Canadian Lawyer

Law Office Management Project management for everyone Even small firms (and their clients) can benefit from employing the principles of legal project management. J amie Gilmore constantly keeps his eye out for new, more efficient ways to run his busy practice. Sure, the goal is to keep a lid on costs while making sure everything goes smoothly, but for the Alliston, Ont., lawyer, it's also fun. And who doesn't want to have a little fun at work? He stumbled across one of his favourite pieces of technology while serving as president of the private Mansfield Ski Club. Communication was an issue — with 11 board members being copied on every e-mail, the inbox was quickly filling up with nothing more than a desig- 20 august 2013 www.CANADIAN nated folder as a means of organization. "You could never keep track of it." Gilmore found a program that solved that problem by organizing the e-mails in a discussion thread, eliminating the need to hang on to every e-mail or figure out how to organize the information they contained. So he introduced it into his office, Gilmore and Gilmore Professional Corp., allowing all correspondence to be organized according to each individual file. It's one of a series of processes he's adopted to help make his practice — with two lawyers and about 10 assistants located over a wide geographic area — L a w ye r m a g . c o m operate smoothly. Gilmore has adopted some of the principles of legal project management as he goes along, using key tools. There is a belief that the larger the firm, the more effective the application of a full plan. But when it comes to change, it's the smaller firms that can more easily adapt. Their advantage is they can change their business models quickly: apply the technology, develop a template for budgeting, and keeping that communication going with the client. Big or small, the underlying principles are the same. "It's a logical sequence jeremy bruneel By Marg. Bruineman

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