How technology is helping to retain clients and lower costs for the legal industry

• United Kingdom

• Litigation and dispute management

29-01-2021

Interview with James Barrett, Senior Legal Project Manager in Eversheds Sutherland International’s Propel team

“The UK economy suffered a bigger slump than any other major European economy in the second quarter, shrinking by a fifth and falling into its deepest recession on record”.

With headlines such as these splashed across UK newspapers, it’s no surprise that when it comes to legal expenses, clients are starting to tighten their belts.

With uncertain times ahead, and lockdowns being reinstated across the UK, the question being tackled by many in the legal industry is exactly how do you retain clients and lower your costs for services?

While there may be no easy answer to this, James Barrett, Senior Legal Project Manager in Eversheds Sutherland International’s Propel team, is working towards providing a solution. As the law firm’s litigation focused legal project management and technology team, Propel aims to transform the way legal cases are managed, while providing even greater efficiencies for both the firm and its clients.

As the previous Head of Costs at the UK Government’s Legal Department, James is using his expertise as both a cost lawyer and legal project manager to tackle these challenges. Now, with a coffee in hand, and our video call up and running, James offers his insights on how to handle client retention and costs in today’s world.

Good morning James, so let’s get straight to what everyone wants to know. How would you advise clients to best handle their legal expenses given the current economic climate?

Well it’s certainly challenging! The current climate requires our clients to have increased certainty around their legal spend. To ensure that this demand is met, I’m of the view that a sharp focus on project planning, matter scoping and clear assumptions is essential. Lawyers need to develop their project management skills, as recognised by the SRA’s legal competence framework. By equipping our lawyers with these skills we’re ensuring that our clients get the best outcome for their matters.

Alongside this, I recommend more complex matters are supported by a legal project manager. Clients will benefit greatly from comprehensive project plans, status reports and Gannt charts that show matter progress. The legal project manager can be a conduit between the legal team and client, ensuring that their requirements are at the forefront of the project.

Legal project management alone though, is not sufficient. I also consider that lawtech is more essential than ever to keeping legal spend under control. From the efficiencies made through the use of document share platforms (such as CaseReady) and document review platforms (such as ES Locate) through to technology driven reporting and collaboration ensuring that matter progress and cost is tracked, we can reduce the time required to progress cases and increase our output quality.

How do you see the future of Legal project management evolving?

What the future of legal project management looks like varies from law firm to law firm. Here at Eversheds Sutherland International the future of Legal project management is very clearly entwined with the growth of lawtech.

From early on in the develop of the specialism, we’ve been offering clients tech solutions and platforms such as Thompson Reuters HighQ collaborate platform alongside more traditional methodologies.

Within Propel we’ve taken the decision to combine our legal technologists with our legal project managers. Our mantra is legal project management driven by technology, with the majority of our matters being supported by CasePlanner, our industry leading LPM platform.

That said, I also recognise that the right tool for the right job is also paramount to the success of the project. We therefore also offer our lawyers a low-fi LPM Toolkit, which includes task trackers, Kanban boards and simple Gannt charts. As the specialism evolves, we will focus on standardisation of our offerings.

From my perspective, the use of legal project management techniques will ensure that matters are conducted in the most efficient manner possible. When Covid-19 hit in March 2020, the roll of LPM has clearly come to fore. Partners need, more than ever, to have a handle on their projects. People working remotely need to know the status of matters and what their role is on a project. Tools such as CasePlanner and Collaborate offer as solution to this. As people return to offices, but potentially with an element of home working remaining, these tech tools and LPM techniques will continue to develop,

What makes LPM different from ordinary efficient case management?

Legal project management is essentially project management in a legal context. In my opinion, where this stands above case management, is that it’s based on a standardised framework, which is recognised outside of the legal environment.

Most of a law firm’s clients will not be lawyers, and even where the instruction comes from a General Counsel, the Board of Directors they report to won’t be lawyers. Providing our clients with legal project management on a matter is to provide them with an approach that they recognise and understand.

When you bring these effective methods to legal matters you enhance the clients understanding of the matter and the progress of the matter. In essence, you start to speak the same language. Moreover, you enable the client to make quicker and more informed decisions.

This, in my view, contrasts with efficient case management, as whilst the matter may well be run efficiently, it provides the client little in terms of full transparency and the information they need to make decisions.

Can LPM not be seen as just one more cost from a law firm?

This is an often asked question. On matters where a legal project manager is instructed, we see costs being reduced. The legal project manager frees up the legal team to focus on the law. They’re able to sign post the legal team to relevant lawtech solutions and act as a conduit between lawyer, client and external instructions, both ensuring the matter progresses more smoothly and efficiently, which in turn reduces expenditure.

Finally, what are your top three tips when it comes to budgeting?

The further in the future the activity is, the less certain the budget can be, which should be reflected in the estimation. A budget is a living thing, it needs to be monitored and revised where appropriate. Clear scope and assumptions are key to the success of your budget. These need to be recorded and communicated to the both legal team and client.

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