The hidden benefits of legal project management

Finding your place as a project manager within the traditional, hierarchical world of law can be difficult. Facing the age old “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it?” argument holds real blockers to allowing people to consider how to deliver differently and efficiently. Lawyers need to be in control of their matters and environment, and can guard their client relationships closely.

At Pinsent Masons Vario, we have a team of 20 project managers, alongside  other legal professionals, all working together to provide innovative solutions to our clients. Our legal project managers work alongside lawyers to make complex matters run more smoothly for the team and for the client. Our role is to help deliver work as efficiently and effectively as possible.

So, what do project managers bring to legal teams that makes a real difference? Well, of course, we do all the obvious things that any project manager does, we help to scope and price the work, we prepare the project plans and timelines/Gantt charts, we monitor the budgets, track actions and prepare regular reports on progress and costs. But the real value often lies in the less visible aspects of the work.

Structure that supports delivery

Okay, so we call it a scary name “project governance” but simply put, it is regular meeting and reporting cadence. Regularity brings focus, accountability and drive towards delivery. We create agendas to ensure meetings are focused and as short as possible.

My first question when preparing an agenda is not “what do we need to discuss” but do we need this meeting at all, who really needs to attend, can it be an email? Face time can really benefit delivery but not when it consists of one person talking for hours whilst the others secretly continue working on their emails. Structure should be beneficial but also flexible and change with the stage of the project.

Stakeholder (people) management

Stakeholders can be the team that are working directly on the matter, but they can go much wider; client lawyers, client directors of risk and compliance, client IT teams, client project managers, other partners and lawyers across multiple offices and jurisdictions, people working in an adjacent, similar or the same area of law, other partners doing the same kind of project in a different way, people developing technology in that area, service suppliers to the business, experts and counsel.

A very significant part of the work project managers do is dealing with people, finding a way to communicate with them in a way they find beneficial to ensure the end result of a successful delivery. One size definitely does not fit all when dealing with people.

Emotional Intelligence 

You will find that project managers generally have high levels of emotional intelligence. Our job means that we spot things that others perhaps might not.

A team member didn’t have theircamera on for the last two Teams calls and their document (deliverable) is late, what might be going on for them, are they ok? Can we shift some other workto allow them to focus on the key task? Do they need help to organise themselves, so we can work with them in a different way to help them achieve theirdeadlines?

A brilliant senior associate is getting work requests from multiple partners, can we help themto manage their workload or put in support at a lower cost level via a junior legal resource?

Two team members have very different approaches to work, one thinks out loud in long emails, the other is neurodiverse and finds the detail overwhelming so ignores the emails – how can we help them to work better together?

More than just managers

Project managers are counsellors/confidants/influencers and drivers. We persuade, we cajole, we support and we keep morale high when the pressure gets intense. We smile and we make everyone welcome in the space. Most of all we get the job done as efficiently and effectively as possible.

We DELIVER for our clients and lawyers.