LPM in the age of AI:

I use AI in some shape or form throughout my working day. This prompted me to critically assess the Legal Project Management Competency Framework the LPM Network launched four (!) years ago to see if it still had relevance and whether it needed a refresh in the age of AI.

AI augments LPM judgement rather than replacing it. It can analyse, draft, compare, summarise and monitor at extraordinary speed, but the LPM still decides what matters: whether the scope is realistic, a forecast is credible, which risks require intervention, when stakeholders need engaging and when the plan needs changing. The framework’s emphasis on judgement, stakeholder management, governance and decision-making arguably becomes more important as automation increases.

The LPM competency framework currently refers to Microsoft Office, LegalTech and keeping abreast of emerging technology. Today I would suggest it needs expanding into something like “Technology and AI literacy”, encompassing effective use of generic AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude or MS Copilot, familiarity with legal AI platforms, knowing and/or exploring which tasks are suitable for AI, effective prompting and workflow design and validation of outputs, confidentiality, security and responsible use. In the process, LPMs evolve into legal engineers.

The important competency isn’t knowing how to operate a particular product – products will change – it’s knowing how and when to apply AI safely and effectively to legal delivery. Legal teams and LPMs also need a platform or a system of record that maintains and manages legal matter data, so your AI tools and people can be as effective as possible at navigating what has happened and is happening.

AI changes the economics and capacity of LPM. A typical LPM, thanks to AI, can now manage a larger portfolio of matters. Historically, some LPM capacity was inevitably consumed by creating plans, producing status reports, manipulating data, tracking actions and preparing communications. If AI reduces that administrative burden, LPMs can spend proportionately more time on higher-value intervention, analysis and judgement. That potentially changes both the LPM operating model and the economics of providing LPM support.

LPMs could become orchestrators of human plus AI delivery. The framework already expects LPMs to identify roles and responsibilities and navigate resource constraints. Underpinning a significant evolution of the profession, resourcing a matter now means deciding not only who is best placed to undertake an activity, but which activities should be undertaken by lawyers, LPMs, other professionals, automated workflows or AI agents. AI thus forms part of the available resource pool.

The people competencies become even more important, with the framework placing substantial emphasis on communication, stakeholder management, facilitation, influencing, leadership and navigating uncertainty. For example, it explicitly requires LPMs to adapt communications to stakeholders and manage geographically dispersed, multidisciplinary teams. AI doesn’t remove those requirements. As routine activity becomes easier to automate, the differentiating skills will increasingly become human ones: judgement, influence, curiosity, commercial awareness, empathy and the ability to challenge constructively.

Another key responsibility of LPMs is continuous improvement: AI potentially closes the LPM cycle – lessons from one matter can inform the scoping, pricing and delivery of the next. The existing framework already requires LPMs to capture lessons throughout the lifecycle, and lead matter debriefs. AI makes that much easier to operationalise rather than allowing lessons-learned exercises to become repositories that get forgotten about.

AI is changing how legal matters are delivered, but is it changing the competencies that make a great LPM? I’d welcome views from across the legal ops and LPM community: what still holds true, what needs updating, and what new competencies should we be adding?

The Author

Helga Butcher is Head of Business Development at Cognia Law, where she brings extensive experience in legal operations and business development to help organisations deliver transformational change. With a background spanning senior roles in both law firms and in-house legal teams, she specialises in legal operations leadership and consulting, legal portfolio and project management, and designing and delivering large change programmes. Helga is passionate about delivering practical, high-quality solutions that meet clients’ and stakeholders’ needs.