Law Times

Law Times • augusT 23, 2010 NEWS PAGE 3 In-house counsel seeking lawyers as project managers 'What I'm not interested in hearing at all is how many hours it took you to do the work' BY MICHAEL McKIERNAN Law Times Brian Armstrong meets a lot of project managers. Th e problem is that they're all A carrying clipboards and wearing hard hats as employees of engineer- ing and construction fi rms. None of them are wearing the suits and gowns of the legal profession. "What we're interested in paying for is value added to the business," Armstrong told an au- dience at a Canadian Bar Associ- ation conference discussion last week dealing with leadership in the area of project management. "What I'm not interested in hearing at all is how many hours it took you to do the work. Th e economic model built on hourly billing simply encourages inef- fi ciency." It's clients like Armstrong that are driving more and more lawyers to embrace project management as they search for new ways to im- prove effi ciency in an increasingly competitive market, according to another panel member, Andrew Terrett, the national director of knowledge management at Bor- den Ladner Gervais LLP. "Clients want budgetary certainty; that is the key driver right now," he said. "We see that in the [Association of Corporate Counsel's] Value Challenge and the emphasis on alternative fee arrangements and, in particular, fi xed fees." Th at message surfaced again during a speech by Richard Suss- kind later at the conference. Th e noted author and CBA special adviser explained in a keynote closing address that in-house counsel around the world have responded to pressure from chief executives in tough economic times to get things done more effi ciently by fi nding innovative ways to achieve more for less. Susskind pointed to Rio Tinto, the mining company that possible, other CEOs saved US$14 million in six months after outsourcing its legal department to an Indian company. Now that they've seen that it's aren't likely to forget it, he said. "It became clear that work can be done diff erently," Suss- kind said. "Changes are afoot, CLARIFICATION An article on Aug. 9, "FMC fi rst to hire chief client of- fi cer," described Fraser Mil- ner Casgrain LLP as the fi rst Canadian fi rm to hire a chief client offi cer. In fact, Judith Stein-Korte of Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP has held a position of a similar name, chief client services offi cer, since her previous role as di- rector of marketing. ORDER your copy today Perfectbound • Approx. 170 pp. August 2010 • $65 P/C 970010002 ISBN 978-0-88804-505-8 s executive vice presi- dent and general coun- sel of Bruce Power, and a return to the old ways of working is unlikely." Terrett, a certifi ed project man- ager, said lawyers shouldn't be afraid of the concept because they're al- ready doing it when they open a fi le by planning out the steps; de- ciding what should and shouldn't be done; assessing risk; and follow- ing through on the plan. Even in the notoriously vola- tile world of litigation, there are identifi able tasks and milestones lawyers can work into a plan. "A lot of this type of thinking goes on implicitly, but project management makes it explicit and puts it in a document that everyone can see," Terrett said. Dan Michaluk, a partner at Hicks Morley Hamilton Stew- art Storie LLP, told the audi- ence he keeps his project plans simple and often sends them by e-mail to clients in less complex fi les. "I'm against having a really formal, rigid methodology," he said. "I'm not going to compli- cate it." Armstrong, meanwhile, said he has run into diffi culty with outside counsel who do more work than he wants from them by, for example, producing long opinions on legal issues at the company. "I don't have the time to go through them. What I really wanted was something I could read in one computer screen, summarized in fi ve bul- lets, so I could make some deci- sions around them." Moderator Barbara Boake, a partner at McCarthy Tétrault LLP, said many lawyers she has spoken to struggle with the idea of producing a potentially inferior LT0823 For a 30-day, no-risk evaluation call: 1.800.565.6967 Canada Law Book, a Thomson Reuters business. Prices subject to change without notice, to applicable taxes and shipping & handling. ORDER your copy today Perfectbound • 512 pp. • August 2010 On subscription $59 • P/C 0956140000 One time purchase $69 • P/C 0956010000 ISSN 1201-6489 Multiple copy discounts available product. "You really cannot com- promise quality for the sake of costs in the way a builder might be able to. Lawyers are trained to focus on legal excellence, and cost is not a topic they have in mind." But Armstrong insisted that quality isn't proportional to the time spent on a fi le. He also noted lawyers can improve effi - ciency by switching away from the billable-hour mindset and embracing alternative fee ar- rangements. "If I ask a fi rm for a fi xed price, there's an incentive for effi ciency. I'm prepared to pay a premium in order to get the price certain." 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