Legal Project Management 101
Legal Project Management (LPM) is the application of project management principles to the practice of law. The legal environment is often replete with business or process ambiguities, incomplete information, a need for accountability, pressure for efficient delivery, and high levels of professional and client complexity. Projects often involve multiple tasks that are interdependent in nature with disparate ownership. Legal project management brings order and control to such chaos. It helps manage the scope of legal matters by containing them to what has been promised, improving the accuracy of pricing estimates to prevent unnecessary cost overruns, and seeing to it that the right resources, who do the right job at the right time , can successfully work together to achieve an optimal outcome for clients.
The objective, of course, is to provide excellent client service, while managing matters on time and on budget. LPM principles make law firm clients happier, less stressed, and less likely to seek law firm services elsewhere. Implementing LPM is also critical to the financial success of law firms as clients increasingly expect and demand low, fixed or alternative fees, greater budget certainty, and increased transparency, accountability and value from their outside counsel.
Training and certification in LPM helps lawyers better understand the scope, depth, and breadth of LPM so that they can adapt LPM principles to fit their own personal style and deliver LPM services to their clients in a truly authentic manner.
The Perks of a Certified Legal Project Manager
Certification as a legal project manager by the national Association of Certified Project Managers (ACPM) can offer a variety of advantages for both legal project managers and the law practice for which they work. Because LPM is an approach to doing legal work – both commercial practice and corporate practice – well, and certification demonstrates the certified legal project manager has deep knowledge in this effective approach, it benefits the certified LPM (CLE) as well as the law practice or corporate legal department employing the CLE.
The benefits available to the CLE generally include: The certification process The certification process requires 200 hours of education covering key topics such as using project management software, defining scope, developing budgets, gaining approval of the workplan, managing change, conducting quality checks, and closing out the project. A six-hour exam is administered, passing increases the likelihood of being adept at controlling costs, scheduling resources, monitoring progress, and delivering the work product within the original project scope. All in all, the process of becoming certified requires substantial expertise in controlling and enhancing legal work efficiency. The certification also requires maintaining certification through professional development. The benefits of certification for law practices and corporate legal departments Having in-house certified legal project managers can deliver untold benefits for a law practice, including: All of these advantages can enable more efficient and profitable delivery of legal services, creating a win-win for the legal practice and its clients.
How to Become a Certified Legal Project Manager
The journey to becoming a certified legal project manager involves a few steps. A good foundational place to start is with the decisions made by the LPM professional as described in Chapter 1 of the book. From there, the second step is to seek to develop skills that fit the decisions being made. The process of acquiring skills and expertise in the areas of the LPM professional’s choices is a continual and daily process of learning and growing.
The next step is to enroll in one of the legal project management certification courses offered by the three organizations dedicated to the training, education and certification of legal project managers: the Association of Certified Legal Project Managers, the International Institute of Legal Project Management and the Legal Project Management Institute. This step is preceded by a decision as to which association one will affiliate with, or some other path to certification has been contemplated. Frankly, many view themselves only as certifying their own work and feel no need to affiliate with any association. Others view it as an important credential in their career advancement. In any event, all of these organizations offer programs for training and certification as legal project managers. I have read all of the certification requirements and have taken all of the preparatory courses. They are uniformly excellent and I have yet to find anyone who has not come away from the experience having learned something new. But there are differences.
My experience points to the fact that each of the associations approaches legal project management from a unique perspective. They each offer a unique approach to the training, the exam, the certification and the pricing. Here are some of the key points.
The Association of Certified Legal Project Managers has two separate certifications or ‘levels’ of certifications as a legal project manager: the Core Competency Certification as a Legal Project Manager and the Senior Level Certification as an Advanced Legal Project Manager. The Association’s Course of Study leading to the certification is a prep course with mandatory attendance. The course is one to three "live" training sessions in a classroom setting. The training sessions last 2-3 days or more depending on the level of certification. There is now an online training program. There are plenty of illustrations of real use cases if you want to see how the process works.
