10 LPM Templates to Speed Up Client Delivery

As lawyers, legal project management is your bread and butter. It’s what you’re doing every day: gathering information, ticking off tasks, communicating with clients. And you’re not working on one matter at a time. You need to stay on top of multiple cases. 

And because it’s so fundamental to your business, it’s easy to pass your processes off as “the way it’s always been done”. But that doesn’t mean it’s the most efficient way to do it.

Ever spent what seems like hours tracking down the right file? Or remembering where you put that checklist? According to one study, 76% of legal departments say that staff are wasting time completing tasks manually. And just 18% said they are able to automate routine tasks.¹ Lupl wants to flip these statistics around.

What is a legal project management template?

That’s where legal project management templates come in. Legal project management templates are like pre-built matters that let you store, edit and access all the key tasks, deadlines, documents, resources and knowledge (in a word, everything), all in a single place. You don’t have to spend hours hunting everything down or briefing team members to get your matter underway – you’ll be up and running on your matters in a few seconds.

Choose a matter template — developed by Lupl and other industry leaders — and get the matter set up in a couple of clicks. And the beauty of Lupl’s templates is they are all totally editable, so you can adjust them as you go… and even build your own custom legal matter templates.

Right now, Lupl has more than 50 free legal legal project management templates. Here are 10 of our favorites…

Legal Project Management for Legal Departments

This matter template is inspired by the CLOC legal project management (LPM) framework for legal teams. It provides a framework for implementing legal project management on legal matters for in-house legal teams.

This matter template breaks legal project management down into four phases:

1. Intake 
2. Planning
3. Execution
4. Review

This embeds best practice LPM principles into the matter, whether you’re working internally or in collaboration with external law firms. 

Pro Tip: Like everything else Lupl provides, matter templates are available on iOS. This means you can access all relevant information in real time and on the go, collaborating with colleagues and working on projects whenever and wherever. Matters made simple.

Comply with Anti-bribery and Corruption Rules

Anti-bribery and corruption rules are crucial. Organizations carry the liability for failing to prevent this. So you need strong systems in place. This matter template helps you with this, from general practice to specific risks.

Risk identification and assessment can be a long process. Having a template that covers the basics means that when it comes to client-specific considerations, you’re one step ahead of the game. And while organizations will have their own considerations, training and record-keeping requirements, this matter template sets you on the right track.²

Checklist items include:

• Identifying and assessing risk
• Risks associated with gifts and hospitality
• Risks associated with charitable and political donations

Develop a Data Mapping Program

Undertaking a data mapping program is the first step in ensuring compliance with privacy and data protection laws around the world. 

Among other things, it makes data handling straightforward and when, for example, organizations have to respond to a data subject request, the data inventory is already set up and ready to go. 

This template includes:

• Information on two significant privacy and data protection laws that might drive an organization to start a data mapping project
• Key areas to address during the mapping process.

Manage an Electronic Disclosure Process

You’ve done all your research and discovery. Now you need to disclose your electronic files. Electronic disclosure can quickly become a bloated process in an increasingly digital world. To keep this task on budget and finished on time, sometimes you might need to bring in the expertise of a service provider.

This matter template walks you through the process and highlights the steps for a streamlined electronic disclosure process. Disclosure (it should go without saying) isn’t a step you want to skip. This template helps you manage your process disclosure easily.

Pro Tip: A neat feature update that’s now available on all templates is Lupl Pins. Pins are like bookmarks that let you capture and add information to a specific matter (or matter template). With this template, your pins let you store information that may be relevant in disclosure. It helps keep everything in one place, helping to make your processes that little bit smoother. 

You’ll want to review and assess the relevant statutes included in this template case-by-case, including the Civil Procedure Rules (or equivalent) and directions from the courts.

Conduct a Legal Due Diligence Review in a Share Purchase Transaction

A legal due diligence review in a share purchase transaction involves so many inputs, stakeholders and risks. There might be specialist contracts, records, ledgers and lists. Keeping on top of this is crucial to achieving a successful outcome..

This matter template helps simplify the process by providing an area-by-area breakdown of the key areas firms need to consider during a legal due diligence review. This includes:

• Assessing known liabilities
• Reviewing changes to control provisions
• Reviewing material contracts.

