‘Applying Continuous Improvement to high-end legal services‘ is Clifford Chance’s (CC’s) white paper on the application of lean and Six Sigma techniques to their business. Black belt naffery aside (yikes, the Six Sigma ninjas will be out to improve me), it’s an interesting introduction to continuous improvement ideas and there are one or two interesting examples.
In particular, document review was reportedly improved by improving access to, and communication from, “the experienced lawyers working on the matter” and, “a statistical ‘sample size calculator’ also enabled the team to decide, on a mathematical basis, the optimum number of documents to be checked for quality assurance purposes.” The implication is this reduced errors and “senior lawyer time spent reviewing irrelevant documents.” They have also introduced, “a standard template briefing document and review protocol. This has ensured that teams are better prepared before the review and the lawyers are engaged from the outset with the review team and the issues.” Rocket science it ain’t, but then who said improvement had to be obscure?
