Process Improvement

What if you could find ways to improve client service, and be more profitable? Most law firms and lawyers could benefit from a better understanding of legal services as a set of processes that can be systematically optimized to reduce waste and errors and improve efficiency, resulting in higher profit. Check out this business case for improving one process – timekeeping:

Process improvement and project management are management disciplines that are critical for law firm leaders to understand and master. Consultant Catherine Alman MacDonagh, author of Lean Six Sigma for Law Firms (Ark Group), explains the difference and importance of these disciplines in these articles:

An Introduction to Lean Six Sigma for Law Firms (BCLMA)

At the Intersection of Process Improvement and Project Management

Catherine facilitates workshops on process improvement for law firms, some of which last for two days or more. Some of her articles can give us insight into how the process improvement discipline works, and how you can use it to reduce waste, minimize errors and improve efficiency. Here is a sampling:

Applying Continuous Improvement to High End Legal Services (Clifford Chance)

Collaborative Improvement: Using Lean Six Sigma to Become a Trusted Partner to Clients

Foreclosure Firm Goes Statistical to Improve Speed and Quality (American Bar Journal)

Deeper Dive

Want to learn more? Here are some optional resources that explain the legal process improvement method, and how it can be applied to improve efficiency in law firms.

A brief introduction to process improvement – 9 minutes

Ken Grady of Seyfarth Lean explains how Seyfarth productized process improvement to help clients. 50 minutes long.
A 16 minute crash course on process improvement, from a paralegal perspective.