About

Helping you develop your legal project management and legal process improvement capability.

Richard Allen – Head of Pricing, Project Management & Process Improvement

Richard has 40 years’ unique litigation, legal costs and practice management experience, being one of the first to achieve Costs Lawyer status and make partner in a solicitor’s practice.

He was a founding and longest serving non-executive director of the Costs Lawyer Standards Board (CLSB) and is an accredited mediator and coach.

Richard has vast experience handling significant litigation and costs caseloads for major law firms, establishing and managing several litigation and costs departments nationally, including a top 50 practice, and having a central role managing a full service regional solicitors’ practice.

Richard specialises in boosting profitability, focusing on professional services pricing, together with costs, case and practice management, both in the UK and internationally. These skills led Richard to become an Accredited Training Provider for both the CLSB and the International Institute of Legal Project Management (IILPM) and together with Antony Smith, is the only authorised trainer in the UK and The Republic of Ireland to deliver the IILPM’s certified training courses in Legal Project Management and Legal Process Improvement.

Antony Smith, Consultant – Pricing, Project Management and Process Improvement

Even as a young solicitor I gravitated more to organisational improvement rather than direct client work. I have always been fascinated about how the blend of individual skills, process execution and organisational support come together to deliver first class legal services.

Lawyers are clearly being challenged to deliver legal services in new ways. Applying project management and process improvement principles to legal service delivery allows lawyers to meet these challenges.

I have experience in law, project management, process improvement and legal I.T. By putting these together, I help legal teams improve delivery of their legal services.

Creating more effective lawyers and legal teams with project management

The UK’s largest law firms now employ full-time legal project managers, working alongside their lawyer colleagues. We have for a long time believed that legal project management is applicable to all lawyers and all law firms, not only the very largest. The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) agrees.

In its Statement of Competence for Solicitors, the SRA describes many tasks expected to be performed by all solicitors in terms of project management. For example, the Statement refers to solicitors ‘meeting timescales, resource requirements and budgets’ (for more please see Section D of the Competence Statement). This sounds like a high level definition of ‘a project’ to us..

Developing lawyers’ project management skills is just one aspect of creating an effective project based legal service organisation. We believe all of the following are required:

1. Tools – ranging from document templates to software applications.
2. Methods and Processes – standard matter project plans supported by lower level processes and activities.
3. Skills – of both lawyers and support staff, working together as productive teams.
4. Organisational Project Maturity – to help ensure that the project delivery capability of the firm continues to grow.

The ultimate aim is not to become better at legal project management per se, but for lawyers to become more effective and clients to become happier with the service they receive. Happier clients are more likely to pay their bills quicker, instruct their law firm with more work and provide referrals.

We help lawyers and their colleagues achieve these aims by providing legal project management training, certification and support.

Creating more effective lawyers and legal teams with process improvement

We have worked on various kinds of process improvement projects in law firms since the late 1980’s.

For a long time process improvement activity was considered as something which only firms engaged in ‘high volume, low value’ legal service provision did. This is no longer true, as law firms (and in-house teams) of all shapes and sizes now look to improve their processes.

There is a clear relationship between legal process improvement and legal project management (which we explain further in this blog post).

Experience shows that it can take longer for the benefits of process improvement to be appreciated compared to legal project management. Legal project managers usually have a client facing role and hence a higher profile than legal process improvement professionals. Hence the work of legal project managers can be more readily seen compared to that of legal process improvement professionals.

‘Improving processes’ can sound rather vague. The reality however is that its not just ‘processes’ which are improved. In our experience legal process improvement is in practice all about improving the effectiveness of legal teams.

If you would like to take a process driven approach to improving legal team working, why not consider attending one of our legal process improvement training courses?

A great course to contextualise the application of Project Management methodologies within a legal operations environment.

Clair Grober, Head of Legal Projects - Employment Law

Excellent course. Provides a clear and in-depth introduction to legal project management…

Dean Robertson, Costs Consultant

The LPM course provided a perfect blend of theory and practical tools…

Sermica Dixon, Legal Practice Manager

The scope of the training was significant, but Antony covered the training in real detail, splicing the theory with decent interactions around participants experiences' in work.

James Woodham, Legal Project Manager

The legal process improvement course was fantastic…

Jordan Murphy, Knowledge & Information Specialist

Antony is a great facilitator. He made the three day course enjoyable and the engagement exercises were informative and great for idea sharing.

