The buzzword in a lot of firms these days is “efficiency”. Firms are under pressures from client to demonstrate greater value in the services they provide. That often means achieving greater efficiency in how the firm manages cases.
The result is often higher productivity for the firm, and lower costs for the client, creating a win-win situation that strengthens the firm-client relationship and can result in more business for the firm.
In a recent post on the ABA’s Legal Rebels blog, Allison Guidette, senior vp and general manager, Large Law Firm Segment, discusses how technology can help firms achieve greater efficiency.
Posted by Jessica Leibrock in:
Industry trends | Law firm business | Technology and innovation |
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The Hildebrandt Institute’s Peer Monitor Index (PMI) rebounded 6 points to 55 in the first quarter – reversing two consecutive quarterly declines. Demand growth was back on a positive track. However, the good news was dampened by expense growth, which continues to accelerate, reducing firm profitability.
After a weak finish to 2011, demand for legal services was up 1.5% in the first quarter. Litigation, IP-related practices, and labor and employment continue to be positive, while transactional practices were largely flat-to-slightly down.
The current outlook remains cautious. Demand and rate growth, while positive, are still weak. And although the balance between demand and capacity is showing signs of improving, at the moment it remains a drag on law firm market performance.
A copy of the report can be downloaded here.
Posted by Jessica Leibrock in:
Law firm business |
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While the words “project management” may make many of us cringe, legal project management is becoming an increasing buzzword in legal circles. With many firms still struggling to gain momentum amidst sluggish demand and client pricing pressures, firms are exploring many new avenues to re-examine, and if need be, re-invent some of their processes.
Firms are looking for any means they can to improve efficiency, boost productivity, and deliver greater value to their clients.
A recent post on the ABA’s “Legal Rebels” blog from Lydia Flocchini, director of WestlawNext Marketing, discusses how legal research can improve legal project management. In addition, Tom Scrivo, Managing Partner of McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter, LLP’s Newark office offers some examples of how this applies at this firm.
Posted by Jessica Leibrock in:
Law firm business |
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Baker & McKenzie announced in recently that highly regarded ERISA litigator, James Baker joined its North American Compensation & Employment Law Practice as a partner in the San Francisco/Palo Alto office. Baker’s practice focuses on ERISA litigation and the counseling of employers on ERISA, employee benefit and executive compensation issues. Among Baker’s most notable cases, he was the lead attorney in five ERISA stock drop class action cases resulting in consecutive client victories using five different legal theories. He also regularly represents clients in federal district and appellate courts across the country.
“We are very pleased that Jim has joined Baker & McKenzie,” said Rick Hammett, Chair of the Firm’s North American Compensation and Employment Law Practice Group. “Jim is widely regarded as one of the top ERISA litigators in the US, and he joins a strong ERISA litigation practice at our firm. I know our clients will value his significant experience and insight, particularly in ‘stock drop’ cases, which continue to be an issue for many companies.”
Baker has frequently been cited as one of the top employment law and ERISA litigation lawyers in the US. Of these honors, he was named as one of the nation’s top 40 best ERISA attorney’s by the National Law Journal, and listed as a leading attorney nationally for ERISA litigation in Northern California Super Lawyers (2005-2011). For more information about James Baker joining Baker & McKenzie and further details about Baker & McKenzie’s employment law practice, click here.
Posted by Laura Folland in:
Client development | Company Current | In Business | In the News | Law firm business |
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Program Director of Hildebrandt Institute’s Peer Monitor, Mark Medice, recently contributed a post to the ABA Journal blog, Legal Rebels, highlighting new approaches and trends seen in law firm management. Today, law firms are pressed to find ways to deliver legal services to their clients more efficiently in an effort to better position themselves in a challenging and volatile market both now and in the future.
In Medice’s post, he discusses areas where firms are focusing their efforts to tackle market challenges including, new approaches to expense management, experimenting with new business models and expanding merger and lateral activity.
Posted by admin in:
Company Current | In Business | In the News | Industry trends | Law firm business |
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Have you heard about the launch of the new and improved Elite Partner Program website? Elite has redesigned this section of the site to offer new resources and detailed information geared towards partners looking for program information, and clients looking for the right Elite partner.