Prepare for VC Due Diligence Requests

Despite the current economic climate, VC money continues to flow across sectors – and with an even greater emphasis on due diligence, it’s more important than ever that organizations get their house in order on due diligence ahead of time.

This venture capital due diligence checklist will help you understand what venture capital firms need before they close your financing.

This matter template can also be used as a guide to start organizing your corporate and legal records, whether you’ve had a due diligence request or not. Get ahead of the game by making sure your information is organized and accessible. Get prepared, hit your due dates, and stay on track. 

Incorporating a Private Company Limited by Shares

Incorporating a private company limited by shares doesn’t sound like a super straightforward process. And it isn’t. You need to understand, at least on a basic level, how it works, its features, and any procedural rules. Luckily, this template works as a roadmap for incorporating a private company limited by shares in the UK. 

The template provides a general guide through the tasks you need to complete, with links and tips. Tasks include:

• Pre-incorporation tasks, from determining shareholders to choosing the company name
• Registration tasks
• Post-incorporation tasks.

It’s worth seeking professional legal advice when registering a business. But this template gets your tasks in order and lets you manage all related communication and information. All in one place.

Our template library holds 50+ matters for you to choose from, sign up for free here.

Implement Key Policies for an Organization

Policies are there to ensure organizations manage risk and comply with legal and regulatory responsibilities. But identifying all the policies you may need, and finding an appropriate starting point, takes time. 

This template lets you gain this time back through pre-made lists of policies that organizations need to have in place, such as: 

• General Human Resources Policies
• Risk Management Policies
• Data and Privacy Policies.

The best part is, this matter template also includes links to some best practice form/precedent organizations.

Cybercrime and Cybersecurity — Compliance Checklist Template

Cyber attacks against law firms are rising: 73% of the UK’s top 100 firms have been targeted.³ From the Paradise Papers to the Panama Papers, the list of law firm data breaches is long — and without the right security, will only get longer. While cyberattacks can’t be eliminated, they can be reduced.

This matter template helps you make sure your cybercrime and cybersecurity compliance is up to date and strong. 

Cybersecurity isn’t just a job for your IT team; it must be considered a high-priority risk for the internal compliance or legal team. And it needs to be managed within an information, risk-management and crime prevention framework.

As a roadmap for the steps you should take, this matter template helps cut through the jargon and streamline the process. It can help your firm (or clients you’re working with) minimize the risk of a cyberattack and mitigate the potential damage if a breach happens. Its checklist includes:

• Steps for appointing a cybersecurity representative
• Risk assessments
• Incident management

Pro Tip: For extra security, you should make sure you’re using a legal project management platform that has SOC2 accreditation — like Lupl.

Filing a Mediation with SMC

When successful, mediation helps disputing parties reach an amicable solution without the need to go to court and make the case public. This helps clients and firms receive a satisfactory outcome, and can prevent any reputational damage.

This matter template provides a roadmap to filing for general mediation with the Singapore Mediation Centre (SMC). It provides guidelines for what to do when making a mediation request. Additionally, it covers the steps after the request is filed, through to concluding the mediation.

On top of this, the template offers different routes depending on how the mediation goes. This allows you to skip forward to different tasks and stay on track. It’s a one-stop shop for mediation facilitation, from pre-filing matters to administrative pre-mediation matters.

Start putting knowledge to work

Templates make it easy to put knowledge to work. This can transform project management and collaboration at all levels. But you need the right platform. This is where Lupl fits in. 

Lupl is a next-generation legal project management platform. You don’t need to spend time recreating the same checklists from scratch or ensuring everyone is up to date. It’s all there for you, in your matter. 

Alongside free templates, Lupl lets you build custom matter templates specific to your needs. It’s also secure and simple. With new features such as Lupl Pins, secure WhatsApp integration and iOS compatibility, as well as having SOC2 accreditation, this is legal technology that leaps ahead instead of lagging behind. 

Save time, enhance collaboration and start putting your law firm’s knowledge to work. Book a demo today.

¹  Too Much Tech in Legal Operations? Not Exactly – WSJ 

² This template has been prepared as a general guide and does not constitute legal advice.

³  Cyber-attacks against law firms are increasing. Is your firm secure?