“When we started looking at the way lawyers work, I remember being completely amazed at the lack of any process. We really thought this was something that as accountants and consultants we could bring to the party. After a number of years of trying, I cannot say that we made any real inroads. Lawyers and process just seem like oil and water.”
So said a partner in one of the big accountancy firms with a ‘history’ of law firm involvement during my recent conversation with him. His reaction may be partly the reflection of the extremes of these two professions. In my own experience, accountants can be obsessive about process – to the extent that the process sometimes ends up seeming more important than the original objective of the exercise. Give an accountant a checklist – or better still a Gantt chart – and he is well away.
