What is Legal Project Management? “Legal Project Management adopts business

The Nuts and Bolts of Legal Project Management
for In-House Counsel
FM Panelists:
Guest Panelist:
Sean Morley
Steven Rosenhek
Peter Gutelius (RBC)
Toronto Fasken Martineau Symposium
May 24, 2012
What is Legal Project Management?
FM Panelist:
Sean Morley
Toronto Fasken Martineau Symposium
May 24, 2012
What is Legal Project Management?
“Legal Project Management adopts business
management techniques to the legal
profession to increase client value”
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What is Legal Project Management?
• Practice management tool for in-house counsel to
manage projects and drive internal efficiencies
• Practice management tool for in-house counsel to
monitor and assess external counsel, enhancing
value and maintaining a budget
• Practice management tool for external counsel to
provide better value services to clients
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What is Legal Project Management?
• Most lawyers, whether in-house counsel or
practicing with a firm, already engage in some form
of Legal Project Management:
• Establishing a budget
• Managing a team to achieve specific tasks
• Managing a schedule
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What are the Key Objectives of Legal
Project Management?
• Properly implemented and executed Legal Project
Management can deliver:
1. More predictable costs
2. Improved quality
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What are the Key Objectives of Legal
Project Management?
• Properly implemented and executed Legal Project
Management can deliver:
3. Better targeted services
4. Improved communication
5. Reduced risk
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What are the Key Objectives of Legal
Project Management?
• All ultimately with the objective of delivering
better VALUE as determined by the client
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Key Components of Legal Project
Management
FM Panelist:
Steven Rosenhek
Toronto Fasken Martineau Symposium
May 24, 2012
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1. Define Objectives and Scope
Objectives:
• Defining the desired project outcome, based on
client’s true goals/ “success”
• Identify legal and business problems
• Identify realistic/possible/acceptable outcomes
• Lawyer’s role
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1. Define Objectives and Scope (cont’d)
Scope:
• What is included/not included
• “Iron Triangle”:
• Wants v. needs
• Priorities may change
SCOPE
COST
TIME
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1. Define Objectives and Scope –
Best Practices
• Listen!
• Scope document:
• Objectives
• Scope of work
• Decision makers
• Timelines/deadlines
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1. Define Objectives and Scope –
Best Practices (cont’d)
• Phases
• Key assumptions
• Contingencies
• Exclusions
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1. Define Objectives and Scope –
Best Practices (cont’d)
• Buy-in:
• Circulate scope document to client for acceptance
• Circulate and discuss with team
• Incorporate into subsequent communications
• Flexibility to adjust scope/time/budget
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2. Plan and Schedule the Activities
Project planning:
• Break down project into smaller, manageable
parts-usually organized into phases
• Schedule/timetable
• Budget
• Staffing
• Risks/assumptions
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2. Plan and Schedule the Activities
(cont’d)
• The document:
• Gantt chart/template/ “Waypoint”
• All major tasks/activities in chronological order with
responsibilities assigned, and scheduled in terms of
days/weeks/months
• Can incorporate UTBMS or other client management
systems
• Living document
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2. Plan and Schedule the Activities
(cont’d)
• Effective work breakdown document achieves:
• thinking through all aspects of project
• preventing work from slipping through cracks
• facilitating communications
• helping prevent unnecessary changes
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2. Plan and Schedule the Activities
(cont’d)
• focusing the team’s experience on tasks
• providing solid basis for estimating costs
• ability to adapt to future projects
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2. Plan and Schedule the Activities –
Best Practices
• Small, discrete tasks should be manageable, not
overlap
• Work breakdown should not be too detailed or
complex
• “8/80” Rule
• Create complete schedule with deadlines
• Team members commit to deadlines
• Tasks prioritized
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2. Plan and Schedule the Activities –
Best Practices (cont’d)
• Set internal progress measures and meeting/report
intervals
• Discuss with team and client sequence, schedule
and budget
• Team members commit to deadlines
• Incorporate contingency factors
• Incorporate assumptions (general/specific)
• Assess costs and schedule against baseline
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3. Assign Tasks and Manage Team
• Goal is to manage teams more efficiently
• Assign tasks to appropriate level of professional
• Choose best professional for the work
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3. Assign Tasks and Manage Team –
Best Practices
• Pick level of professional, then the individual
• Assign primary responsibility to specific individuals
• Review tasks with team members
• Re-assign when necessary
• Keep the team involved from the start
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4. Plan and Manage Budget
• Goal is to predict and control legal costs
• Estimate time required to complete tasks
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4. Plan and Management Budget –
Best Practices
• Don’t under-estimate
• Use previous projects as benchmarks
• Reduce costs by improving delegation
• Apply “certainty factors”
• Review budget and expectations with team
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4. Plan and Management Budget –
Best Practices (cont’d)
• Track and communicate performance
• Check work against budget
• Be proactive if exceeding budget
• Be prepared to discuss increase of budget where
necessary
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5. Manage Risks
• Goal is to increase chances that work will be done
on time and within budget
• Identify and analyze legal/non-legal risks
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5. Manage Risks – Best Practices
• Do early risk analysis
• Account for variability of unanticipated tasks
• Identify the risks, their likelihood/consequences
• Develop strategies to
avoid/mitigate/accept/transfer risk
• Resolve problems without delay
• Manage client expectations – no surprises!
