"All projects are managed. Some are managed deliberately, some inadvertently. Deliberate project management is better."
- Steven Levy
Project management is essential to the successful completion of any task, particularly large tasks. Legal projects are no different. Legal work of all kinds, whether litigious or non-contentious, should employ project management methodologies from start to finish.
The Legal Services Centre provides legal project management support and training to Webber Wentzel legal teams and directly to clients. We can support all stages of a matter lifecycle and have developed many tools and methodologies to assist with scoping and budgeting, planning, resourcing, quality assurance, reporting, learning and continuous process improvement.
In our experience, project management ensures improved efficiency and matter management.
Case study
legal process improvement
+ alternative resourcing
+ legal technology
Over a period of two years, we assisted a global mining company with the legal due diligence process and provision of subsequent transactional support on the disposal of over 50 assets. This project involved five organisations (including advisors) with a total of over 100 individual role players.
Solution
An experienced legal project manager was allocated to the matter to apply best practice project management principles, and co-ordinate the parties and processes involved. The legal project manager also appointed and oversaw a team of paralegals who assisted with the receipt, sorting and upload of information to a central virtual data room, thereby freeing up client and lawyers' time to focus on the more complex aspects of the transaction.
Outcomes
The client achieved a cost saving of more than 50% on the data management elements of the matter. With our legal project manager liaising directly with the client's Legal Process Outsourcing provider, a seamless solution was offered, reducing the need for the client to devote time and resources to these administrative tasks.
"Webber Wentzel's implementation of a legal project manager role to [support] due diligence processes has increased the effectiveness of the processes, reduced wasted time and costs and freed up valuable internal resource capacity. The role has enabled a consistent approach to setting up data rooms and conducting due diligence thereby reducing client risk."
- Senior Legal Counsel.
