussions about the time, costs, and billing arrangement for the case.
Second, a project plan assesses the work involved with each stage of managing a litigation case. Details collected in the initial meeting are used to break the project into tasks and phases for the legal team. The plan also sets milestones for measuring progress.
Third, stakeholder updates keep everyone on the same track. Project management software helps the team stay organized. It is helpful for keeping in-house stakeholders productive and external stakeholders informed.
Fourth, progress and performance metrics ensure tasks stay aligned with the legal project plan. Monitoring how tasks and phases progress helps the team avoid bottlenecks, scope creep, and redundancies. This step is beneficial to preventing inefficiencies that may delay or derail the work.
Executing the plan requires assigning legal professionals to each task. The project management software you choose should allow task assignments based on skill set. Ongoing team feedback and client updates are also essential to staying on track.
Once the case reaches a resolution, it is important to conduct a post-project review. Evaluating lessons learned and best practices can provide a template for the next case of the same or similar legal issues.
Technology brings tremendous benefits to managing the legal process effectively. There are several features to consider when deciding which law practice management software is the right fit for your firm’s legal operations.
Any software solution should improve the legal operations of your firm. Here are a few to consider during your decision-making process.
• Communication tool that gives team members the ability to collaborate in the office and from a distance. This also keeps communications related to the case in one place.
• Secure document management to reduce issues with different versions. This ensures everyone on the team works from a singular, up-to-date document draft. Keep real-time track of updates and questions. Document management is helpful for court forms and template building. Keeping sensitive case information secure is an added benefit to this feature. Your firm honors the attorney/client relationship and ensures compliance with regulatory standards.
• Planning and task tracking help legal project managers supervise multiple cases and associated tasks. They can track the progress of cases and know which team member is responsible for different actions.
• Workflow automation tools allow the creation of assigning tasks, roles, and responsibilities. This feature does not require a coding background. Instead, automation makes repetitive tasks easier to manage.
• Completion of tasks should be part of the LPM software. This feature details all completed tasks, captures client feedback, and measures the project development versus the original plan outline. Information gathered can be used to promote marketing efforts.
Ultimately, the type of practice management software that you choose should pair with your firm’s unique present and future needs.
Aquipt is your premier legal technology partner for expert litigation support and process improvement. With over 30 years of experience helping law firms and legal service providers, we are uniquely qualified to meet your demanding technology needs.
Software selection is key to successful project management in your law firm. We offer e-Discovery application hosting, managed IT support services, and other services that ease the complexity of legal projects.
Our goal is to ensure you achieve cost-effective results inside the courtroom and in the firm. Visit our website to learn more about integrating technical support tools with effective project management.