Legal Project Management

Transcription

1 Legal Project Management

2 SHB: Strategic Litigation Management (SLM) Partnering with clients to achieve better legal results at an exceptional value Where every client can expect: The client comes first Strategic early case assessments (ECA) Proactive management Value above & beyond 2

3 Internally to SHB, SLM is: A learning series that provides tools and resources to help partner with clients to achieve better legal results at an exceptional value A philosophy that guides the way we work with clients, deliver legal services and work within our teams Identify the strategy, plan and balanced approach that will create value for the client and profitability for SHB Provide robust budgeting, tracking and reporting for client updates and active management of matters and internal teams Leverage technology to share knowledge and streamline the flow of work, information and documents Provide clients with value above and beyond the cases 3

4 Core Training Principles Strategic ECA Process Value Added Services Value Project Management Leverage Technology Budget Management 4

5 PROCESS IMPROVEMENT EXAMPLES 5

6 6 Discovery Process Imrovement

7 Microsoft Project Process/Workflow - Patent Applications Goal Reduce Cycle Time & Cost Result 10-15% Reduction Additional Benefits Additional training provided by Microsoft 7

8 8 SLM EXAMPLE

9 9 Strategic ECA Process

10 10 Leveraging Technology Case Connect

11 Client Value Metrics 59% Reduction 57% Reduction 32% Increase 28% Reduction 11

12 Aligning lawyers and their clients around value Managing the delivery of legal services Focus on costs, uncertainty & materiality James R. Buckley ACC SoCal Chapter event June12, 2014 Introduction Questions for the Audience Goals for the evening Structure of the program 1 1

13 What it takes to manage the delivery of legal services Planning Execution Monitoring Business goals/ objectives Assess significance & uncertainty/risk Stakeholder interests Assumptions & constraints Legal work plan, with checkpoints and offramps Service delivery LPM, KM, PI Vendor management Law firms Non-lawyers Infrastructure Communications Technology GRC Financial Management Budgeting Forecasting Monitoring Managing Test assumptions Reconfirm business objectives and goals Maintain team and client alignment Respond to changed circumstances Our focus today is on managing execution, with a particular emphasis on Legal Project Management, Knowledge Management, and Process Improvement 2 First Principles for managing the delivery of legal services 1. LPM, KM, and PI are business tools: The practice of law is about helping the client to achieve a business goal it is not an end in itself 2. The client s business goals are paramount*: They must anchor every legal strategy and ground all implementation decisions 3. Legal is part of a broader team: However critical their role, lawyers need to see their work as integrating into a bigger picture emphasis on communication 4. Not just what, but how: How the work is done is often nearly as important to the client as results particularly where Stakeholder impacts are concerned 5. Cost matters: The resources consumed by Legal must be in proportion to the benefits pursued and the risks being managed a business case/roi approach 3 2

14 The delivery of Legal Services is driven by two principal factors High (Material) Significance (to client) Low (Immaterial) Low (Known) Uncertainty (in the legal solution) High (Unknown) Their influence impacts... The level of the legal spend The appropriate legal management approach(es) for the matter The nature of fee arrangement 4 LPM, KM, and PI address different regions of uncertainty Process Improvement Knowledge Management Project Management Low (Known) Uncertainty High (Unknown) Increasing management effort 5 3

15 The significance the client attaches to the matter further shapes the management approach Insignificant matters: - Low value does not support extensive management effort - The most cost-effective approach is to assume that the matter is driven by what is known and to manage accordingly Material matters: - Impact of even trivial levels of uncertainty make use of KM and PM techniques costeffective In between: - Infinite combinations of approaches may be cost effective High (Material) Significance Low (Immaterial) Emphasize Process Improvement Low (Known) Emphasize Knowledge Management Uncertainty Emphasize Project Management High (Unknown) Significance/Uncertainty Heat Map 6 Summary to this point... Back to our goals: Three simple ideas to be smarter about evaluating outside counsel (and managing our own work): 1. How well does the firm address the items in the execution checklist? 2. How well does the firm s messaging and positioning align with the First Principles? 3. How well does the firm seem to understand the relationships illustrated by the heat map? With these simple concepts in mind, let s consider a law firm s description of its management approach 7 4

16 Over to Janet Hickson, Partner at Shook, Hardy & Bacon 8 Finally: The fee structure should parallel the management approach Pricing by level of uncertainty and significance to share risk on cost growth and create incentives for efficiency High (Material) Fixed fee w/readjust. Traditional Hourly Rate Significance Capped fee Fixed Fee Fixed fee w/incentive Reduced rate w/incentive Blended rate Low (Immaterial) Contingent fee Low (Known) Uncertainty High (Unknown) Keep this framework in mind when thinking about pricing 9 5

