We started Gimbal because after years of practicing law ourselves, we knew how hard lawyers work—the long hours, the overwhelm, the stress—and we were convinced there was a better way. We wanted to help lawyers find more efficient ways of running their practices. And we did. Now, grab a coffee and settle in: this post is a little longer than usual! 

Over a decade ago, we discovered Lean Six Sigma and recognized that it could be used to increase efficiency, productivity, and profitability to our profession (without making anyone work harder!) Since then, we have strayed from a purist approach to LSS as we have adapted it to the unique qualities of our profession, but there are still lessons to be learned.

Lean Six Sigma has been described as many things: a philosophy, a set of management practices aimed at efficiency and effectiveness, a methodology for improvement, a strategy for running a business. In truth, it’s all of these and more. 

Your Tip: Lean Six Sigma is a melding of two business improvement strategies that began in manufacturing. Although not all of the methodologies and practices that apply to manufacturing are transferable, Lean Six Sigma is an important change agent in the service industry - including legal.

Our LeanLegal approach uses well-known tools to analyze processes for waste (such as errors, rework, and delays), and to assess and improve the flow of quality work throughout every aspect of a legal or business process, a transaction, or a file. The focus is on separating value-adding from non-value-adding activities, then identifying and eliminating the root causes and associated costs of the non-value-adding activities.

Your Action Item: Start with the low-hanging fruit. Look at your processes and eliminate the obvious waste (we’ve got a free download that will help you—the link is below!). The easier it is to implement, the greater the success. Trust us! When you take action, resulting efficiencies and increases in effectiveness will ripple through your organization, resulting in incremental improvements everywhere.

Lean Six Sigma works in law because its four main goals align perfectly with improved legal service delivery.

Goal 1: Customer Satisfaction/ Delight the client.

It is not enough merely to meet client expectations; you have to exceed them. Your goal has to be to deliver outstanding client service, beginning with the intake of new clients 

This is especially true of law firms—for firms in a given tier, there is very little competition on price or even on quality of work. To distinguish your excellent legal work from their excellent legal work, you have to do more than just satisfy your clients. You have to delight them.

Goal 2: Add value.

Everything you do (or at least everything you charge for) must add value in the eyes of your client.

For an action, product, or service to add value, it must meet three basic criteria: 

1. The client has to care about it and be willing to pay for what you’ve done; 
2. Your action has to change the form, fit, or function of the service or product. That is, you have to bring the matter closer to the end state that the client is willing to pay for, and
3. The action has to be done right the first time. The very first time.
   
   

Goal 3: Eliminate (or at least reduce) waste and increase flow.

Anything you do that does not satisfy all three value criteria amounts to waste and must be reduced or eliminated. There are eight classic forms of waste: defects, overproduction, waiting. non-utilized talent, transportation, inventory, motion, and extra processing. We refer to these eight wastes as DOWNTIME and we’ve just wrapped up a series of posts explaining how you can find each in your practice. (You can learn more about them here.) 

No matter how good an attorney you are, I’m sure you could look at your practice right now and identify waste: rewriting documentation, correcting the errors of a colleague or opposing counsel, waiting for a response from a team member or a client, wasting time in unproductive meetings. In law, wastes abound. They cost you money, they annoy your clients, and they interfere with the flow of work through your office.

Goal 4: Capitalize on opportunities.

Lean Six Sigma allows you to focus on overlooked or undercapitalized value-generating activities, improving and profiting from them.

Improvement through Lean Six Sigma is not a single act. It is a philosophy, a cultural shift, a never-ending journey in the pursuit of efficiency, the elimination of waste, and the increase in workflow. In a law firm or an in-house legal department, it has to begin at the top, with the support and buy-in of managing partners.

If you want to learn how to use these strategies in your practice, join Practice Accelerator Coaching, our exclusive small-group coaching program. We’ll help you increase your revenue without burning out with our proven formula. Learn more here.