In this post we interview Kate Bassett, our Global Head of Legal Project Management, to hear her insights about Legal Project Management as part of the ongoing series of articles looking at Ashurst Advance, our "NewLaw" legal operations delivery platform.
Kate, what is Legal Project Management (LPM)?
"Legal Project Management is the application of project management principles, tools and techniques, such as scoping, scheduling, budgeting, reporting and closing to legal matters.
The existence of Legal Project Management as a profession is a direct result of clients' demand for more transparency in the way that their legal work is being managed and delivered. Clients want to be confident that all the unknowns and uncertainties of their legal matters are being handled as efficiently as possible.
A common misconception is that simply using project management tools and templates will automatically deliver successful projects. Project management is about 'managing' the project, it is not just about the tools, templates, trackers and reports that you produce every week. At its core it is about motivating and managing the team delivering the work and making sure all elements involved come together at the right time to deliver the project. A status report won't solve your project problems and deliver a successful project for you, the project team will and there is real skill in leading and managing that process to achieve the desired outcome."
What are the benefits of LPM?
"The LPM team at Ashurst has three core objectives:
- Improving the delivery of legal services for clients;
- Ensuring efficient legal service delivery processes are in place;
- Providing clients with project transparency.
LPM is a relatively new concept in the legal industry but lawyers have been playing the role of the 'accidental project manager' for many years, without any formal training or project management experience. As clients have increasingly demanded better management of their legal matters the lawyers have started to recognise that specialist legal project managers are needed to perform this role so that they can focus on what they know best: the law.
With clients now demanding increasingly sophisticated legal service delivery models there is a heightened sense of competition and clients can start asking: "tell me how you are delivering that legal service to me, I want to see in detail exactly what your lawyers are working on, what technology you are using and how you are minimising cost". We seek to provide a clear response to this through Ashurst Advance, engaging our Legal Project Management team at an early stage in new projects and ensuring that they have a front-line role with our clients and their own project managers."
What does a typical day of an LPM look like?
"At Ashurst I lead a global team of LPMs, based in London, Glasgow, Sydney and Melbourne. The team represents the 'process' part of Ashurst Advance.
The day of an LPM can be really varied, they might be servicing five different matters at one time, so in the morning they may have a daily call with the project team, they will be managing the matter action log, gathering updates from the lawyers about what they have done the day before, documenting project issues and decisions. Following this there may be a client meeting or call to attend to discuss cost and status. They may have sophisticated management reporting to prepare for a client. There could also be some fee estimate input required for a pitch or designing an efficient legal workflow for a new matter. Every day will be different and that’s what keeps it interesting!
My team also deliver Legal Process Improvement services to clients and internal stakeholders. I'll be posting about what LPI is and business benefits in the weeks to come."
In our next post, we'll talk to Tae Royle, our Head of Digital Legal Services, about the role of the legal technologist team.
VIEW PROFILEPARTNER, CO-HEAD OF ASHURST ADVANCE, LONDON – CO-OFFICE MANAGING PARTNER, GLASGOWLondon+44 20 7859 3154
