The future of legal services: More project management and better collaboration

When the Ark Group asked Patrick McKenna, Dan DiPietro, Bruce MacEwen, Paul Lippe, Pat Lamb, Leigh Dance, Silvia Hodges, Larry Bodine and other leading experts to describe The Future of Legal Services in their new book of the same name, all agreed that this is a time of significant change. 

(Full disclosure:  I wrote the chapter on legal project management.  I will also be participating in Ark’s January 31 webinar to discuss this book including “What does it mean to you—and what are you going to do about it?”)

As Dan DiPietro, Chairman of Citi Private Bank, put it (p. 89): 

“The industry will not return to the golden era of double-digit profit growth any time soon…  But… the silver lining from the financial cloud is that partners of law firms – known to take perverse pride in maintaining the status quo – are more open to change than at any other time in all the years we have been studying the industry.” 

And what does DiPietro think that lawyers should change (p. 90)? 

“To stay ahead of the curve, law firms should consider seizing the initiative by asking how they could deliver legal services in a more efficient, cost-effective manner… Firms now need to turn their attention to project management and strategies to manage their costs.”

As Bruce MacEwen of Adam Smith Esq. noted in his article (p. 6), this approach is not a radical departure from traditional practice, but rather a logical result of changes in the profession:

 “Whether or not you know it, every time you run a matter for your firm, you are engaging in project management.  You can do it in an ad hoc haphazard manner, trying to put out fires as they arise.  Or you can use time-tested, proven tools to manage costs intelligently, to coordinate and organize people and tasks, and to head off surprises before they happen.”

Or, as Pat Lamb of Valorem summed it up (p. 74): 

“There is an enormous role for legal project management (LPM)…  LPM allows lawyers to plan, because frequently time to completion is important.  LPM allows lawyers to budget, because it is now rare that a client is indifferent to cost… [And] LPM allows firms to best utilize their resources; having some lawyers do nothing while others are overworked reveals a problem easily solved…  Every project is managed; some are just better managed than others.”

Of course, the book also describes many other important trends, including the expansion of global firms, changes in the Asian legal market, evolving relationships with in-house counsel, outsourcing, and a trend toward sharing firm leadership by appointing co-managing partners.

Of all the other trends, I was most interested in the increase in collaboration between clients and their law firms.  As Paul Lippe of Legal OnRamp put it (p. 30):

“the practice of law has shifted from an individual effort to one emphasizing teamwork and collaboration…  When firms had a monopoly on expertise, delivery of service was a one-way street.  But now most work involves collaboration and coordination between firms and clients.”

Of course, teamwork is the philosophy that lies behind the fastest growing segment of our business:  Client/firm collaboration workshops.  But that’s a story for another day.