Partners have access to our:
Partner Training & Materials – Get direct access to partner newsletters, collateral and more
Sponsorship Opportunities – Participate in our annual and regional user group conferences
Sandbox Program – Gain hands-on experience in a collaborative learning and test environment that will now be driven by partner input
Certification Program – Build client confidence through our various certification levels
Clients can now easily browse our Partner Directory to find the type of solution or service you need for best-in-class practice management. Understand how partners are adding value within each category:
Alliance Partner – A strategic relationship with organizations who share mutual client interests with Elite
Integration Partner – For partners interested in creating product(s) compatible with Elite systems
Services Partner – For partners providing substantial industry knowledge and technical expertise to Elite clients
Product Partner – For partners who engage in a software reseller or referral agreement with Elite; our deepest level of partnership
Also, check out the new Partner Feature that highlights a key current event or company. Watch the OpenText (formerly Metastorm) video, which is first in the series, by clicking on the Partner Feature banner in the right hand column of the site.
We are excited to highlight how our partners help clients solve their more pressing business challenges. Check back often at elite.com/partners for updates and new Partner Feature videos.
Posted by Melanie Holder in:
In Business | Law firm business | Uncategorized |
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I’ve just had the opportunity to moderate two panel discussions on Legal Project Management here at LegalTech. In both cases, I was very fortunate to have such personable and knowledgeable panelists, and I’d like to take a moment to thank them publicly.
On Monday, January 30, Colleen Nihill, Firm Wide Director of Project Management at Dechert, and Curt Selman, Director of Finance at Martin Clearwater & Bell joined me in the Leveraging Legal Technology track on the subject of Profitability through Legal Project Management. The following day, Jay Nogle, Chief Information Officer of Greenberg Traurig and Thomas Wisinski, Chief Knowledge Officer of Haynes and Boone helped the attendees at the CIO / CTO Forum navigate the ins and outs of Legal Project Management.
Their perspectives and their firm’s varied approaches to LPM made for two lively and informative discussions that I hope were as valuable to the audiences as they were to me. Thank you all very, very much.
Although the subject of each session was different, there were some common themes. Two that resonated with me (and I hope with the attendees) were: 1) who within the law firm owns the LPM process, and 2) will attorneys become project managers?
To answer the first, we need look no further than the titles of the four panelists: Director of Project Management; Director of Finance; Chief Information Officer; and Chief Knowledge Officer. It is clear that each firm has to decide where LPM will live, and who will drive it. In some firms, entire departments are being created that focus entirely on managing legal matters to achieve project management and financial goals. In other firms, the Finance department takes the lead working with attorneys to bring in their matters on time and on budget. At still other firms, IT is seen as the natural repository for hosting the tools and processes that make up LPM. After all, IT has been using project management in one form or another for years for their own initiatives. Lastly, one of the key benefits of LPM is that it helps the firm develop skills to gather valuable data and improves processes over time. This can be seen as the natural province of the Knowledge Manager.
To add to the subject, some firms are hiring dedicated practice managers who are charged with assisting attorneys in setting matter budgets and managing their matters and resources to achieve success. Finally, there are many firms where individual attorneys and practice group leaders are driving the move to Legal Project Management. After all, they are the ones on the front lines dealing with clients, and most directly feel the pressure to accurately price matters and manage to a budget.
The lawyer then becomes the one constant regardless of whether they manage the matter themselves, or whether they are managed as part of a process. If the lawyers do not fully buy in, Legal Project Management cannot succeed.
Which leads us to the second question: will attorneys become project managers? More specifically, one audience member asked if attorneys will actually seek Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Institute.
As an acquaintance of mine was quick to point out, no self-respecting lawyer is going to put letters after his name that resemble the word pimp. John Q, Smith, Esq., PIMP just isn’t going to happen any time soon.
All levity aside, that may change, and it may change sooner than many of us are willing to believe. As Colleen Nihill pointed out, Dechert is already developing internal programs to train attorneys in the basics of project management. A small, but growing number of consultants such as the LawVision Group are providing boot camps and project management training for law firms and other professional service organizations. In fact the Project Management Institute itself has created a working group called the PMI Legal Project Management Community of Practice. Perhaps it won’t be long until the PMI offers a specialty certification in Legal Project Management for attorneys and other practitioners.
Ultimately, as Jay Nogle observed, the market will drive any move toward attorneys seeking formal certification in Legal Project Management. If clients see value, and more importantly, if RFPs begin to require that certain members of matter teams be LPM certified, you can bet that lawyers will line up in droves for the right to put the appropriate series of letters after their names.
