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,,Legal Project Management Initiative

Over the past 10 years, law firms have begun to improve their budgeting and matter management skills through Legal Project Management (LPM). With some exceptions, corporate legal departments have lagged in their adoption of project management practices. This gap has been addressed by a CLOC initiative that focuses on LPM as a practical way to further augment the value of a legal department in the following situations:

  • managing business clients’ expectations regarding the work lawyers should and do perform;
  • handling projects relating to legal operations;
  • participating in corporate projects in which the legal department plays a supporting role (such as new product development); and
  • managing external service providers ranging from law firms to e-discovery vendors.

The initiative created a practical Legal Project Management (LPM) Guide, based on a framework that breaks projects into four stages: “Intake”, “Planning”, “Execution” and “Review.” Each stage has activities, results, and success criteria, as well as roles and responsibilities. An LPM program or pilot can be developed from the Initiative’s business case and action plan that outlines the why, what, how, and who of LPM.