What Is Legal Process Improvement?
In order to maintain a competitive advantage, providing satisfactory services to customers and clients while keeping a few steps ahead of their peers, every business can benefit from process improvement. Simply put, process improvement involves leveraging different tools, models, and methodologies to create more efficient and cost-effective ways of delivering a valuable product or service—providing a superior experience and better value for the end user. Process improvement can be applied in any business context, and law firms are no exception.
In fact, one of the best ways for a law firm to enhance its value proposition is by engaging in legal process improvement. Those who possess a degree or certificate in legal innovation and technology can spearhead these efforts, furnishing law firms with better ways of doing business and representing the needs of their clients.
Defining Legal Process Improvement
It might be helpful to consider what legal process improvement actually is, and how it can benefit legal operations. At its most basic level, legal process improvement is a discipline that exists within the legal sector, leveraging principles such as Six Sigma—along with other business modalities—to rethink different aspects of how law firms are run. The ultimate goal is for law firms to become more effective and efficient, providing optimal client outcomes more expediently and with lowered costs.
A History of Legal Process Improvement
This emerging field started gaining traction during the global financial crisis of 2007 through 2009. During this season of economic duress, law firms—including both internal and external teams—were placed under considerable pressure by their clients and needed to find leaner ways of providing necessary legal services. Many firms went out of business during this time period, and of those that remained successful, clients began asking for alternative fee structures, new service delivery models, and an overall demystification of the legal process. From these demands, the field of legal process improvement was born, with innovative attorneys seeking solutions from the world of business.
The Goals of Legal Process Improvement
The field of legal process improvement uses tools such as Lean Six Sigma and business process redesign to make law firms more nimble and less top-heavy. This may involve streamlining both legal processes as well as administrative processes, with the ultimate goal of improving service quality, minimizing resource requirements, and delivering results on a faster timeline.
Key Concepts in Legal Process Improvement
In legal process improvement, essentially all work can be reduced to different processes. Some of these processes are formal, which is to say that they are written down and standardized throughout the company or department. Other processes are informal and consist of the specific steps, habits, and routines that teams perform every day. Both kinds of processes are open to review, revision, and refinement, with the ultimate goal of improving efficiency by eliminating unnecessary steps.
As legal professionals seek to improve their own processes, there are a number of salient concepts to consider. Here are just a few of the concepts that are considered essential to legal process improvement.
- Efficiency. Improving legal processes means boosting efficiency, both with regard to resources and costs. This will often mean seeking more direct, expedient, and affordable ways to achieve the same outcomes.
- Effectiveness. Lawyers never want to prioritize efficiency at the expense of effectiveness. Simply put, they always want to meet the same high standards of client outcomes. It’s important to measure results, ensuring that process improvement never compromises quality in any quantifiable way.
- Lean manufacturing. Many attorneys rely on tried-and-true principles from lean manufacturing, which is all about reducing the cycle time of a process and eliminating any waste or redundancy. Lean manufacturing is closely associated with the automotive industry but also has implications for legal firms.
- Six Sigma. The Six Sigma model seeks to improve outcomes by identifying and eliminating any sources of errors/defects or variability. This mindset often goes hand-in-hand with lean manufacturing, to the point that it’s sometimes referred to as Lean Six Sigma.
These are just a few of the business process improvement principles that can be applied by law firms.
The Benefits of Using Business Process Improvement in a Legal Setting
By applying these business process improvement concepts in a legal setting, attorneys can experience a number of different benefits. Some of these benefits include:
A Better Understanding of Clients
By applying Lean Six Sigma and similar principles, attorneys will often gain clarity with regard to client expectations, which enables them to continue providing legal outcomes at a high level of quality.
Superior Outcomes
Ultimately, the correct implementation of business process improvement principles will help law firms improve their legal methods and standardize their approach to quality assurance and control. In short, process improvement should empower attorneys to do better work on behalf of their clients.
