The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/271291
PEER TO PEER: THE QUARTERLY MAGA ZINE OF ILTA 38 FEATURES FEATURES Legal project management (LPM) has grown increasingly popular in serving clients. There is no doubt as to why — the benefits gained from efficiencies created with LPM are obvious. For those legal project managers with a little creativity, the possibilities are seemingly endless. DELIVERING MORE LPM offers improvements in several areas: • Time management • Budgeting • Data management • Process management • Communications That's a great start, but LPM practitioners have high expectations from their teams and from themselves, and they continuously strive to develop even more ways to benefit their clients. With LPM, clients have learned to expect not only a greater number of potential deliverables, but also deliverables that are more effective and useful. EXTRANET DATABASES For some clients, an important innovative LPM deliverable is an extranet database. Clients typically pay a one-time fee or a nominal per-usage fee for access to a comprehensive, up-to-date and quick reference source to help sort through simple legal issues and answer basic legal inquiries. An extranet database can be especially helpful for any client operating in multiple jurisdictions or doing business in an industry with rapidly changing laws or regulations. The job of the legal project management team is to keep the offered information current and relevant. This type of LPM tool allows the client to outsource information maintenance while still allowing them direct and immediate access to needed information. DATA COLLECTION SYSTEMS For other clients, especially those in industries vulnerable to numerous lawsuits with similar claims (e.g., mortgage loan servicers in the current economic environment), LPM offers a suite of portfolio management deliverables. An LPM team with the right resources can track and analyze just about any metric relative to the portfolio. The team can design a data collection system to house all pertinent case information, and this information can then be managed and manipulated both manually and automatically. With this resource, the project management team can provide the client with reports to help better understand its position and to leverage its resources to the utmost. The team can provide the Legal Project Management Innovation Changes Client Service Delivery