A New Approach to Collaboration: Legal Project Management

Given the hard-nosed economic realities of the legal profession, it strikes many lawyers as a little touchy-feely, and even a bit naïve, to speak of “partnerships” between law firms and their clients. Although the parties share a need and appreciation for high-quality legal work, law is basically a vendor-purchaser relationship where one side’s desire to limit costs and the other side’s money-making objectives create interactions that often are misaligned and at times adversarial. However, the titanic cost pressures on law firms and legal departments alike certainly reward new types of collaborations, even if they can’t accurately be described as partnerships. The driving force between new types of interactions is efficiency and its sidekicks, predictability, communication and risk reduction.

A New Approach to Collaboration: Legal Project Management bit.ly Tue, Aug 16, 2011