Reduced Lead Times
Clients want their legal services rendered as promptly as possible, with short lead turnaround times. One of the primary benefits of improving legal processes is that it can curtail the lead times that attorneys require, meaning clients get their results more expediently.
Improved Client Retention
By providing superior client outcomes with shortened lead times, law firms can improve their levels of client satisfaction, loyalty, and retention. They can also boost the likelihood of their clients recommending the firm to friends or colleagues.
Lowered Costs
A big emphasis of business process improvement is eliminating any needless resource expenditures. This means lowered costs and heightened value for the client.
Improved Use of Capital
Along the same lines, when law firms improve their processes using principles from lean manufacturing or Six Sigma, it enables them to use their capital and resources much more efficiently. In other words, it empowers law firms to do more with less.
Reduced Stress for Legal Teams
While many of the benefits of legal process improvement relate to the end user, it’s important to note that greater nimbleness, shorter lead times, and superior resource allocation can all lead to a less stressful professional experience. This can mean higher morale and retention for the entire legal team and office staff.
What are the Steps Involved in Legal Process Improvement?
Implementing the steps of business process improvement in a legal setting can look a little different from one firm to the next. With that said, the steps involved will often follow this basic outline.
1. Select the Processes Targeted for Improvement
As noted earlier, every business has its own set of processes—including both formal and informal ones. One of the first steps in the process improvement journey is identifying what these processes are and identifying the ones that are most ripe for refinement or enhancement.
Most attorneys choose a process to improve based on the following criteria:
- Which processes represent the highest priorities for clients? Which processes affect clients more directly?
- Are there any processes that generate a high volume of negative feedback from clients? How about from personnel?
- Are there any processes that generate a high volume of defects, or regularly require the legal team to engage in rework?
- Are there any processes that are currently trending downward in terms of profits (not revenue)?
Based on these questions, lawyers can potentially identify areas of their practice that could stand to be improved.
2. Define Existing Processes
Before lawyers can brainstorm ways to improve a process, they first need a clear understanding of how it works currently. Effective process improvement requires each process to be defined using this rubric:
- Take some time to model the current process, thinking it through step by step. This can often yield some surprising revelations and discoveries.
- Agree to the boundaries of the process—which can sometimes be harder than anticipated.
- Remember to consider both legal and non-legal processes. Often, the best way to improve client outcomes is by considering more basic administrative efficiencies.
3. Organize Contributions from Team Members
Most processes involve contributions from multiple members of the legal team. By clearly organizing these contributions, lawyers can:
- Identify specific opportunities for improvement.
- Generate action plans and then delegate the responsibilities for implementing these action plans.
- Gain buy-in from team members, ensuring everyone is in agreement about the improvements that need to be made.
- Ensure that there is consistency in expectations across the entire team.
4. Simplify Processes
Ultimately, once processes have been identified and modeled—and specific team contributions have been articulated—the goal is to simplify each process, breaking it down to its essence. This should be done according to a few different principles:
- Remove any defects or common triggers for rework.
- Take out any activities that do not provide direct value to the client.
- Reduce the number of “handoffs” needed for a process to be completed.
- Build quality assurance measures into the process.
Ensure a standard of quality control, but be sure not to rely solely on checking for quality at the very end of the process.
By following these four basic steps, lawyers can be successful in streamlining some of their internal processes, to the benefit of the firm and also to their clientele.
Tips for Effective Legal Process Improvement
For law firms that have never formally engaged in process improvement, even this basic list of steps may seem a little daunting. For best results, the following business process improvement tips may be invaluable.
Keep a List of Current Business Processes
Most professionals engage in a number of different processes every single day, without ever stopping to really think about them. Improving legal processes is much smoother and more organized when the firm maintains an active list of both formal and informal processes. These may be listed in rough order of priority, separated into legal and non-legal, or even grouped according to those that require specialized skills and those that are more general. These processes should be listed through collaboration from all team members.
