GSA/christopher

---
title: Applying Agile Practices - Agile Legal
category: Agile
audiences:
  - Developers
  - Designers
  - Project Managers
---

In his article, [*Lean Legal: Three Techniques for the Agile Lawyer*](https://files.clio.com/marketo/ebooks/lean-legal-three-techniques-for-the-agile-lawyer.pdf), John Grant states that a growing number of attorneys and Legal teams are using Agile methods (Scrum, Kanban, etc.) to manage litigation projects and support transactional practices in immigration, business formation, and family law. 

While many lawyers struggle with the idea of incorporating traditional project management within legal matters due to the amount of up-front planning, Agile practices make Legal project management easier by breaking the project down and enabling rapid delivery of value to the customer. John Grant; a lawyer, Agile Legal consultant, and creator of [The Agile Attorney Network](http://agileattorney.net/#front-page-3); has identified three techniques attorneys can implement to become more Agile:
* Technique #1: Make Your Work (and Your Workflow) Visible
* Technique #2: Trade in Tasks for Stories
* Technique #3: Be Retrospective

<img src="{{ site.baseurl }}/assets/img/guides/Agile_Legal.png"
  alt="Agile Legal"
  class="guide-image guide-image-three-fourths">  
*Source: The Agile Attorney & Sound Immigration*

Using an Agile Legal approach makes work visible, encourages collaboration, enables responsiveness, supports consistency of communication, and can even create a competitive advantage with clients that “speak Agile.”

### Good Reads
These are good references for understanding Agile practices used in Legal:
* [6 agile principles that apply to everything](http://www.cio.com/article/2971822/agile-development/6-agile-principles-that-apply-to-everything.html)
* [Agile Alliance: Agile 101](https://www.agilealliance.org/agile101/)
* [Embracing Agile](https://hbr.org/2016/05/embracing-agile)
* [How to apply Agile practices with your non-tech team or business](http://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-apply-agile-practices-with-your-non-tech-team-or-business/)
* [Organisational agility: How business can survive and thrive in turbulent times](https://www.emc.com/collateral/leadership/organisational-agility-230309.pdf)

##### Legal
* [How lawyers can use Agile project management and kanban](https://www.soundimmigration.com/agile/)
* [Lean Legal: Three Techniques for the Agile Lawyer](https://files.clio.com/marketo/ebooks/lean-legal-three-techniques-for-the-agile-lawyer.pdf)
* [The Dawn of the Agile Attorney](http://www.lawpracticetoday.org/article/dawn-agile-attorney/)
* [Using the Kanban System to Become a More Agile Attorney](https://www.rocketmatter.com/news/using-the-kanban-system-to-become-a-more-agile-attorney/)