Thursday, January 06, 2005

Project Management, why aren't more law firm IT departments doing it?

A while back I attended a webinar titled "How to Create a Successful Project Management Environment". The webinar was hosted by Sally Hatchett, the Director of Project Management for Bingham McCutchen. Project Management (PM) has been an effective tool for many years, and thankfully is now slowly making its way into law firm IT departments. It couldn't be coming any sooner, as PM has been a glaring hole in most law firm IT Departments. The need for PM is even more important as IT moves from 'plumbing' related projects, the level of sophistication rises and as with most firms the department is asked to juggle more projects without increasing staff.

The upcoming LegalTech NY Conference will hold another session on project management, sponsored by ILTA (formerly known as LawNet), as part of their Advanced CIO track. While the LegalTech conference sessions cost a few hundred dollars, ILTA members can attend this Advanced CIO track for free.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would ask a broader question, namely, why aren't more law firms using PM? Large legal matters are complex undertakings and would benefit greatly from project management discipline. This does not necessarily require all the work of say construction management. But how about at least a spreadsheet or two to track tasks, deadlines, and, dare we say it, budgets!

Ron Friedmann

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