At Lights-On, we’ve spent over two decades guiding law firms through the twists and turns of IT projects and business transformation. During this time, one surprising pattern has emerged: while firms understand the value of expert consultancy, many still view project management as optional – or even, a luxury. That’s puzzling when you consider how often projects falter, overspend, or veer off course.
Why the disconnect? One reason could be the limited use of legal project management (“LPM”) in legal services delivery – largely confined to big firms or alternative providers with more modern delivery models. Yet the value of effective project management extends far beyond process – it protects investment, keeps change initiatives on track, and frees senior leaders to focus on driving the business forward.
It is hard to put a “return on investment” calculation around project management, yet a well-managed project allows senior members of a law firm to generate value through their day job, delivers increased return on investment and protects the “hearts and minds” of change initiatives.
Good project management can prevent costly, chaotic project recovery efforts that drain time, money, and morale. We’ve seen finance directors take on PM roles themselves – only to discover midway through, like a scene from Grand Designs, that juggling their day job and a complex build isn’t sustainable. Spoiler alert: delays, rework, and budget overruns follow.
Drawing on our 20-years of experience, in this article, we’ll shine a light on the common pitfalls law firms face in project delivery – and how proper project management can substantially shift the odds of success in the right direction. Peter Owen, Director, shares his thoughts…
Understanding Project Management
Project management isn’t just a Gannt chart and a process, it is both an art and a science and requires a wide set of skills and abilities to handle logistics, planning, resourcing, reporting and helping cut through socio-political project barriers. These skills should not be under stated.
At its core, it involves the application of knowledge, skills, tools, techniques and project activities in order to meet specific objectives within defined constraints, such as time, budget, and scope. Whether changing practice management system, adopting a new case management system, rolling out hundreds of laptops or moving building, each initiative is a unique undertaking that demands careful planning and execution.
Project managers serve as the central navigators of these endeavours. They are responsible not only for helping you define the roadmap but also for helping steer the project through project logistics, flagging risks and issues, managing stakeholders, and ensuring that the final outcomes align with the original goals.
If you take “failure” as not delivering to scope, cost or time originally defined, up to 70% of project “fail”! So, let’s explore our top 4 of the key contributors to project failure.
How project management can improve your project’s chances of success
- Underestimating project resources (the “day job issue”): This is the most common failing. Underestimating the effort required by the law firm to deliver a project is our number one issue. PMs are there to help you build a plan and track delivery, but they can’t make your project decisions for you. You will still have to define the requirements, “make the decisions” as to what is and is not done, set the priorities and sign off the testing to name a few. Using a PM can free up time for you to pay attention to these critical tasks rather managing the project. It also gives back time to continue to deliver your day job well.
- Socio-Political Impacts – Projects “get personal” pretty quickly! It’s human nature, if things aren’t going well, to stress and react in a way that ultimately has negative impact on the team spirit of a project. Sadly, its too often we see conflicts between departments and a blame culture developing. These only seek to frustrate progress and add to an already difficult and stressful project. Whilst it’s not the PM’s responsibility to manage this directly, an independent body flagging the issues “without an axe to grind” can help spark some honest debate within a firm to help get the project members working better together. Often some 3rd party senior exec support in the project board can help here too.
- Lack of domain experience – You may be a top CIO, CFO or CMO but the skills that got you there are not necessarily those skills required to be a good PM. Whilst the purist project theorists will say you don’t need to know the environment or the system to manage the project, the reality is that being used to the challenges of projects in a legal environment and knowing systems and their suppliers definitely adds value in our view. Going back to the “Grand Designs” analogy, a PM that knows the strengths and weaknesses of various builders and building suppliers, understands the impact of building regulations and has helped build complex houses many times will add more value than an enthusiastic homeowner!
- Scope Creep – It’s a cliché but this impacts every project. The eternal optimism in projects is something to behold and we see “let’s just do this” and “let’s fit that in” all the time. It is often a result of inadequate up-front analysis on what is to be delivered and how complex it is. A good PM will facilitate early scope definition with a helpful degree of scepticism and manage scope delivery to ensure targets are met reducing the risks of project over-runs on time and costs.
Is a Legal Sector Experienced Project Management the Answer?
Not entirely – but it’s a critical piece of the puzzle. A seasoned project manager helps law firms define objectives, manage resources wisely, and highlight risks early – before they derail progress. When projects are managed well, collaboration improves, accountability increases, time is freed up to do the day job and success becomes the default, not the exception.
Think of it like building your dream home – would you really manage the entire build yourself while running a business full-time? We’ve seen law firms try and use available internal resources who are not experienced PMs, and it often ends like a scene from Grand Designs – ambitious, over-stretched, and in need of costly rescue. With the right project manager in place from the start, you get structure, clarity, and peace of mind – not unfinished roofs or budget blowouts.
If any of the above apply to you and you have a project with many moving parts causing you concern or if you are planning a major project, let’s talk.