Map Out These Processes
Each process is ultimately a series of smaller actions, activities, or steps. Once the master list of processes is complete, the next thing to do is break down each one into smaller parts, mapping out exactly what’s involved in each legal process.
Highlight Problematic Areas
Some processes are fluid and frictionless, others burdensome and slow. Regardless, every process is bound to have some areas that cause problems, and the first step toward improving a process is recognizing what those problems are. In assessing different problem areas, think about where clients and team members tend to complain, where most of the team’s time seems to disappear, and where work is most often met with resistance or the need to be redone.
Don’t Forget Clients
Every process improvement should ultimately benefit the client, even if it’s a process that’s mostly “behind the scenes.” Even when considering these processes that are somewhat invisible to the end user, try to articulate specific ways in which it will improve the client experience—for example, reduced costs or shorter lead times. Don’t hesitate to convey these improvements to clients, perhaps through an email newsletter that celebrates the behind-the-scenes steps that have been taken to make their experience better.
Invest in Resources
One of the goals of business process improvement is to reduce the resources required by the firm. However, in some situations, the best way to improve efficiency and eliminate waste is to actually invest in new or better resources. For example, if there are a lot of costly errors made due to document filing errors, locating and purchasing a good record-keeping system can be invaluable in the long run. Be open to opportunities such as these.
Communicate Changes
Change is hard, even when it represents process improvement. To ensure the smoothest and most seamless transition from one process to the next, it’s critical to communicate with clarity. Explain the new process—as well as the rationale behind it—to team members and employees. It is crucial to do this early, not once the change has already been made. Communication is an essential step in legal process improvement.
Review and Keep Improving
Once changes have been made, stakeholders at the firm should devote some time for reflection, assessing whether the change has actually yielded the improvements they hoped for. Of course, this will usually require allowing some time to elapse, as results may not be evident right away. Additionally, it’s crucial to never use a successful improvement as an excuse to grow careless or negligent. The most successful firms will develop cultures and mentalities focused on continuous improvement, always seeking new ways to do things better.
Lean Six Sigma vs. Design Thinking
As lawyers consider their options for business process redesign, there are a number of schools of thought to consider. Lean Six Sigma principles are popular in the legal profession and are analogous to design thinking in many ways. As such, it may be worth considering the distinctions between these two disciplines.
Lean Six Sigma was popularized in the 1980s and 1990s, drawing equally from Japanese manufacturing principles as well as U.S. business mentalities. It tends to be a fairly mathematical approach, focused on reducing defects and eliminating waste as much as possible.
By contrast, design thinking is a more recent philosophy, combining elements of process improvement and simplification with a more customer-centered perspective. This method places a heavy emphasis on the voice of the customer and always defines quality and success from the client’s point of view.
Those who have training in this field, such as through a legal technology certificate, will be well-credentialed to leverage one or both of these philosophies to help a law firm run more efficiently.
Improve Processes in the Legal World
The bottom line is that every customer-facing business can benefit from implementing business process redesign principles and developing new and improved ways of achieving high-quality outcomes. Doing so not only energizes the team but can also improve satisfaction and retention among customers and clients. Law firms, in particular, have taken to process improvement in a big way.
To be a part of this movement and help boost efficiency within the legal profession, consider a formal education, such as the online Legal Innovation & Technology Certificate program offered by Suffolk University’s Center for Continuing & Professional Education (CCPE). This certificate program can provide the skills needed to make thoughtful, effective, and analytical improvements to existing legal processes, ultimately helping you succeed in this important discipline.
Learn more about Suffolk University’s CCPE legal technology certificate today.
Recommended Readings:
How Legal Tech Is Reshaping the Industry
Why Lawyers Need a 21st Century Legal Education
Sources:
ASQ, “What Is Six Sigma?”
Basalt Group, “Understanding Legal Process Improvement”
Forbes, “What Is Process Improvement?”
Investopedia, “Lean Six Sigma: Definition, Principles, and Benefits”
Real Automation Solutions, “8 Ways You Can Improve Your Law Firm’s Processes”