KNOW, the Magazine for Paralegals Fall/Winter 2013.2 | Page 39

Shifts in traditional roles are
changing.

T

he shifts in practice and the traditional roles
previously assumed by lawyers and nonlawyers are
changing with the shift in the practice of law. In the
private sector, I have begun to see that both lawyers
and nonlawyers are beginning to assess their work at
30,000 feet instead of at ground level.
Case and project management is at the forefront of a
client matter to take a broad look and evaluate the case
from a budgetary standpoint, to establish the goals and
objectives to be achieved, and to closely monitor each
element needed to meet these goals and objectives to
ensure work is performed efficiently, effectively, timely
and within budget. And it is no longer always the lawyer or the paralegal performing each of the elements of
that work.
Both lawyers and nonlawyers such as paralegals and
technology support personnel have emerged as project
managers. They are being called upon to design workflow processes and coordinate all of the parts to make
the processes flow, but they are no longer necessarily
called upon to perform the actual work.
The outsourcing of work traditionally performed by
paralegals and technology support is becoming more
prevalent in the interest of cost-effective delivery of
legal services such as the organization, review and
analysis of electronic documents. This is not to say that
these professions are being replaced, rather, that the
traditional roles are changing.
Project management has emerged as a profession
all its own and many of these practices can be easily
applied to the practice of law. Much of project management is what we have been doing all along, however,
we’re just capturing the roles and responsibilities we
performed previously with a different term. The implementation of project management to ensure quality
and cost-effective delivery of legal services is a value
added to the client service team.

39

“This is not to
say that these
professions
are being
replaced,
rather, that
the
traditional roles are
changing.”
We invite you to tell us what you are seeing…
How has this change affected you and the lawyers, law firms and legal employers, and paralegals around you? What jobs do you see dying
away and being created? We will share your
stories and observations in future columns.
-Nancy Heller