Page 6 - Law Firm Management

S6 | MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016 | Law Firm Management
| NYLJ.COM

Full-Service Client Partnership
The ogy, space, cloud infrastructure and ongoing

legal matters. Corporate legal departments
face the same project management demands
Model: A Primer for Law Firms
around people, budgets and deadlines for IT
and other projects. Firms and in-house legal
departments need more eficient ways to man-
age risk and optimize their data, and PMOs
offer a welcome resource for organizations
looking to complete projects in a timely and
cost-eficient manner.

Establishing a PMO begins by develop-
ing a set of standardized processes for all
projects to ensure consistency across report-
ing, resourcing, timing and budgeting. With
a standard methodology in place to manage
projects, prioritize objectives and create
best practices, organizations can bring more
eficiency to each project, manage costs and

ensure consistent alignment with evolving
needs.
Law irms and corporate legal departments
have similar PMO processes and challeng-
es, and sharing best practices to promote
operational eficiency and consistency can
help drive a relationship from client/service
provider to a more strategic partnership. It
can also lead to a greater understanding of

a client’s businesses, goals and pressure
points. Firms whose professional staffs are
working with clients to help establish PMO
plans and solutions are thinking proactively
and differently.
Consulting on Operational and Technol-
ogy Support. Enterprise legal management
(ELM), the practice management strategy of
corporate legal departments, uses software to

manage internal legal documents and work-
lows, generate electronic bills and invoices,
and guide decision-making through reporting
and analytics.
When a company needs help with legal
operations and technology, calling its law irm
is rarely the irst choice, or even the second.
But given the similar market challenges irms

and legal departments face, law irms have a
signiicant opportunity to add value for cli-
ents by proactively sharing knowledge and
offering support in this area.
This can take many forms, such as help- K
ing with a vendor analysis for e-billing, or TOC
advising on matter, knowledge or document IGS
management, or assisting with the develop- B
ment of outside counsel billing guidelines.

Law irm pricing managers, IT managers and apart. Some suggest that great work at a com- yers are the primary resource for their clients,
COOs are ideally positioned to help clients BY MICHAEL R. CAPLAN
petitive price is all that clients want from their but a irm’s professional staff—its operations,
with IT planning. This can include consulting T law irms. All AmLaw 100 irms do great work, pricing, technology, knowledge management,
on RFPs, providing roadmaps, introducing he billable hour. Competition from unex- but great work is not a differentiator. Price human resources and marketing experts—can
clients to other clients with similar goals and/ pected sources. A consolidating indus- is also not a differentiator. The key differen- be an untapped source of value, and proac-
or to those who have already implemented try. The market for legal services has
tiator is something law irms talk about all tively sharing their expertise with clients
comparable systems and technology. And shifted in fundamental ways, and its evolution the time but rarely master—a true strategic (delivering non-legal services) is essential
irms can help with templates and process presents challenges for law irms. But change relationship with clients. It sounds simple, to broadening and deepening the law irm/
throughout.
also offers opportunities. Law irms today but aligning this relationship—the priorities client relationship.

Creating Best Practice Panels for Outside need to think differently, and importantly in of lawyer and client—is essential for any irm Combining the practice of law with the
Counsel. One of a legal COO’s primary chal- this market, look to differentiate themselves.
that hopes to succeed in today’s market.
business of law allows irms to provide cli-
lenges is to articulate his or her department’s The client/law irm relationship is constant- When law irms treat client relationships ents with a full-service offering and a strategic
value in business terms to the company’s ly changing. Clients are increasingly focused as strategic partnerships, lexibility, trans- opportunity to collaborate and innovate as
CEO, CFO and other leaders. As a result, legal on irms who “invest” in their risk and their parency and communication are paramount, partners.
COOs are always eager to hear about ways to business. Those who invest will master these investment in risk and reward is shared, and This full-service client partnership model
increase eficiency and cost control in their relationships institutionally and will stand
all irm resources are leveraged for the cli- can manifest in several ways.
spend for outside counsel.
ent’s beneit. Only then does the relationship Sharing PMO Strategies. Corporations

Facilitating introductions to their peers by grow and prosper.
have long relied on their program manage-
arranging panels, meetings and other gather- MICHAEL R. CAPLAN is chief operating officer of In the current market, law irms need to ment offices (PMOs) to tackle large-scale
ings gives legal COOs the opportunity to dis- Goodwin Procter. He previously served as global manage client relationships by providing technology projects and other key initia-
cuss needs, share best practices and consult chief operating oicer for the legal department at advice through two key sources: traditional tives. Law irms are starting to realize the
with those who might have already encoun- Marsh & McLennan and global director of operations lawyering, or the practice of law, and through value of PMOs as they manage multimillion-
tered (and solved) a particularly vexing issue.
for the legal department at Goldman Sachs.
legal operations, or the business of law. Law-
dollar initiatives for data security, technol-