First and foremost, a legal project manager must be an excellent project manager who can handle complex projects under pressure within teams. Strong project management skills and characteristics – including leadership, problem solving, critical and strategic thinking – are essential. The Project Management Professional certification, which emphasizes leadership and interpersonal skills, technical management skills, and organizational skills, is beneficial. Collaboration is essential to effective project and process planning. Google Docs allows users to collaborate and plan projects together, no matter where they are. To strengthen enterprise security and controls, Google Workspace is another option. As a cloud-based law practice management software, Clio Manage makes it easy to run a law firm – from tracking time and organizing cases to managing legal documents and collaborating with clients – all in one place. In early 2010, Susan Raridon Lambreth and Carla Landry, along with a team of Certified Project Management (PMP) professionals, created the first project management certification program designed specifically for the legal profession. Simply put, legal project managers use the principles of project management to help law firms operate more efficiently, cost-effectively, and client-centric. For non-lawyers or lawyers looking for an alternative legal career, there are many legal project manager jobs in law firms and large corporations.

Keeping track of assigned tasks is difficult. However, project management tools can help centralize systems. Here are some options that work well for legal project management: If you already work for a growing law firm, there may be an opportunity within your existing firm. In this case, your company may need someone to take on a dedicated role as a legal project manager to lead processes and projects as the business grows. Don`t rule out becoming a legal project manager in your current firm, even if the position doesn`t exist yet. You could advocate for a new role in project management with your boss or partner in your company. Most of us may know that a project manager takes responsibility for planning, executing and monitoring a project. But what about the emerging role of a legal project manager in law firms? While not all law firms necessarily need a legal project manager, most growing businesses could benefit from project management. The larger the firm, the more you need a legal project manager, especially law firms with 10 or more lawyers.

While it is possible to grow your business without good processes, it can be very difficult. Legal project management can make the growth process smoother, faster, and easier. All lawyers can benefit from legal project management, but a dedicated legal project manager would take the project management task away from other employees. When a dedicated legal project manager manages the efficiency, planning, and risk management of the project, you create consistency, clarity, and accountability. A high level of organization is essential for all lawyers. Nevertheless, it is essential for legal project managers who must oversee the planning, budgeting, execution and evaluation of multiple processes and projects in a law firm. Good communication skills – whether it`s communicating effectively with an in-house team or mastering client communications for law firms – are essential to managing legal projects. Legal project managers need to be clear when communicating legal work plans to their teams.

You also need to be able to consider client experience and the lawyer-client relationship when designing a legal work plan. Note: The information in this article applies only to U.S. practices. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It does not constitute legal, commercial or accounting advice. While legal project managers don`t have to be lawyers, familiarity with legal processes is helpful for a project manager specifically for the legal industry. With this in mind, project managers who also take on the role of paralegal, virtual legal assistant, or have similar legal training may have sufficient legal expertise and business knowledge (e.g., familiarity with legal services pricing) to succeed. Just as technology can help lawyers work more efficiently, the right technical tools can make legal project management more efficient for a legal project manager, lawyers, and clients. Sharon Miki writes for Clio about legal technology and legal affairs. As an experienced freelance writer, she is passionate about creating fascinating, useful and well-researched articles.

Attorney-client relationships have become increasingly important to the success of law firms. More law firms are looking for ways to create a more consistent and efficient experience for clients, which has led to an increased need for standardized processes and systems for lawyers to manage cases and projects.