A clear focus for Legal Project Management

A Case Study

Positive Pricing helped this global law firm, based in the US, to develop & successfully implement its Legal Project Management strategy (which had previously failed). The project was delivered in 6-8 weeks. The firm is now delivering its clients a more clearly defined & rigorous approach to projects, as well as higher profitability per project for the firm.

Background

Our client is a leading US-based law firm, with a strong global presence, a diverse international client base and a reputation for innovation and excellent client service.

In recent years, the firm launched a couple of Legal Project Management (LPM) initiatives, which had failed to deliver the desired results. The renewed focus on LPM was – in part – driven by increasing client expectations around how law firm matters are managed including:

  • the increasing adoption of ‘all you can eat’ retainer models
  • the increasing maturity of many of these clients when it comes to acquiring legal services
  • the opportunity for the firm to further differentiate and enhance the delivery of their services.

Our client was keen to relaunch their LPM with a more clearly defined strategy and improved implementation process.

Positive Pricing was asked to provide consulting support to help them define and develop their overall Legal Project Management strategy.

Positive Pricing's Approach

We were engaged to work with firm’s Pricing & LPM Director and project team.

Together, we approached our task in two key stages:

  1. Internal research to ensure we had a good understanding of previous implementation efforts and the current opportunity
  2. Taking those insights, shifting focus to developing the Legal Project Management strategy itself

Our approach included:

  • Conducting a broad range key stakeholder interviews to better understand likely LPM requirements and opportunities
  • Defining a high-level LPM ‘roadmap’, focused on key firm and key client benefits for each implementation stage
  • A more detailed definition for each of the LPM services proposed (this including likely resource requirements, the impact of LPM’s contribution to identified firm strategic goals, and high-level data requirements)
  • Defining the key characteristics for a series of potential LPM pilot implementations
  • Developing a set of LPM metrics for each proposed phase of implementation to allow the contribution made by improved LPM approaches to the firm be more easily captured and quantified

This engagement was relatively quick to implement and only took 6-8 weeks to deliver.

Key Findings & Results

The proposed strategy was fully embraced by the Firm’s Executive Team. Even at this relatively early stage of implementation, there is more rigor and clarity around managing project scope and a corresponding positive increase in the profitability for those matters being supported.

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The Pricing Masterclass provided practical strategies to help us win work, analyse pricing risks, and promote value internally and externally. It presents all sides of the equation: clients, partners, back office, and more. We immediately capitalised on what we learned. Thanks for a fantastic and interactive workshop.

Peter Lane Secor
Director of Strategic Pricing and Project Management
Pepper Hamilton, Boston

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