How to Set Up Legal Project Management
Step-by-step guide to implementing project management for legal matters. Track tasks, manage deadlines, allocate resources, and deliver matters on time and on budget.
Why Legal Project Management Improves Firm Performance
The traditional law firm approach to matter management relies on the responsible attorney holding the entire matter plan in their head. This works tolerably well for simple matters handled by a single attorney, but breaks down as matters become more complex, involve more team members, or run for longer durations. The responsible attorney becomes the bottleneck for every decision and status update, team members wait for direction instead of proactively advancing tasks, and no one has a clear picture of whether the matter is on track until it is too late to course-correct. Legal project management solves this by making the matter plan explicit and visible. When every task is documented with an owner, due date, and dependencies, team members can self-manage their work without waiting for direction. When the matter budget is tracked in real time against actual time spent, the responsible attorney can identify budget overruns weeks before the invoice is prepared. When matter milestones are visible to everyone, the team can coordinate handoffs without endless email chains. The business case is compelling: a Thomson Reuters survey found that clients rank "predictability of cost" and "staying within budget" as their top two criteria when evaluating law firms. Legal project management directly addresses both of these client priorities.
Step-by-Step Guide to Implementing Legal Project Management
Define Matter Templates for Your Most Common Work
Start by identifying the 5 to 10 matter types that represent 80 percent of your firm's work. For each matter type, create a template that lists every task required from opening to closing, organized into phases or milestones. For example, a commercial litigation template might include phases for initial assessment, pleadings, discovery, depositions, motions practice, trial preparation, and trial or settlement. Within each phase, list specific tasks: "Draft answer to complaint," "Prepare initial disclosures," "Send first set of interrogatories." For each task, estimate the time required, the role responsible (partner, associate, paralegal), and any dependencies on other tasks. These templates become the starting point for every new matter -- the responsible attorney can customize the template for the specific matter rather than building a task list from scratch.