Legal Business Development and Project Management

Online LPM Library of Tools and Templates: Frequently Asked Questions (Part 2 of 2)

In part 1 of this blog series, we explained how our online library of LPM tools helps law firms implement a robust internal LPM coaching program, and we also listed several benefits firms have experienced when using this resource.  In Part 2, we describe what your firm can expect if it licenses our online LPM library.

What specifically does the license include?

We will help you develop a well-defined program that fits your firm’s culture and resources. This will increase buy-in by helping to ensure that lawyers use the tools to increase efficiency, client satisfaction, and profitability at your firm.  Specifically, each license includes:

• Unlimited, non-exclusive rights to reproduce and adapt all of the content within your firm and with your clients for one year (renewed annually)
• Separate files for each tool (in both Word and PDF format) so you can easily deliver just the information a particular lawyer needs in your preferred format, and so you can customize existing templates to meet your firm’s needs
• New tools and templates that are released to license holders every June and December
• Consultation with the authors of these tools to maximize the value to your firm, ensure quick wins, and establish a foundation for future success
• Sample emails for use by the managing partner or another senior partner announcing the availability of these tools and their benefits to the firm and to individual lawyers
• Twelve “LPM tips of the month” each year, for publication on your intranet, internal newsletters, or email to remind lawyers of the value of this resource
• A proven method for hosting and facilitating a lawyer panel discussion to help promote the use of the online LPM resource among firm lawyers
• A suggested menu structure that can be adapted to your intranet

Tell me more about the consultation that’s included with the license.

Each license includes four hours of consulting support, plus materials to help build a stronger culture of LPM within your firm, including:

• Specific tasks, objectives, and timelines for using these LPM tools and templates
• Systems to provide exactly the information lawyers need, precisely when they need it
• A list of the top ten tools that have proven most useful in implementing LPM, and the top ten tools that are most effective in introducing LPM concepts
• Guidelines for prioritizing which lawyers to focus on first when introducing LPM tools
• Suggestions for working with LPM champions, practice group leaders, and LPM Directors
• Tips for designing an internal program to publicize successes, including sample “LPM Tips of the Month”
• Guidance on how to save time developing firm-specific processes and procedures by customizing our templates
• Suggestions on how to customize our tools for in-firm presentations and training

What are the contents of the online LPM library?

A complete list of the current LPM tools and templates can be found on our website. 

All files are delivered in both Word and PDF format so that they can be made available on your firm’s intranet, and, when necessary, customized to fit your firm’s or practice group’s needs. 

New tools and templates are added every June and December so that lawyers can easily keep up with developments in this rapidly changing field.

How much does it cost to license the resource?

The answer to this question depends upon the number of lawyers at your firm.  If you want a customized quote, please contact us at [email protected]. 

What we can tell you is that this online LPM library can offer a rapid return on investment. As soon as one lawyer who is responsible for a large engagement adopts an LPM best practice, the return on investment can quickly exceed the license cost by, for example:

• Increasing the accuracy of an initial fee estimate and the likelihood of payment in full by using the template “15 questions to ask clients to help define scope”
• Renegotiating a fixed fee by using the template “Prepare and negotiate for approval of a scope change”
• Using any of the more than 170 tools and templates in the online library to increase client satisfaction and/or firm profitability

What else can you tell me about this resource?

Four previous editions of these tools have been tested and refined in firms around the world that encompass over 100,000 lawyers.  Additional details can be found on our website, including:

• The names of more than 35 contributing authors from both large and small firms, including Baker McKenzie, Morgan Lewis, WilmerHale, Pepper Hamilton, and Bilzin Sumberg
• The names of 25 LPM experts who currently serve on our Board of Advisors, including representatives from Norton Rose Fulbright, Lathrop Gage, Baker Botts, Winston & Strawn, and K&L Gates
• Testimonials from 22 additional LPM experts at firms such as Perkins Coie, Jackson Lewis, Ballard Spahr, Orrick, and Saul Ewing

Online LPM Library of Tools and Templates: Frequently Asked Questions (Part 1 of 2)

In over a decade of research and consulting with hundreds of law firms, we’ve seen that one-to-one coaching is the most effective way to accomplish the goal of increasing LPM results. To assist legal professionals in implementing LPM tactics, it is imperative that law firms have a proven and effective way to easily provide LPM resources to their lawyers and legal staff when they need it. 

