Legal project management

We actively support and accompany you when you conduct business abroad. We assist with M&A deals, joint ventures or other commercial arrangements. Our service also covers litigation, arbitration, administrative and award procedures or other cross-border projects relating to different jurisdictions. We can assist you in finding the most suitable foreign law firm and in sorting out the basis of their engagement including their hourly rates and service levels, achieve transparency in the billing arrangements, exercise control over the costs as matters proceed, and work to avoid any potential misunderstandings. 

We handle the communication with the foreign law firm as well as any public authorities which are involved to help your management team or your in-house legal team to focus on the commercial and strategic aspects of the matter. We understand the constraints on your time, and that your teams are busy with other matters, so by bridging short term capacity issues, and helping with the day-to-day communication with the foreign lawyers we can improve your efficiency and effectiveness. In this context we also coordinate and merge the different inputs of internal and external parties and, where necessary, take care of any translation work.

Scope of our legal project management service:

Typically, our role includes the following areas

1.  Finding the suitable foreign law firm

• Identifying a selection of suitable law firms from our international network
• Managing the selection process, and checking the experience and composition of the team
• Negotiating terms of engagement
• Ensuring that your matter gets the right priority, and that sufficient capacity is available
• Agreeing communication channels and methods

2.  Retainer, hourly rates and cost controls

• Negotiating the level of the initial and ongoing retainer
• Negotiation of the hourly rates and caps
• Agreeing how the matter will be handled
• Checking that work is being done at the right level and that appropriate supervision is in place
• Checking and approving the invoicing process

3.  Communication, supporting management and in-house legal teams

• Ensuring that your commercial and strategic goals are clearly communicated and understood
• Agreeing the project strategy
• Ensuring that an appropriate risk analysis has been undertaken and the results understood
• Coordination of different project parties and steps
• Communication with national and foreign public authorities
• Explanation of material differences in the legal systems, e.g., discovery, depositions, motion practice, mediation, etc.
• Continuous monitoring of project progress
• Plausibility check on individual project steps and, in particular, of the final results
• Translation of foreign language documents and legal assessment results
• Managing communications, deadlines, the project timeline and reporting to you and/or your in-house legal team.