However, where the cases are increasingly complex and laws increasingly are being more specific and more exceptions, these cases have evolved to need the work of large teams of lawyers, and other professionals who need now to but more a high level of planning, control and coordination multidisciplinary. In the computer industry and it has been in place for many years but now this legal sector should begin using what is called Project Management (Project Management).
That's why the new demands of the market, some large law firms, demand more strongly the possibility to streamline and coordinate the management of legal projects with technological tools to optimize performance and working capacity.
On the last day organized by the School Administration and Management (ESADE) along with Wolters Foundation, they showed a study of how this methodology would grow increasingly in the legal field.
- What is a Legal Project Manager, or LPM?
Rosalina Diaz, president of Wolters Kluwer in the day ESADE showed that legal activity evolving by leaps and bounds attention of ever more demanding customers begin to require certain tools to optimize time and winning position against other firms..
A differentiator work regarding a law firm to another is, to inform a client, with almost total control of each and every one of the tasks to be carried out, along with the "timings" the necessary steps and project requirements as well as the total costs entrusted to the lawyer.
The LPM is a good tool for planning, coordination and management, highly recommended for both firms and their customers, because it allows the transparency and also significantly improves customer communication and allows firms to continually improve their work processes he said Jose Luis Perez Benitez, consultant LPM, like all management projects, is based on defining a project, plan it, run it and close it.
- Is it possible to plan and structure the work done by lawyers?
Although having exposed that each attorney has a very traditional way of working (everyone does their job in a particular way) is hard to believe that there is a possibility to plan systematically, the activity of a lawyer. But according to Eugenia Navarro, executive director ESADE management believes that besides being possible, it will be explained in a very short time necessary, as there are a number of very important processes that itself can be measured in each case.
It adds that in each project that a law firm has to face is very important, almost vital, analyze all the elements of aspects of economic risk, the necessary resources to be had, the processes will have to perform and complexity, as well as the duration and of course the need to meet global computer and take stock to see if finally will return in the same budget.
He notes that the LPM will narrow the times, reduce prices and resources in each project, plus it will identify and make a much more acurado's office and each of the lawyers monitoring, correcting deviations that may have and improving weaknesses.
- the Figure of Legal Project Manager
A methodology of this type requires the figure responsible for the project management, the Legal Project Manager in English.
This person is an expert in planning, organization and resource allocation, budget planning and control. This figure does not have to necessarily be a lawyer, which itself is essential is to know very well the legal business and legal culture, in order to have the field of view as in all matters of the office.
You should know understand what the customer wants, and be a coayudante Counsel, freeing them from administrative tasks to allow the creation and pursue legal contribution that characterizes him.
- Are all offices can have this type of methodology?
Many years ago when multinationals and large consulting IT began to have serious problems in business management, are all thrown to the implementation of software for enterprise resource planning (ERP), a successful bet to cut resources, save money and increase the response time of internal processes. When the first ERP, only available for big companies by the difficulty of implementation and the excessive money had to be invested to carry out, small businesses were unequal conditions and these software were far from being a reality.
One question that was raised in the final debate was whether this methodology, complex and yet still embryonic in the legal, may be appropriate for all types of large and small firms, is that unlike the ERP in multinational this methodology may be feasible for all types of law firms.
This proper planning and proper distribution of work between available resources will allow the lawyer to focus on what is really expert, freeing them, if possible, of other tasks.
Source: Noticias Jurídicas