This blog series explains how our online library of LPM tools and templates can help your firm implement a robust internal LPM coaching program, as well as what your firm can expect if it purchases our license.

Note:  Although we use the term “LPM coaching” in this blog series, it does not matter whether your firm adopts that terminology or not.  Whatever your firm calls it, and however your firm does it, the critical element for increasing LPM results is to implement a program that changes the behaviors of your firm’s legal professionals.

Why use just-in-time training materials like our online library?

The primary goal of any LPM coaching program is to help legal professionals apply LPM tactics quickly to find “low hanging fruit” and directly experience such immediate benefits as (1) increasing realization and profitability, (2) reducing risk, (3) protecting current business, and (4) increasing new business. 

As explained in our white paper, The Keys to Legal Project Management Success, the five most effective ways to increase LPM results are to:

1. focus on changing behavior and solving problems
2. aim for quick wins to create internal champions
3. publicize successes within the firm
4. use just-in-time training materials; and
5. take action now and follow up relentlessly.

A critical component of any LPM coaching program is to provide legal professionals with the resources they need “just-in-time” to help them resolve real-world challenges they face on a daily basis.

In most professions, “just-in-time” training materials like ours have become the standard way to teach new skills. For example, when people need to use an unfamiliar feature of Microsoft Word, very few would consider taking a class or looking it up in a manual.  Instead, they simply look it up online, exactly when they need it.

Although LPM coaching is the most effective way to change lawyer behavior and achieve quick wins, there are a number of different ways that LPM coaching programs have been structured internally at law firms.  Regardless of the approach, however, it is essential that law firms have a proven set of LPM best practices to offer to their legal professionals. 

Our LPM tools and templates have been developed and refined over thousands of hours in our one-to-one LPM coaching programs.  Our online LPM library provides LPM Directors, LPM coaches, champions, group leaders, and others with over 170 tools and templates that have been proven to increase client satisfaction and firm profitability.  Each license also includes consulting support and supplemental materials to ensure that lawyers actually use the materials.

Who should license the online LPM library?

Any law firm that is interested in changing the behavior of its legal professionals to implement LPM practices should consider licensing this library.  It is absolutely critical for firms to have an online LPM resource if they want to provide “just-in-time” LPM training materials to lawyers and legal staff.  A key question then is whether firms want to “reinvent the wheel” and develop these materials on their own or license them. 

To create a quality online LPM library takes thousands of hours of time over several years.  It makes sense that firms would want to rely upon proven LPM best practices, and they would want to obtain the “know how” to promote and implement an online LPM library in a way that ensures it is actually used by firm lawyers.  Instead of paying to reinvent the wheel, firms can now start from a proven foundation that has helped thousands of lawyers. 

What are the general benefits of licensing the online LPM library?

Law firms have reported the following benefits as a result of licensing the online library:

• Internal LPM coaches, LPM champions, practice group leaders, and others provide lawyers with exactly the information they need to increase efficiency, exactly when they need it.
• Lawyers can directly access all the LPM tools on the firm’s intranet, and can download the information from their laptop, tablet, or phone, whether they are in their office, on an airplane, or in a hotel room.
• Firms save time and increase results by building their LPM efforts on a proven foundation that has been developed and tested over many years.
• Firms keep up with the latest developments in this rapidly changing field, as new tools and templates are added to the library twice a year.
• The library multiplies the effects of firm LPM initiatives by helping LPM Directors, practice group leaders, and others provide more lawyers with more help more quickly.
• Firms improve client relationships by sharing LPM tools with key clients.
• LPM staff use the online library to create more awareness by sending LPM tips of the month to lawyers throughout the firm.
• LPM staff introduce key LPM concepts by demonstrating how to use the online library at practice group meetings, firm retreats, and in other settings.

In Part 2 of this blog series, we will describe what your firm can expect if it licenses our online LPM library.