Seyfarth Shaw Hosts Project Management Institute President Mark Langley

Contacts:
Kevin Livingston, National Director of Public Relations
(312) 460-6681 / (212) 218-5272, klivingston@seyfarth.com

Ivette Delgado, Senior Public Relations Associate
(212) 218-5273, idelgado@seyfarth.com

CHICAGO (May 6, 2011) -- Leading law firm Seyfarth Shaw, in partnership with the Executive Council of the Chicagoland Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI), hosted PMI President and CEO Mark A. Langley April 13 for a morning breakfast briefing on the value of project management in corporations. 

Langley recently became PMI’s President and CEO in December 2010 after serving over eight years as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. In the chief executive role, Langley is responsible for overseeing and serving as the lead advocate for PMI’s complex global organization, consisting of more than half a million members, certification holders and other stakeholders in more than 185 countries. In support of the PMI Board of Directors, Langley’s primary responsibility is leading the organization’s alignment to and execution of PMI’s strategic plan through the development and implementation of its operating strategies and organization.

The breakfast briefing, which was held in Seyfarth’s Chicago office, brought together more than a dozen industry representatives responsible for the project management function in their respective organizations. Langley and others in the group were especially intrigued with the use of project management in the delivery of legal services - an area currently underrepresented in PMI’s membership base - and were very much impressed with Seyfarth’s commitment to project management. The firm was well represented in the briefing by Atlanta partner Brett Bartlett, Chief Strategic Innovations Officer Carla Goldstein, Project Management Office Director Kim Craig, Senior Project Manager John Duggan and Chicago partner David Weiner. 

Langley’s talk focused on the future of project management and its importance to global business. Some of the topics Langley touched upon included:

• That the most effective use of project management has to be rooted in business (ie, strategic) objectives
• That project management is not just about tracking tasks, but that it is more about people and leadership organic middleware
• The cultural shift necessary to persuade stakeholders to use project management, not as a mere tool pushing a project through, but as a dynamic model that relies on human interactions and an intelligent use of resources
• An emphasis on developing the right model—several appropriately tasked, sophisticated project managers to do it right instead of 100 who are directionless managers
• How PMI is working with various education institutions that desire to place more project management courses in their MBA programs.

Seyfarth Shaw has over 750 attorneys located in 10 offices throughout the United States, including: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Sacramento, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., as well as internationally in London. Seyfarth Shaw provides a broad range of legal services in the areas of labor and employment, employee benefits, litigation, corporate, and real estate. The firm’s practice reflects virtually every industry and segment of the country’s business and social fabric. Clients include over 300 of the Fortune 500 companies, financial institutions, newspapers and other media, hotels, health care organizations, airlines and railroads. The firm also represents a number of federal, state and local governmental and educational entities. For more information, please visit www.seyfarth.com.