Lean Six Sigma for Law Firms

This groundbreaking thought leadership piece, now in its second edition, relates the foundational concepts and vocabulary of Lean and Six Sigma with other process improvement methodologies, including Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA), Legal WorkOut®, Business Process Redesign, Robotic Process Automation, Theory of Constraints, Gemba, and 5S. It describes how they are combined with project management and other approaches originally developed in other industries and explains how they apply and how to employ them in a legal environment.

To state the obvious, law is different to manufacturing. However, the same thinking, frameworks, and tools can produce the same extraordinary results and experiences. All legal departments, law offices, and firms, wherever they may fall on the process improvement continuum, will benefit from learning about the use of Lean and Six Sigma in a legal context. Written by the pre-eminent leader in this field, Catherine Alman MacDonagh JD, this book makes the case for continuous improvement.

This second edition includes new content in the areas of process improvement, project selection, structure, roles, responsibilities, and planning as well as deeper dives into how to use key concepts, structures, and tools such as the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) framework and the activities involved in each phase. It also explores the more important organizational development and strategy elements of building a continuous improvement culture. A review of readiness and operational excellence assessments, change management, and new information that helps make the case for continuous improvement is also included.

Whether your organization is just beginning to hear about these things and is curious about them, has developed skills and is undertaking projects, or has a fully branded continuous improvement or innovation strategy or program grounded in Lean Six Sigma, this book is intended to serve as a resource.