Jan Cruickshank, Expert Support Consultant

A great introduction to LPI and the tools needed to successfully deliver an LPI project…

Claire McNamara, Partner

I would like to thank you for the great training yesterday. It was what I had hoped for and I think it has provided us with the necessary techniques to…

Jörg Nobbe

I found the Legal Process Improvement Professional (LPIP) course hugely beneficial. Having started the course with no prior knowledge, I now feel confident in starting my next project. I found…

Elizabeth Wadey

The three days achieved exactly what I was looking for – to pull together various bits of disparate knowledge and thinking, and to reassemble them into something more structured and coherent…

Andrew Smith, Head of Group Legal Services

The collaborative nature of the training run by Antony allowed me to engage with peers from diverse backgrounds…

Magdalena Papiernik-Konig, Partner

The Legal Process Improvement Professional (LPIP) is an excellent course with lots of details…

Rosie Isaac, Process Improvement Executive

I have completed both Antony's Legal Project Management and Legal Process Improvement Courses, and having moved into a newly created Legal Project Management role I can say that the tools…

Sam Silsby, Legal Project Manager

The three-day course with Antony was very enjoyable and rich in content…

Geraldine Riethmann, Legal Operations Advisor

I would definitely recommend the course for a detailed overview of legal project management and for upskilling…

Margaret Ivowi, Legal Contracts Manager

A really informative and interesting course. Antony also provided great materials, as well as information, to be used on a day-to-day basis.

Mark Kitchen, Legal Solutions Manager

Enlightening and useful course, mixing formality with the light touch of interaction within the workshops…

William Whawell

The LPIP course covered a lot of really useful content...and I felt by the end of it that I had a great set of tools I could immediately put into practice…

Peter Boyce, Head of Case Presentation and Appeals

I found Antony’s Legal Process Improvement course to be both engaging and insightful…

Miranda Robertson, Knowledge Paralegal

Clear explanations, slides and practical exercises – combined with delegates’ interaction – kept our interest levels high over the full two days of the LPIP course…

Sarah Barrett-Vane (LPIP)

I recommend this course to everyone wishing to strengthen their skill base and be part of the future of legal service delivery…

Sarah Keegan

This course is worth 2 - 3 days of your time…

Ijeoma Osuchukwu, Solicitor

The three-day course provides a comprehensive insight into legal project management and how legal project management techniques can be implemented effectively in practice…

Tyler McEwan, Costs Lawyer

I was slightly concerned about taking a course via Zoom but I needn’t have been, this method of training delivery worked very well…

Gaynor Paul, Project Manager

A very accessible and practical course which gave me confidence to start small and have a go…

Tarnya Mason, Associate Director, Real Estate

Many topics covered in the course are relevant and helpful to the practice areas I work alongside…

Dale Gibbons, Senior Associate (Costs Lawyer)

Antony is very knowledgeable and excellent at conveying the key concepts of legal project management…

Samantha Jago, Costs Lawyer

Incredibly useful and informative. Well structured and kept me engaged, whilst progressing at a good pace…

Natalie Swales, Partner

Antony is a fantastic trainer, highly knowledgeable, very intelligent and with a great sense of humour which made the training very pleasant…

Christiana Aristidou, Partner, Head of International Business, Tax and IP Law

Antony is an expert in his field. Highly recommended…

Michael Tyler, Partner, Head of Costs

An intensive and informative course providing a solid grounding for would be legal project managers…

Simon Murray, Partner & Head of Costs Services

This is an excellent course that will provide you with all the necessary tools and information to integrate legal project management into your business…

Nicola Billen, Partner, Head of Insurance

I would recommend this course to anyone interested in legal project management: informative, engaging and thought-provoking…

Paul McCarthy, Partner, Head of Costs

I feel confident I am leaving training with a sound understanding of the LPM methodology and how to implement it within the firm…

Charlotte Boswell, Costs Lawyer

Fantastic course, both practical and technical…

Rebecca Jorgensen, Associate, Head of Employment

Excellent course, well delivered. The right level of coverage of core project management methodologies before moving on to legal project management…

Andrea Mulchrone, Associate & Deputy Operational Client Manager

I found the course very informative...I can't wait to put it into good practice…

Jemma Young, Project Manager

A very informative course held in a collaborative environment…

Lucy Handford, Managing Associate

As a project manager from outside the legal industry this course was a great introduction to project management in law…

Adam Holder, Head of Project Management

We engaged Antony to deliver a series of seminars about Legal Project Management. Feedback from members who attended was overwhelmingly positive about both the content and presenter…

