Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/7694
www.iltanet.org The Business of Law 29 lean six sigMa: Mastering the art of service delivery plans to confront parochial tendencies. Over the last few years, many legal organizations have expanded their ranks to include project managers and business and knowledge management analysts to minimize the costs associated with large technology implementations and practice group development. Since these roles often span functional boundaries, these managers and analysts can play a key role in reinforcing new processes, developing skills, coaching teams and sustaining the overall initiative. LegaL DePLoyMenT ChaLLengeS While the literature applies case studies from law departments to all areas of the legal vertical, there may be differences between the way legal departments and law firms adapt these concepts to their organizations. Most of the discussion about legal departments tends to reference Six Sigma methods over Lean strategies, possibly because the case studies come from larger organizations that already have functioning process improvement initiatives. Legal departments may also start by applying Six Sigma to litigation processes, such as e-discovery, because the process is already well-defined and an important element in a department's effort to manage risk. Finally, as Betsy Collins observed in "Six Sigma, the Discovery Process and the Corporate Legal Department," the metrics that result from process improvement projects may justify increasing law department technology budgets, which in turn provides additional tools to monitor and manage value-added strategies. On the other hand, law firms may be more attracted to Lean methods because Lean requires a more modest infrastructure and can " . . . law firms may be more attracted to Lean methods because Lean requires a more modest infrastructure and can generate results more quickly."