Posted by Jessica Leibrock in:
Law firm business |
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You don’t have to talk to too many law firm leaders these days before you get the sense that 2012 is shaping up to be a challenging year. While the recent headlines on the overall economy show some welcome rays of optimism, you get the sense that things in the trenches are not bouncing back in some pockets as quickly as one would like to see. The latest Peer Monitor Index showed law firm demand fell in the fourth quarter, and was up a scant 1.0% for all of 2011.
Competition seems to be heating up, not only as firms fight for more business, but also as clients seek greater demonstrated value for work performed, increasingly pushback on rates, and use more competitive bidding and convergence.
All this makes it imperative that firms find ways to improve efficiency and productivity. A recent Serengeti survey found that while the most cited reason that firms are not retained was (not surprisingly) fees, 51% of clients said that inefficiency was also a factor.
Friction points that lead to inefficiencies can pop up at multiple points in matter management, client management and firm management. And technology can provide key solutions to ease some of those friction points.
Many of those solutions are being unveiled, demonstrated and discussed this week at LegalTech New York, including new mobile solutions such as the WestlawNext iPad app and ProView eReader app, MatterSphere for integrated matter management, and Westlaw Drafting Assistant – Transactional integrated drafting tools and content for transactional attorneys, to name just a few.
The new year always starts off with hope for a better year, and excitement around new technologies. And we look forward to talking with you, not only at LegalTech, but throughout the year to find out more about how your needs are changing in a rapidly evolving marketplace, and how we can hopefully help meet those needs.
Allison Guidette is senior vice president, large law firms, Thomson Reuters
Posted by Allison Guidette in:
Law firm business |
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The first version of Microsoft ProjectTM for WindowsTM was released in 1990. Between then and now, many law firm CIOs have variously cajoled, begged and even threatened attorneys to apply even the meanest vestiges of project management tools and methodologies to their practices. Until very recently, these attempts have met with unmitigated failure, especially when it came to adopting new software and business processes.
The reason for this failure is essentially that lawyers want to practice law – period – full stop – end of discussion. Where the CIO could see the value of applying project management principles and processes, attorneys could only see interference with, and interruption of their practices. Besides, as long as clients were willing to pay the going rate, why bother to mess with the status quo?
Read more… (more…)
Posted by Jessica Leibrock in:
Law firm business |
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Consumers always look for value. Quality at a price-point that reflects the appropriate amount of benefit. The word “sale” in the window is only slightly less effective than preceding it with the words “going out of business.”
The more I listened to LegalTech attendees and fellow vendors, the more I heard them talk about tools that would complement current processes, provide measurable results, and continually improve their ability to deliver to their clients… All hallmarks of project management.
Demonstrations across the exhibit hall met with a common refrain: tell me, no, convince me why this makes sense for me. Don’t talk about the tool, talk to me about what the tools will do for me. Again, the emphasis is less on the tool as a technology, and more on the use of tool. Often this meant less time showing product and more time discussing the nature of the problem(s.) More than once a client would ask about a specific product, but we ended up in a conversation about a different process or tool than expected. More than once we found clients coming to us as referrals from others and we made similar references to others. I’m not saying there was a hand holding moment of solidarity between vendors… Maybe more like a practical recognition of economic benefits from delighted clients.
Having deeper discussions about problems and process resonated. Having an ecosystem of tools that prove value both independently and together resonated. Removing the “sale” sign from the window and inviting clients in for a practical discussion about their processes and thinking about the right tools for the right job… Those are the values that resonated.
Next up… Some of the “right” types of tools for clients looking for a better, continually improving process.
Jeff Friedman is director of marketing, Westlaw CaseLogistix
Posted by Jeff Friedman in:
Law firm business |
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The U.S. Constitution is one of the most powerful and impactful documents in existence. It literally touches every American’s life, and has since its creation in 1787. Recently, I had the opportunity to view the document first-hand as part of a new exhibit, “We the People: The First Official Printing of the U.S. Constitution,” sponsored [...]
Earlier this week, we released our 2011 Annual Report in an interactive format available online at thomsonreuters.com. Along with information on the company’s financial performance as well as business unit overviews, this year’s annual report contains a variety of dynamic content including interviews with our new business leaders as well as stories of how we [...]
We’ve got a great episode for you this month, kicking off with our “Chaos in the Courts” segment that, believe it or not, is yet another story about the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas. Since our March podcast, another person has fallen victim to the establishment’s trademark bypass burger.
Then in our “On the Blawgs” [...]