Sue Nash, Former Chair

Antony's course is really well run and delivered. A good mix of teaching styles: lecturing and interactive workshops / discussion points…

Sarah Barrett-Vane

Excellent interactive course with lots of practical examples and tips that can be implemented immediately…

Emma Newby

An excellent training program for anyone who wants to learn about legal project management…

Abilash Unny, Project Manager

Thought provoking and interesting. I look forward to putting it into practice and seeing the inevitable changes within the industry…

Nicola Sayers, Housing Development Legal Officer

I really enjoyed Antony's course. The concepts were well explained and illustrated with interesting practical examples…

Anna Sulowska, Legal Editor

Antony is a smart and open-minded coach who clearly enjoys interaction with his students and I would be very happy to work with him again…

Harald Evers, Attorney at Law

Excellent delivery of an innovative course. Antony showed flexibility and responsiveness to student needs…

Stella Akpotoma, Senior Immigration Consultant

A course that provides a huge amount of insight and information but also makes you think very hard about how you do things and how you could do them better…

Katherine Bird, Director of Business Development

Antony is knowledgeable and his passion for the topic was evident. The course itself has great content with lots of information, and I loved the book of templates…

Clare Collins, Head of Learning and Development

I thought the course was really good – I’ve covered some areas before, but it was great to have those areas refreshed and there was plenty that was new…

Katherine Milliken, Head of Practice Development

Antony provided training for my team on Legal Project Management. I highly recommend Antony's training…

James Barrett, Managing Associate

Antony is a pleasure to work with and he has been a real asset to our business as we invest in further technology for the future benefit of our practice…

Fiona Morrison, Practice Manager

Antony has a strong understanding of both the legal process and IT systems. This enables him to produce very compelling solutions helping law firms to get real advantage and ROI…

Ian Wylie, Legal Workflow Developer

If you want to learn about the opportunities and challenges associated with implementing legal project management and legal process improvement, I’d recommend a half day session with Antony as an excellent starting point…

Adrian Livesley, Managing Partner

Antony and I share similar views in relation to the application of IT to the law and he has real world experience of what the day job entails which informs his views in relation to IT…

Stuart Whittle, Partner, IT & Operations Director

Antony is particularly good at looking at market and product ideas which lie slightly outside of business as usual - he is a thorough researcher and passionate advocate of his ideas and proposals…

Karen Taylor, Head of Product Management

Introducing workflow systems into numerous departments and offices throughout the firm presented challenges on a number of fronts. Antony did an excellent job of managing these projects…

Martin Godfrey, Director

Legal Project Management Training Courses 2026: Public Courses Open to Subscription

You can sign up and pay for any of the courses listed below.

The Legal Project Associate (LPA) course and certification (comprising two days of training) costs £995

The Legal Project Practitioner (LPP) course and certification (comprising all three days of training) costs £1495

Online payment is via Paypal, which is safe and secure.

If you would prefer to pay by bank transfer, please contact us and we will send you an invoice.

If you are self-funding and find payment by instalments helpful, please contact us to arrange a payment schedule.

Legal Project Management Training live, in-person, April 29th, 30th & May 1st 2026

Course Venue:

Novotel, London Tower Bridge

10 Pepys Street

London

EC3N 2NR

Legal Process Improvement Training Courses 2026: Public Courses Open to Subscription

The Legal Process Improvement Professional (LPIP) certification course runs for two days.

By default, this course is taught live and online using Zoom and Miro.

The price for the course is £995.00

You can choose a course below and pay online via Paypal, which is safe and secure.

If you prefer to pay by bank transfer please let us know and we will invoice you.

Also if you are self-funding and find payment by instalments helpful, please contact us to arrange a payment schedule.

Legal Process Improvement Training and Certification, live, online, May 6th & 7th, 2026

How Can We Help You?

If You Would Like To Discuss Any Aspect of Legal Project Management or Legal Process Improvement – Please Contact Us.

Quantity:	Name:	Price:	Description:
	Legal Project Management Training April 29, 30 & May 1, 2026	1794.00 GBP	Legal Project Professional Certification (All Prices inclusive of VAT)
	Legal Project Management Training, April 29 & 30, 2026	1194.00 GBP	Legal Project Associate Certification (All Prices inclusive of VAT)

Quantity:	Name:	Price:	Description:
	Legal Process Improvement Training May 6th & 7th, 2026	1194.00 GBP	Legal Process Improvement Professional (LPIP) Certification (All Prices inclusive of VAT)