Legal Project Manager
Scope and plan a new litigation matter
What You Do Today
Meet with the lead partner, break the case into phases and tasks, estimate hours by timekeeper level, create the project timeline, set milestones, and establish the communication cadence with the client.
AI That Applies
Matter planning AI generates project plans from case parameters, referencing historical data from similar matters to estimate hours, timelines, and resource needs by phase.
Technologies
How It Works
The system ingests case parameters as its primary data source. Predictive models fit to historical outcome data identify which variables are the strongest leading indicators, then apply those weights to current inputs to generate forward-looking scores. The output — project plans from case parameters — surfaces in the existing workflow where the practitioner can review and act on it.
What Changes
Scoping becomes data-driven. AI estimates are based on actual historical performance across similar matters, not just partner intuition about how long things take.
What Stays
You still negotiate the plan with the lead partner, adapt for case-specific complexity, manage client expectations, and adjust when the case takes unexpected turns.
What To Do Next
This section won't tell you what your numbers should be. It will show you how to find them yourself. Every instruction below produces a real, verifiable result in your organization. No benchmarks, no projections — just the steps to build your own evidence.
Establish Your Baseline
Know where you are before you move
Before adopting AI tools for scope and plan a new litigation matter, understand your current state.
Without a baseline, you can't measure whether AI actually improved anything. You'll adopt tools without knowing if they're working.
Define Your Measures
What to track and how to calculate it
Time per cycle
How to calculate
Measure how long scope and plan a new litigation matter takes end-to-end today, then after AI adoption.
Why it matters
The most visible improvement is speed. If AI doesn't save time, question whether it's adding value.
Quality of output
How to calculate
Track error rates, rework frequency, or stakeholder satisfaction scores before and after.
Why it matters
Speed without quality is just faster mistakes. Measure both.
Start These Conversations
Who to talk to and what to ask
your general counsel or managing partner
“What's the current accuracy of our forecasting, and how would we know if an AI model is actually better?”
They set the firm's AI adoption posture
your legal technology manager
“Which historical data do we have that's clean enough to train a prediction model on?”
They manage the tools and can show you capabilities you don't know exist
Check Your Prerequisites
Confirm readiness before you invest
Check items as you confirm them.