I see that someone is offering a 90 minute webinar in Legal Project Management for $400 ($300 if you don’t want the CD). Interesting.

Especially since I’m offering an all-day, in person master class in the subject for a little more than twice that amount — or a little less than twice that amount if you register by the end of this week (March 19). To boot, the master class will be led by the person who literally wrote the book on Legal Project Management.

The “Hourly Billing” Analysis

Per hour, the “competing” webinar* comes to $268 (or $201) per hour, whereas the master class is $150/teaching hour ($127 with early-bird discount). If you’re still a fan of hourly billing, then you know where to turn — and you get breakfast, lunch, and afternoon treats thrown in!

The “Value Billing” Analysis

How much of LPM — or anything — can you learn in 90 minutes? In fact, it’s a good question how much you can learn in a full day. As I work on the instructional design for the master class — no, I’m not just going to lecture all day! — I am struck by how much valuable info I’m being forced to omit or summarize in order to ensure that participants come away with hard, practical knowledge and techniques that they can put into play immediately. I’m doing some significant condensing and compression to fit this session into a single day. (On the other hand, you can use my book Legal Project Management to delve deeper into some of these topics.)

I’ve delivered a number of one-hour Legal Project Management seminars that have gone over well, so I know that a well delivered 60-90-minute session can excite people about the possibilities of LPM. However, there’s a difference — a big difference — between whetting the appetite and providing sufficient depth to allow participants to make a real difference in their organizations.  The value package for the day-long event includes an understanding of Legal Project Management and what it can and can’t accomplish, a session on how LPM can alter favorably the profitability and the economics of law practice, multiple interactive exercises, discussions with colleagues (and with me), and the aforementioned practical techniques that will make a difference when you get back to your office.

And I’m happy to have dinner with any of the participants that want to have an extended discussion or brain-picking/storming session afterward.

If you’re not in New York, there is the travel aspect. On the plus side, it’s a day in New York City at the absolute best time of the year, mid-April. That’s the time when non-New-Yorkers get a sense of why so many people love New York and when Escaped-From-New-Yorkers like me get just a touch nostalgic. On the not-so-plus side, travel takes time and adds to the cost.**

Of course, as long as you have time on a plane, might I suggest a particular book on Legal Project Management that you can read on the way home to reinforce what you’ve learned?

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*I hope you recognize that the stuff about “competition” is tongue-in-cheek. Sure, we’re both trying to make a living here, but at a deeper level I suspect we’re both on the same side competing against waste and inefficiency.

**For what it’s worth, I’ve been using Priceline to find hotels in New York lately, with fairly good results — around $90/night + tax for 3.5 star accommodations. So far, I’ve wound up at a very nice Doubletree and the faded-elegance Roosevelt, one winner and one so-so… but for $90 in New York, I’m not complaining. I may bid on four-star hotels for $100 for the next trip to see if it’s possible.