17 Typical matter profiles in this space A. Commodity work High volume Distinct types of matters Fee: Fixed price Focus on eliminating inefficiencies with PI B. High-end commodity work High volume Different management approaches depending on focus Fee: Not-to-exceed basis Focus: Consistency, profitability C. Portfolio work Modest volume Template-driven, scaled by significance to client Fee: Negotiated budget approach within bands Focus on factors that drive variability using KM, especially in budget D. One-off work Significance Low volume Segment work to manage by uncertainty level Fee: Cross-section of approaches by phases or parts, including hourly rate Focus on uncertainty, agility, communication, and integration with LPM Emphasize Process Improvement A Low B Emphasize Knowledge Management Uncertainty Emphasize Project Management Use a mix of techniques and pricing to span the uncertainty space C D High 10 Conclusion Focus on costs, uncertainty, and materiality as the driving factors for managing the delivery of legal services. Use three simple tools to become smarter in managing your own work and evaluating outside counsel: Execution checklist First Principles The Significance/Uncertainty Heat Map Align management approaches (LPM, KM, and PI) and fee structure to the profile of the work in the Significance/Uncertainty Heat Map 11 6

18 Background materials 12 The parade of legal management ideas Source: The New Reality: Turning Risk into Opportunity through the DuPont Legal Model (5 th ed.) Convergence Legal Project Management Early Case Assessment Six Sigma (PI) Knowledge Management Strategic Risk Management Alternative Fee Agreements Recoveries Initiative [T]he ACC Value Challenge is based on the concept that law departments can use management practices that enhance the value of legal service spending; and that law firms can reduce their costs to corporate clients and still maintain strong profitability. Key Value Levers Aligning Relationships Staffing and Training Practices Project Management Use of Technology Knowledge Management Value-based Fee Structures Budgeting Process Improvement Data Management Change Management 13 7

19 In a nutshell: process improvement Several related approaches systematically examine processes to eliminate waste from processes in business Lean: A streamlining technique developed by Toyota in the 1990s Focuses on process flow to eliminate waste Six Sigma: A set of process improvement techniques, developed by Motorola in 1986 and popularized by GE Improve quality by identifying and removing the causes of defects (errors) and minimizing variability Business Process Improvement: Initiative launched by IBM in 1984 Improve service and support by requiring their processes to be at least as good as their manufacturing counterparts Process improvement typically includes the following steps: (1) Identify the need for change (5) Gather feedback (2) Analyze the current process (6) Analyze results (3) Obtain management commitment/ support (7) Make improvements (4) Create an improvement strategy (8) Continuously monitor against benchmarks Waste = Defects, overproduction, waiting, non-utilized talent, transportation, inventory, motion, extra processing 14 In a nutshell: knowledge management KM: Identifying, capturing and reusing information pertinent to the more efficient delivery of legal services obtained by prior experience and other pathways In firms, focus formerly on form files and workproduct libraries In matters, addresses uncertainty by identifying recurring patterns or templates Understand the common elements Identify sources of variability affecting outcomes Practice groups and standing teams are natural repositories for KM Important targets for KM include Cost and budget data that can be mined for future use in other matters Lessons-learned following the conclusion of matters How do you capture and reuse the know-how you develop in your practice? 15 8

20 In a nutshell: project management A formal methodology, applied with varying degrees of formality Starts with client business objectives, requirements, assumptions, and constraints, and establishes the definition of success Develops a plan for achieving objectives with the efficient use of resources, within constraints set by client During execution, the team balances the interactive relationship among scope, schedule, and cost Progress is monitored to assure objectives are being addressed and business case for the legal solution remains valid Cost Scope Quality Schedule Adapted from Project Management Institute A circle is drawn around all parties with an interest in the work or its outcome; team engages in effective, continuing communications with these stakeholders Addresses uncertainty by breaking the matter down into buckets of different kinds of uncertainty, and managing each accordingly 16 James R. Buckley is a principal of QLex Consulting Inc. He is an experienced consultant with an extensive track record in counseling Fortune 500 and AmLaw 200 firms in the application of business techniques to the practice of law, including training and managing culture change within legal teams. For nearly 20 years, he was Vice President & Associate General Counsel of Lockheed Martin Corporation, where he had extensive experience managing complex litigation. Originally trained at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, he is the author of the seminal articles on legal project management published in the ACC Docket in The practice of law is not an end in itself; it is a means for helping clients achieve their business purposes by managing risks, pursuing opportunities, and securing business operations. Contact info: james@qlexconsulting.com Cell: