Lann Wasson, Associate Director of Legal Project Management, Husch Blackwell LLP, shares the importance of having a data strategy that reflects the transparency and predictability that clients need, why you should start with a focus on data hygiene, and how technology is making a code-free future possible.  

Here are our key takeaways:

• Data Quality Guidelines: High-quality data leads to better decisions but there is a foundation that needs to be laid. Husch Blackwell’s first steps towards capturing quality billing data involved implementing data quality guidelines to ensure the accuracy of their time narratives.

• Evaluate What’s Working: Husch Blackwell worked to assess the impact of these data quality guidelines. We found that practice groups that consistently reinforced the firm’s guidelines performed above industry standards. In addition, further eradicating block billing and vagueness will provide a level of granularity into unit costs that aid in the pricing and management of matters.

• Scaling with Technology:  While these coding and narrative guidelines practices are important and effective, they create a heavy lift on lawyers and are challenging to scale across the firm. Looking to the future - with clean narratives and a technology assist - picking the codes can be removed from the hands of the lawyers!

About Lann Wasson

Lann works directly with the firm’s partners and clients to deliver value through project management, process improvement, and technology solutions.

Lann has almost 20 years of professional services experience. As the firm’s Associate Director of Legal Project Management, he incorporates the techniques of design thinking into his project work to better understand the business problem from the client’s point of view, evaluates multiple avenues to address the client’s need, and test prototypes to discover the best fit for client teams. At the forefront of legal innovation, spearheaded the firm’s artificial intelligence initiative to bring machine learning for contract review to the firm’s transactional services.

Lann is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, and Service Design professional. He conducts workshops on Legal Project Management and Service Design for the firm and its clients.