David A. Rueff Jr., legal project management officer at Baker Donelson and a shareholder in the Firm's Jackson office, has co-authored "The Power of Legal Project Management: A Practical Handbook," a guide to legal project management (LPM) published by the American Bar Association.
LPM has been a topic of growing importance in the legal industry in recent years as corporate counsel have placed increased emphasis on managing budgets and law firms strive to improve the legal service delivery model.
"In-house legal counsel are under a tremendous amount of pressure to control costs, and legal project management can be an effective tool to more thoroughly plan the engagement and provide corporate counsel with more information about the progress of a single case or a portfolio of cases," said Mr. Rueff. "The goal of this book was to provide a guide for both law firms and in-house legal departments to implement an approach that incorporates more systematic planning and budget management into the practice of law."
Mr. Rueff is a leading national authority and frequent author and speaker on the subject of LPM. He is a certified project manager through the Project Management Institute and has participated in the creation and development of several Project Management Information Systems dating back to 1989. Mr. Rueff was instrumental in the development of BakerManage, Baker Donelson's patent-pending LPM system, which was recognized by the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) in 2012 with a Distinguished Peer Award for "Project of the Year."
"The Power of Legal Project Management" offers a comprehensive review of legal project management, including the business case, the definitions and application, ethical considerations and issues in implementation. In writing the book, Mr. Rueff, along with co-author Susan Raridon Lambreth, spoke with current and former corporate counsel who were among the first legal professionals to apply project management concepts to the work of legal departments. Through the collective experiences of the authors and these early adopters, the book provides guidance on how LPM can be easily implemented into corporate legal departments, law firms and individual practices.