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LAW OFFICE MANAGEMENT change accordingly. "What happens now is that the lawyers assume that the client will realize that the bill is going to be higher because of these changes, but often that is not communicated clearly to the client so that the higher bill comes as a surprise," says Gillies, noting that this problem can be avoided with the constant two-way communications and collaboration involved in project management. Boake, who is playing a lead role in her firm's project management initia- tive, says the basic concept is that law- yers should continue to approach a legal mandate in the traditional way, but also see it as a project that should be managed in a systematic way with detailed up-front planning, work plans to ensure that each task is carried out by the right resource, and constant communication with clients at every stage. Gillies and Boake both acknowledge that a key challenge is getting lawyers to buy into project management. As Boake puts it: "It's pretty tough to get lawyers to change their ways." Gillies says his firm has addressed this challenge by working with an out- side consultant to set up pilot projects involving people who are already recep- tive to project management and recog- nize that it could be a valuable tool. He says he hopes these projects will prove successful and lead to a wider applica- tion of project management within the firm. McCarthys has developed an exten- sive training program together with project management software tools in- house, taking advantage of the exper- tise of IT development director Rick Kathuria, who has extensive experience in project management. He says project management offers an array of tools, some of which lawyers will likely find relevant, helpful, and easy to use. Onit Software LLC, based in Houston, Texas, has recently released a beta version of an online project management software suite (onit.com), specifically designed for the legal pro- fession. Eric Elfman, the company's chief executive officer, says the product fills a gap in a market that is full of pro- ject management tools that are either overly complicated or too simple and none of them are tailored to the legal profession. He says the Onit software includes a collaboration space in which participants can share documents and exchange messages, as well as tools for budgeting and estimating that will let lawyers and clients alike monitor any changes in costs that occur as the pro- ject evolves. But you also have to make sure that project management is indeed the most appropriate tool for each law practice to use, says Andrew Terrett, national director of knowledge management at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP. His firm began developing training courses on project management several years ago, but decided to put them on hold once it realized "one size does not fit all." For example, lawyers who do low-value, high-volume transactional work would benefit more from tools to assist them in managing their processes rather than a system that treated each file as an individual project. And litiga- tors may not find much value in a flow chart planning the progress of a mat- ter that may not come to trial for five or more years, but they could benefit from a project management approach to handling all the documents involved in the discovery process. With this in mind, Terrett, who is both a lawyer and an experienced pro- ject manager, says he is now work- ing with various practice groups to analyze what they do and how project management might assist them. If you don't think carefully about what you are doing and develop a coherent approach before presenting it to lawyers, you are not likely to get them onside, he says. "You only get one shot. They're a pretty skeptical group." And even the man who wrote the book about it agrees that the jury is still out on legal project management. "There's a lot of belief that this can be successful, but not a lot of evidence, frankly," says Levy. Freelance journalist and business writer Kevin Marron can be reached at kevin@ kevinmarron.com. www. C ANAD i AN law ye rmag.com APRIL 2010 23 ntitled-2 1 3/11/10 8:52:51 AM