As with the Association, the International Institute of Legal Project Management, as well as their partner organization, the Legal Project Management Institute, have two different levels of certification. The Skills Certification (i.e., Certified Project Manager (CPM) for Legal Project Managers) is the entry level and, according to the II-ILPM, "aimed at those individuals who have had some experience with legal project management, or who have at least five years of work (including legal project management) in a relevant area of law, backed by education and training." The Master Certification (i.e., Advance Professional Project Manager) is the higher level. You may take an "on demand" training course with a scheduled online exam or attend a "live" training session followed by an immediately scheduled exam. The "live" training sessions last up to three days. There are also a number of advanced training options available for those with advanced project management skills and those who are contemplating a specialized training program (e.g., focusing on the position of associate or partner).
If you would like more information about these certifications or courses, or the corresponding associations, please check out the following websites:
In June of 2007, I spoke with Richard Susskind and Sophia Ling, who were conducting research on legal project management for their book, "The New Legal Book." One of the areas we discussed revolved around the fact that there was no standard certification available for those providing legal project management consulting services. Today things are very different. This type of certification is available with more than one association providing similar certification programs.
I have spoken at numerous panel discussions and participated in interviews and written a number of articles on the subject of legal project management as far back as 2007. Reflecting on this, I have observed that over the past several years the legal profession on a whole has actively embraced the concept of legal project management in a much larger way than I ever anticipated when I first spoke with Richard Susskind. There are a number of associations dedicated to legal project, pricing, Lean Six Sigma, the legal operations functions and more. These associations play a tangible role in the advancement of each of their respective professions and the overall growth of the industry.
Essential Skills & Competencies
The task of leading a skilled legal project management function requires a myriad of ideal skills and competencies. A certified legal project manager must be able to think on their feet and juggle multiple case type portfolios with ease. This is no easy task if the correct leadership and communication practices are not followed. The following essential skills and capabilities are required by certified legal project managers:
Leadership
The most indispensable skill of all a certified legal project manager must possess is the ability to lead and inspire others. This requires the hiring of staff members that have the same vision for the firm as the certified legal project manager and then providing specific guidance on how to turn that vision into a predictable, repeatable process.
Budgeting
Most firms do not provide a budget for their operations and project management practices . They rely instead on an ad hoc approach that may or may not be effective but often puts the firm high in the risk department. Certified legal project managers must carefully and accurately develop budgets for each matter based on the scope of work defined in the LPM phase.
Legal Knowledge
Having the counsel of an experienced legal professional is very important for the successful execution of a project management program. It is not enough however for a certified legal project manager to be a legal expert. They must have the ability to plan and execution of projects.
Communication
Risk can play a large role in project management as firms will often have many of these matters to manage at once. Project managers have the responsibility to update and report on the status of each project to key stakeholders. This requires a very high level of communication and project management skills.
The Effect on a Legal Team
A big area of impact that a certified legal project manager will have in the law firm is on the team, and the positive influence this can have on the project. There are a multitude of reasons for engaging a project manager, chief among them is that they can have a meaningful impact on a case or matter. Project managers are able to manage the scope of work, triage complex issues, and build consensus with internal stakeholders and outside counsel to get an outcome that all parties are happy with. When they are able to dedicate themselves to just one project or engagement, they can lead a team and improve the efficiency of how they are working together. When you have a small team comprised of people with different specialties and expertise, it is easy to see how one person can make everyone’s next 6 to 9 months much easier. The results speak for themselves. Efficient team workflows, effective use of personnel, and minimal team disruption when change events occur.
The Future of Legal Project Management
The future of Legal Project Management (LPM) looks to be bright. With law firms and legal departments actively seeking to reduce the increasing cost of legal services, some of the most clearly identifiable areas in which to do that is through the reduction of staffing, the use of technology and the standardization of processes. With these three variables being critical parts of Predictive LPM, the practice of LPM has a long term future that will not go away.
For those who are seeking a career in LPM, it is important as part of that career path to distinguish yourself – if for no other reason than that your job does not go away when your law firm decides to stop practicing LPM. A Certification from a recognized authority can be one of those tools you use to distinguish yourself. In this case that authority would be the International Institute of Legal Project Management.
In a time of an ever increasing demand for legal services , LPM offers firms and legal departments opportunities to means to manage the escalating cost of their legal services. As firms and legal departments begin to see the benefits, they will look for ways to improve their performance and service to clients. LPM which is based on both project management and the science of process improvement relies on both. It is the author’s opinion that this reliance on the science of LPM will drive the future of LPM and in fact return the legal profession to its roots prior to specialization when all lawyers were generalists.