The move toward greater constraints started a decade ago in the legal profession. As clients want more and shifting away from the traditional “time and material” model of paying for legal services, law firms are seeking better ways to manage cost. Many firms now offer “alternative plans” in which there is set fee (or “fixed cost”) based on a set of deliverables or outcomes. This change is BIG, and it puts competitive pressure on all law firms. Clients can now quickly compare and contract the fixed fee and the service outcome. Unfortunately, many traditional law schools have not taken action. I personally called multiple law schools in the metro New York area, and not one of the traditional school is interested in offering some version of Legal Project Management. This is a shame. Just look at the law profession; it has been decimated by competitive pressures and poor economy. I think the entire profession need to take the bitter pill of managing cost, schedule, scope, resources, quality, and risk… all the basic knowledge areas in project management.
-Te Wu’s comments on the below article “Efficiency drive – top firms ramp up investment in legal project managers to meet client demands”.
Frances Ivens for Legal Week writes Linklaters, Clifford Chance (CC), Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Hogan Lovells, Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF), Ashurst and Baker & McKenzie are among the firms bulking up their project management capabilities as clients continue to push for better value and greater efficiency from their legal advisers.
Linklaters has already tripled the number of project managers at the firm over the last year and now has 15 working across 25 jurisdictions. It is understood to be planning to expand this further to around 40 professionals and is looking to hire project managers in London, Frankfurt and Hong Kong.
The firm has said that project managers are already used on between 30% and 40% of large transactional mandates, with this figure expected to rise in line with the expansion of the team and client demand. According to current job adverts, London-based project managers work on complex matters that are frequently cross border and typically in excess of £1m of fees, sometimes much larger, and will report to the lead matter partner and the head of business improvement
Meanwhile, following news that Freshfields is planning to open several low-cost business centres, the firm is also in the process of hiring project managers for its new Manchester base. It is currently advertising for a senior project manager to work on “all aspects of project delivery” across the firm. The firm is also looking to recruit a project manager team leader responsible for a group of “programme managers, project managers and project coordinators”. SNIP, the article continues @ Legal Week, click here to continue reading….