Legal Project Management has finally made its way into German in-house legal departments

Project Management at the top of the priorities list

52.3% of all respondents surveyed state a “high priority” towards optimisation of workflows and project management, while 5.9% even consider those tasks to be “already completed”.

Strictly speaking, the lower ranked aspects of “analysis/optimisation of integration with company-wide processes“, “optimisation of communication with business“ and “knowledge management/internal communication“ also address core elements of LPM, such as communication, proactive matter management and continuous process improvement.

The “high priority“ attached to LPM is further underpinned by remarkable case studies such as the one of ING DiBa.

Current and future briefing criteria reflect the critical relevance of LPM

The trend becomes even more obvious with respect to external legal service providers. Whereas the experience of external legal advisors does play the most important role (4.5 on a scale of 1 (irrelevant) to 5 (decisive)), “project management in matters” follows in second place (2.9) just trailing “information on relevant legal developments“ (3.5) amongst “Additional Services”.

In the future, inhouse lawyers particularly look for “more versatile pricing and billing models” (3.3 on a scale of 1 (unnecessary) to 5 (absolutely necessary)) closely followed by “better project management” (3.2).

Christina Sontheim-Leven, Chief Legal & Compliance Officer at Postcon Deutschland B.V. & Co KG, commented in the recent edition of legal journal „unternehmensjurist“ (“More efficiency in the legal department”, edition 1/2020, p.32 – 35, translated from German): „I know that many lawyers on both sides still close their eyes and hope that „it will go away again”, but digital transformation won’t spare our profession and will require new skills. Asking lawyers to apply methods based on Legal Project Management and leverage Legal Technology will most likely become the new standard in a few years. Those Ignoring this trend today and not preparing for it, operate at the risk of losing touch with an ever-changing working place."

Conclusion

Although LPM has gained a well-deserved slot on many legal departments‘ priority lists, practical examples in the German legal market show the ongoing need for more information with respect to conceptualisation, entrenchment and implementation of LPM programmes.

_{Published: January 2021}