Comments on: Project Management as a Key Litigator Competency

By: PM Hut

PM Hut — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:35:15 +0000

Dan, I've actually published a very relevant series on PMO and Law firms, I invite you to read it (and maybe comment on it) when you get the chance.

By: Martin Felsky

Martin Felsky — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 21:46:44 +0000

Turning lawyers into project managers will not happen until law schools and Bar Admission courses change their view of what it means to practice law – but there’s very little sign of that happening. Litigators generally do not have project management skills (as you say) and they are also not even oriented to the basic concept of planning. As a result many lawyers seem to reject the idea of bringing someone with project management skills onto the team. I agree with those who feel this needs to change, and soon. To deal with the challenges of e-discovery, I try to help firms establish proper, professional litigation technology support groups, including project management resources, and then encourage the lawyers to broaden their concept of what a litigation team looks like.

By: Dan Michaluk

Dan Michaluk — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 23:25:03 +0000

Thanks so much for the comment Paul. I actually owe you an apology, because I used your blog as a resource in preparing my article. I used quotes from other sources, so neglected providing you with the credit you deserve. Your Legal Project Management Blog is a fantastic resource of detailed and quality thinking, and one I will follow! Cheers. Dan.

By: Paul C. Easton

Paul C. Easton — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 22:58:18 +0000

Thanks for the post. It's nice to see more lawyers talking about the importance of legal project management. You bring up an interesting point about whether lawyers or litigation support professionals are better suited for legal project management and whether law firms should hire "professional" project managers. By "professional," I'm assuming that you mean "certified" or at least trained and experienced in a standard methodology such as PMBOK or PRINCE2. Over the past six months or so there have been a number of articles written on this subject, published in various industry publications and news letters, which I've discussed on my blog. In my experience, a great project manager, like any manager, is great due more to his or her personality, communication, and work ethic than formal training. I've worked with wonderful project managers from a variety of backgrounds. Some were lawyers. Some were trained in computer science. Some had a background in HR and staffing. Some were paralegals. A good number were individuals with years of litigation support experience, who picked up a lot of technology and law over the years, were detail oriented yet personable, but had no formal training in any "related" field. One area where formal training can improve project management performance, whatever your background, is project management training. Project management education will not make up for poor communication, a poisonous personality, or technophobia. It will, however, help improve an otherwise competent e-discovery project manager's ability to understand and measure the work that needs to be done, to estimate the time and resource requirements needed to do the work, and to track the progress of the work to make sure the project requirements are met on time and within the budget. It can also help interface with corporate clients' IT staff, who are often more familiar with, and use, project management methods and jargon. While I don't know of any solid data to back claims for the value of applying project management standards to legal work, the Project Management Institute has sponsored research to make the case for the value of Project Management in general. I don't know that a legal project manager needs to hold a PMP certificate, but I do feel strongly that a solid understanding of project management standards will improve the effectiveness of anyone responsible for managing large, complex legal projects.