A Deep Dive Into Legal Project Manager Salaries: Trends, Insights, and Predictions

The Role of the Legal Project Manager

As corporate and regulatory pressures insist law firms justify costs through sound budgets, firms with legal project managers will enjoy a significant competitive advantage. Legal project managers (LPM) assist in managing processes, the people involved in a matter, and the technology that can contribute to an outcome that works within a client’s budget. Most LPMs have comprehensive budgets, timelines, guidelines, and can estimate the costs of all major tasks in a matter. They ensure all team members know their timelines and adhere to them, reallocate resources as required to meet deadlines, and report regularly on progress .
LPMs also coach associates to develop more appropriate budgets, assist them in understanding the value of their work over all phases of a matter, and help them to improve their work by reviewing cases of previous work that are most relevant to the current matter. LPMs deliver the greatest value when they are involved at the very beginning of a matter, participating in the RFP process, working with business development to define the case strategy, and meeting with the client to ensure all impacts are known and task owners are identified. The most successful LPMs are those who work alongside partners and associates – those who are not sitting separately in a corporate office several blocks away from the lawyers at the matter level.

Legal Project Manager Salary Overview

The average salary of a career Legal Project Manager is $104,000. According to Payscale, the range for a Legal Project Manager is between $73,000 and $147,000 per year. An entry-level Legal Project Manager earns around $85,000 per year, while a professional with five to nine years of experience can expect to earn $107,000, and a Project Manager with a decade or more of experience earns an average of $141,000. However, the salaries vary widely depending on region, industry sector, specialty, and organization – big law, corporate in-house, government, etc. As stated above, the lowest end of the LPM salary is around $85,000 for entry-level managers. However, the lowest salary reported on Payscale is $53,000, for a less experienced, entry-level position. For the sake of parity, I chose to use a manager with comparable skills in both examples, but consider that there are multiple factors that are likely to impact salary, such as location and specific organization. Legal Project Managers in the pharmaceutical industry were found to have an average income of $115,000 according to a 2018 report by LPM Expert. Additionally, recent research by ALM Professional Services and LawGeex surveyed 250 industry leaders concerning the state of legal operations in 2019. In that survey, over half (58%) of those polled reported an LPM with a salary of $100,000, while nearly three-quarters (72%) reported salaries of at least $90,000. 19% reported Legal Project Manager salaries at $120,000 or more – with a couple of respondents disclosing salaries of $150,000 and $180,000. Meanwhile, LPM salaries in Europe range between €55,000 and €95,000 for LPMs with 3 to 10 years of experience, and €70,000 to €140,000 for 10+ years of experience.

Legal Project Manager Salary: Compensation Factors

The remuneration of a legal project manager can be influenced by a variety of factors. Chief among these are experience level and industry demand. In general, those with more experience are able to command higher salaries. An increase in demand for legal project managers can be a boon for project managers as law firms look to fill positions with the best candidates. Geographic location can also have a marked impact on salaries. We can see this reflected in, for instance, the way in which demand for legal project managers in Australia has increased in the last decade. The average salary tends to be a bit lower than that of the U.S., but lawyers and firms continue to invest in project management. Educational background is another factor. If a professional possesses an advanced degree relevant to the work of a legal project manager, such as an MBA or an LL.M., this can lead to a more favorable perception by prospective employers.

Comparing The Legal Project Manager To Similar Jobs

To further understand the legal project manager salary picture, it is helpful to look at how legal project managers are compensated relatively to other similar job roles. This will also help us assess whether the average LPM salary is continuing to keep pace with the compensation growth in other professional sectors.
Project management and legal project management are in the same family of fields, so the salary for project managers is a good starting point. The average annual salary for a project manager in the United States is $87,812, according to Payscale. The BLS, which counts all project management occupations, reports a median pay of $96,000 for construction project managers, $124,300 for IT project managers, and $128,400 for engineering project managers.
The BLS does not provide a specific classification for legal project managers, but our research into salary range data indicates that the average salary for legal project managers is trending higher than that for the legal project manager position for many years now.
Other related professional fields include legal operations management, knowledge management and practice technology management. Legal operations personnel earn an average salary of $125,000. Knowledge management professionals average around $140,000, while practice technology managers make around $145,000.
The cutting-edge nature of the legal project manager role does not yet result in the high salaries typically expected for IT and engineering managers in the commercial sector; the upside for LPMs may come with time and exposure.

