NRF Transform abstract

Legal project management

An essential tool to manage costs and risks

Global Publication 23 February 2022

February 23, 2022

Why should it be on your agenda?

In the face of unprecedented financial and budgetary challenges, GCs are under pressure to deliver greater control, predictability, accountability, and responsiveness from their external legal service providers.

One of the most effective ways to relieve these pressures is to target a reduction in external legal spend (which typically accounts for 55-60% of corporate legal budgets).

A desire to mitigate these costs has fuelled a number of recent trends, for example a rise in the use of EFAs; a desire for law firms to operate more efficiently; and an increased appetite for more a more structured and disciplined approach to the management of matters – i.e. formal project management.

As an in-house lawyer, you may therefore find yourself increasingly required to “wear two hats” as both a legal expert and a legal project manager. As a GC, you may need to recruit and manage a legal project manager (or a team of legal project managers).

Take a look at our brochure to find out what this means for you, and what you should consider when applying legal project management to your matters.