michael hamilton legal project management

Project Management Michael Hamilton 2006/07

Objectives
Differentiate between business project management and legal project management
Discuss key project management skills
Develop a process for managing projects to the legal process
Draft templates for documenting case management
Common causes for project failure
Build a Case Management Plan for a fictitious case

What is a “project”?
A project is a unique effort with a defined beginning, a defined end, specific deliverables, and defined resources.
Resources Schedule Scope

Business Project Management v. Legal Project Management
Business
Budget drives all activity
Milestones derived from mix of staffing and budget available
Personnel can be dedicated to the project
Level of flexibility depending on market conditions
Legal
Docket drives most activity
Milestones derived from mix of docket and court deadlines
Personnel (attorneys or paralegals) are rarely dedicated to one project
Little flexibility in deadlines

Basics of Project Management
Planning, planning, planning
Have templates prepared to plug and play
Outcome should be a “repeatable process”
Ensure that all team members contribute to the planning
Document all decisions and circulate for approval
Metrics derived will be invaluable
Metrics will help in future planning
Update plan as changes in process occur
The version of the document at the “end” of the case should be representative of what ACTUALLY happened

Project Management Defined
The application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities in order to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and expectations from a project. Meeting or exceeding stakeholder needs and expectation invariably involves balancing competing demands among:
scope, time cost, and quality
stakeholders with differing needs and expectations
identified requirements (needs) and unidentified requirements (expectations)

Key General Project Management Skills
Leading
Communicating
Negotiating
Problem Solving
Influencing

Leading
Leading and managing: one w/o the other is likely to produce poor results
Leading Involves:
Establishing direction
Aligning people
Motivating and inspiring
The Project manager is generally expected to be the project’s leader as well
Leadership develops daily, not in day

Communicating
Involves the exchange of information
The sender is responsible for the making the information clear, unambiguous, and complete so that the receiver can receive it correctly.
The receiver is responsible for making sure that the information is received in its entirety and understood correctly.
Has many dimensions:
Written and oral, listening and speaking
Internal and external
Formal and informal
Vertical and horizontal

Negotiating
Involves conferring with others in order to come to terms or reach an agreement
Agreements may be negotiated directly or with assistance
During the course of a typical project, project staff are likely to negotiate for any or all of the following
Scope, cost and schedule objectives
Changes to scope cost or schedule
Contract terms and conditions
Resources

Problem Solving
Involves a combination of problem definition and decision making
It is concerned with problems that have already occurred
Problem definition requires distinguishing between causes and symptoms
Problems may be internal
Problems may be external
Decision making includes analyzing the problem to identify viable solutions, and then making a choice from among them
"The true measure of leadership is influence”

Influencing
Involves the ability to “get things done”
Requires an understanding from both the formal and informal structures of all the organizations involved – the performing organization, the customer, and others as appropriate.
Requires an understanding of the mechanics of power and politics
Power – the potential ability to influence behavior, to change the course of events, to overcome resistance and to get people to do things that they would not otherwise do
Politics – getting collective action from a group of people who may have quite different interests; it is about being willing to use conflict and disorder creatively

Applying P.M. Skills to Litigation Support
Diagnose the present
Foretell the future
Define your limitations & your purpose
Rule the Plan – Don’t let the Plan rule you
Implement a Plan-Based – Not a task based approach
Manage your meeting like a carefully crafted dinner party

Applying P.M. Skills to Litigation Support
Embrace the art of expediting tasks
Know thyself – and they project sponsor
Projecting forward: Play the part of clairvoyant
It’s about THEM – not YOU
The R&R Factor (React & Regroup)

Planning Phase
Review and Draft Document Requests
Determine time line for document processing
Set deadlines for initial plans
Determine Response Timeline
Understand what documents go into the response
Start pleadings database
Develop Response Strategy
Draft the Case Project Plan
Template to be completed by multiple team members
Once completed, use it as on-going reference and training tool
Determine if there is an Existing Document Collection
Generally applicable only to ongoing client work

Preparation Phase
List Potential Sources and Custodians
Evaluate Process Plan Based on Document Size and Type
Set Document Processing Treatment and Database Design
Plan Logistics and Staffing
Draft Technology and Training Plan
Select Vendor
Develop Collection Schedule
Document Collection Procedures
Conduct Collection Team Training

Collection Phase
Hold Project Status Meeting
Always have an agenda
Always take and distribute action items
Evaluate budget based on volume of information to be processed
Go To Document Custodians/Explain Review
Go To Technology Custodians/Explain Review
Conduct Review
Electronic Docs
Non-Electronic Docs
Review workflow established in the Preparation Phase

Processing Phase
Non-Electronic Documents
Receive and log documents
Prepare materials
Image
OCR
Return materials
Electronic Documents
Receive and log media
Send to vendor
Load to server
De-Duplicate
Render to image and database

Storage Phase
Create Shell Databases for Case
From scratch or from an existing database
Maintain “structure integrity” when creating databases
Manage for Protective Orders and Privilege
Will you run your privilege log from the database?
Will you export privilege materials to separate database?
Load Data and Take Database Metrics
True legal project management lies in the metrics
Metrics will help determine future time lines and costs

Sample Database Metrics

Production Phase
Determine Which Documents to be Produced
Identify Selected Materials to be Produced
Determine How to Produce
Prepare Materials for Production
Conduct Production
Prepare Identified Documents to be Provided to Opposing Party(ies)
Update Field in Database
Send Documents to Opposing Party(ies)
Generate Invoice
Process Other Party(ies) Documents

Use Phase
Search and Review Database
Single data loads?
Multiple data loads?
Separate databases for electronic versus paper?
Maintain and Update Database With New Data
Database should always help tell the story of your case and how each document was used
Maintain standard configuration and processes
Archive Data Upon Case Completion
Very important for storage planning
Ensure that archival is agreed upon in advance with the team
Choose storage medium to facilitate ease of restoration later

Conclusion
No matter if you are managing a business process or a legal process, planning is key to success
Build planning into your workflow
Create sample plan and send to attorney for review rather than awaiting their participation
Remember to take metrics – it is the secret to knowing how long tasks will take (should take) on future cases with similar structures

Avoid the common causes for project failure
Poor up-front planning
Incomplete or vague project work plan
Weak ongoing project management discipline
Inadequate resources
People problems
Lifecycle problems
A failure to clearly and completely define the requirements, resulting in building the wrong features or leaving gaps in the features needed.
New or state of the art technology may cause unanticipated problems.
A poor technical design is not allowing the solution to be easily modified or is not scalable.
Requirements are not frozen late in the project and continued change requests start to cause the project to drift.
Technology components do not fit together as designed.
Poor initial testing techniques cause repeated errors and rework in later tests.

michael hamilton legal project management

by michaelhamilton on Apr 20, 2007

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