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6. Manage Quality
• Ensure team works together to achieve successful
completion
• Be prepared to make adjustments based on
relationship between cost, schedule and quality
• Needs more attention where schedule
changed/budget cut
• Pay attention to “critical path”
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6. Manage Quality – Best Practices
• Look for warning signs
• Work together and keep team informed
• Be vigilant when over budget
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7. Communication
• Understand client needs, priorities (general and
specific)
• Keep client informed
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7. Communication – Best Practices
• Give client what it wants: face to face meetings/
periodic and/or regular reports/extranet
• Monitor work performed by team members
• Ask client for feedback
• “Lessons learned” session
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8. Manage Change
• Changes are inevitable
• Develop process to respond to change
• May need to go back to client to negotiate change
of scope
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8. Manage Change – Best Practices
• Understand full impact of change on project
resources/ time/costs before agreeing to it
• Changes that require more funding v. those that
can be accepted without funding increase
• Both team and client should understand impact on
project
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Concluding Thoughts
• Toolbox – use what is required
• Keep it simple
• Good communication is key
• It’s worth the effort!
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Legal Project Management
An In-House Perspective
Fasken Martineau Symposium
May 24, 2012
Peter Gutelius
Assistant General Counsel
Royal Bank of Canada
Legal Project Management
Why?
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Why?
1. Planning
2. Metrics
3. Expectations
4. Communication
5. Value
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1. Planning
- using a project management tool requires a
consideration of the process
- identification of the resources
- time frame for the activity
- an opportunity to talk internally and externally
about the objectives
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2. Metrics
- metrics allow in-house counsel to evaluate,
compare and manage files
- creation of a library of information setting a
foundation for making recommendations internally
or providing instructions externally
- helps answer the “hard” questions:
-
How much will it cost?
How long with it take?
Which of my executives will have to be involved?
What does success look like?
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3. Expectations
- you have a plan
- you have identified milestones
- you are able to give your business partners a clear
picture of what to expect
- you and your external counsel are in sync
- you have an opportunity to manage expectations
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4. Communication
- consistently referenced as one of the most
important factors in managing … almost anything
- the development of a project plan sets a point in
time to engage in a discussion about the retainer
and gives you the framework for the discussion
- it’s an opportunity to effectively manage
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5. Value
Often cited, rarely defined
-
cost?
results?
internal impact?
future benefit?
development of “trusted advisor”?
makes me look good?
It depends ….
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5. Value (continued)
- It can help in-house counsel and external counsel
identify and create value file by file or across a
relationship
- It can help in-house counsel manage staff, allocate
resources, reduce surprises
- It can also mislead
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5. Value (continued)
- Legal Project Management is not the destination,
it’s a tool
- consider the most common approach:
-
identify the steps usually followed
identify the person who usually performs the activity
identify the amount of time usually expended
calendar the events
cost the time
allocate the resources
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5. Value (continued)
What’s missing?
- critical review of the what, by whom, for how long?
- populating a project plan with historical data
assumes that the management of a file was
historically efficient
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5. Value (continued)
- ask why an activity (or more likely its component
parts) is necessary
- question whether the person performing the
activity is the right person (and this does not mean
push work to the lowest cost individual)
- decide whether the work is consistent with the
objective or is necessary to achieve the objective
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5. Value (continued)
- stop thinking “budget” and start thinking “plan”
- value from in-house counsel is as important as
value from external counsel
- value will be the result of achieving the desired
outcome and being able to demonstrate that you
managed the process while balancing cost, risk and
results
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Sean Morley
+1 416 865 4362
smorley@fasken.com
Steven Rosenhek
+1 416 865 4541
srosenhek@fasken.com
Peter Gutelius
+1 416 974 3435
peter.gutelius@rbc.com
For this accredited session,
please ensure you sign the attendance
sheet located outside the room!
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