The Project Plan / Case Studies station is about making legal execution visible, predictable, and repeatable for complex or high-impact work.

Project plans provide a forward-looking execution map — clarifying milestones, dependencies, roles, and timing.

Case studies provide a backward-looking intelligence asset — capturing what actually happened, what worked, and what should change next time.

Together, they allow legal to move from reactive delivery to pre-mobilised execution, particularly for special projects such as acquisitions, disposals, restructures, financings, and major regulatory initiatives.

This station on the Internal Client Line is where legal converts experience into institutional execution capability.

The Project Plan / Case Studies station should enable legal to:

◼️ Pre-Mobilise Legal Work: Define the legal pathway before execution begins.

◼️ Map Legal Dependencies: Clarify what must happen, and when.

◼️ Align Stakeholders: Legal, business, finance, and external advisors work from a shared plan.

◼️ Support Commercial Leadership: Legal timelines integrate with project plans.

◼️ Improve Predictability: Fewer surprises late in execution.

◼️ Capture Execution Reality: What actually happened vs what was planned.

◼️ Extract Practical Insight: Lessons that inform future projects.

◼️ Feed Knowledge Harvest: Case studies update playbooks and training.

◼️ Support Better Scoping: More accurate effort and cost estimates.

◼️ Institutionalise Learning: Knowledge survives personnel change.

The Project Plan / Case Studies station is considered a Specialist resource within the GLS Legal Operations model.

A Foundational Resource: Is responsible for determining the overall performance capabilities of a “critical” legal function. If it is not optimised, the function can never be optimised. 

A Repeater Resource: Supports the performance of multiple "critical" legal functions and as such represents a "ripple effect" productivity intervention point. 

A Specialist Resource: Is responsible for driving the performance of a very specific part of an individual legal function. Its productivity contribution is limited to that single legal function. 

Best practice Project Plans and Case Studies demonstrate:

◼️ Practical Focus: Designed for execution, not theory.

◼️ Legal-Specific Structure: Reflects how legal work actually unfolds.

◼️ Integration with Business Plans: Legal is not operating in isolation.

◼️ Clear Milestones: Decision points and dependencies are explicit.

◼️ Ownership Clarity: Who is responsible for what is visible.

◼️ Risk Visibility: Known legal risks are surfaced early.

◼️ Reusable Formats: Plans and case studies follow consistent structures.

◼️ Honest Reflection: Case studies capture reality, not sanitised narratives.

◼️ Actionable Lessons: Insight feeds future behaviour.

◼️ Leadership Endorsement: Used, not ignored.

Project Plans and Case Studies deliver business value by:

◼️ Improving Delivery Speed: Less improvisation during execution.

◼️ Increasing Predictability: Fewer late-stage surprises.

◼️ Reducing Cost: Better scoping and fewer reworks.

◼️ Supporting Better Decisions: Leaders understand legal implications early.

◼️ Improving Coordination: Legal aligns with broader project timelines.

◼️ Reducing Execution Risk: Known issues are planned for.

◼️ Supporting Growth: Complex projects scale safely.

◼️ Enhancing Governance: Decisions are documented and defensible.

◼️ Improving Stakeholder Confidence: Legal delivery feels controlled.

◼️ Avoiding Repeated Mistakes: Lessons are reused.

For the legal department, this station provides:

◼️ Execution Control: Legal work is planned, not improvised.

◼️ Stronger Credibility: Legal is seen as delivery-capable.

◼️ Reduced Firefighting: Fewer last-minute crises.

◼️ Better External Counsel Management: Clear scope and sequencing.

◼️ More Accurate Forecasting: Future work better estimated.

◼️ Knowledge Retention: Insight survives staff turnover.

◼️ Improved Training Content: Real examples inform learning.

◼️ Foundation for Playbooks: Execution patterns codified.

◼️ Leadership Confidence: Legal can explain outcomes.

◼️ Operational Maturity: Delivery quality holds under pressure.

Project Plans and Case Studies are essential for:

◼️ Senior Executives

◼️ Strategy & Corporate Development Teams

◼️ Finance Teams

◼️ Project & Transformation Teams

◼️ Legal Operations Teams

◼️ In-House Legal Teams

◼️ General Counsel

◼️ External Counsel

◼️ Risk & Compliance Functions

◼️ Board-Level Stakeholders

Where Project Plans and Case Studies are absent or weak, organisations experience:

◼️ Reactive Delivery: Legal improvises under pressure.

◼️ Late Risk Discovery: Issues surface too late.

◼️ Cost Blowouts: Poor scoping drives overruns.

◼️ Repeated Errors: Lessons are forgotten.

◼️ Execution Drift: Legal work misaligns with business plans.

◼️ Stakeholder Frustration: Lack of clarity and predictability.

◼️ Poor Knowledge Transfer: Learning lost when people leave.

◼️ Weakened Governance: Decisions lack context.

◼️ Burnout: Teams operate in crisis mode.

◼️ Stalled Maturity: Execution capability plateaus.

Supporting Project Plans and Case Studies requires:

◼️ Project Planning Tools: Legal-specific milestone tracking.

◼️ Collaboration Platforms: Shared visibility across teams.

◼️ Document Management: Controlled access to plans and learnings.

◼️ Template Libraries: Standardised formats.

◼️ Knowledge Repositories: Case studies searchable and reusable.

◼️ Workflow Integration: Plans link to legal tasks.

◼️ Version Control: Accurate execution tracking.

◼️ Analytics: Insight into delivery performance.

◼️ Scalability: Works across multiple projects.

◼️ Change Enablement: Continuous improvement supported.