In mid-2013, it's fair to say that we have now arrived in a world in which legal project management (LPM) is here to stay. In a recent survey by American Lawyer Media, fully 51 percent of managing partners, attorneys and top staff at major law firms said their firm was employing LPM in some manner. As recently as 2008, that number would have been much smaller. Project management just wasn't on the radar screen of the legal industry, but it is now.

It's clear that for a number of reasons that stem largely from client demands for greater predictability, accountability and transparency around the cost of legal services, major law firms are now embracing LPM, whether they want to or not. The demand has come, of course, from corporations and their in-house legal departments, many of which already employ LPM in their operations.

A major question about LPM has, however, arisen lately, one whose answer may determine whether the project management trend that has been sweeping the legal world will continue in full force or will stall.