Career Advancement And Salary Improvements For the Legal Project Manager

Like most professions in professional services, a trained and experienced LPM tends to see growth in salary commensurate with their growing expertise. A lateral move to a new firm will often result in a bump in salary, but after that nominal increase , what is the expectation for career progression and salary growth?
LPMs typically grow in their organizations along with the growing sophistication of the profession. Here are some examples of how LPMs evolve in their careers:
· High-performing LPMs who join an organization with an existing LPM function may eventually outgrow that organization. The resulting free agency of being able to negotiate for a raise or a promotion with no repercussions results in a quick and substantial spike in salary. A flight of talent from one firm to another like this can significantly impact the group average salary and any related projections.
· LPMs approved as Directors or even "Chief" LPMs (Chief Legal Project Managers or Chief Officer of Legal Project Managers) are often members of a partner management group for the first time. Their individual track record of success along with the firm’s sizeable investment in their continued success leads to an initial psychic salary bump and an expectation of annual raises to develop the high-performing talent.
· Experienced LPMs move from firm leadership positions to external or internal roles. An external move to a consulting firm or company can result in a substantial spike in salary. Dual career paths from a single law firm are now offered by some firms of which these attorneys are lured from their firms with the offer of an equity stake in a consulting business that will be launched and operated by the law firm itself. In the past, successful LPMs have left law firms to run company in-house LPM functions. With so much inertia in the law firm system, the smart money has been on an in-house move for top talent.

How to Boost Your Legal Project Manager Salary

In addition to gaining experience as a legal project manager, LPMs can increase their salary through additional certifications and education. Certifications such as the Legal Project Manager Certified (LPM-C) from the Association of Legal Administrators, or the project management professional (PMP) credential from the Project Management Institute, can help LPMs stand out in the job market and demonstrate their willingness and ability to stay ahead of industry trends and improve the quality of work they provide.
Advanced degrees related to legal project management are also an option. For example, some law schools offer LLM degrees with a concentration in legal project management or law practice management. An LLM from a respectable law school can help LPMs gain new perspectives and professional contacts to further their careers and is typically a more affordable alternative to pursuing a Juris Doctor (JD) degree.

Legal Project Manager Salary in the Next Five to Ten Years

As the legal industry continues to evolve, the trends in legal project manager salaries are likely to change as well. One key trend that is already having an impact is the rise of legal technology. As more firms adopt technology to improve their operations, legal project managers with expertise in implementing and managing these tools are likely to see a bump in their salaries. For example, a recent study found that project managers with experience using legal research software earned an average of $6,000 more per year than their colleagues with no such experience.
Another trend to watch is the increasing focus on data analytics within the legal industry. Legal project managers who can analyze large data sets and provide insights to clients may be able to command higher salaries as a result. This is particularly true as more firms look to leverage data to drive business development and improve client relationships . In fact, a recent survey found that 71% of respondents said that data analytics would play a greater role in their decision-making processes over the next three years.
Finally, the increasing reliance on project management methodologies is also likely to impact legal project manager salaries in the future. As more firms implement these methodologies to improve their efficiency and deliver better results for clients, project managers who are skilled in these areas may be able to command higher salaries. For example, a recent study found that project managers with experience using Agile project management earned an average of $5,000 more per year than their colleagues with no such experience.
Overall, it is clear that the trends in legal project manager salaries are likely to continue evolving in the coming years. As the legal industry continues to change, legal project managers will need to stay ahead of these trends if they want to remain competitive in the job market.