Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/7694
ILTA White Paper The Business of Law 32 and Hoerl conclude that the key difference between earlier improvement methods and more recent implementations is the existence of "an infrastructure of management systems" that support and sustain deployment. Executives from companies as diverse as Bank of America, Stanford University Hospital and Clinics, ITT Industries and Seyfarth Shaw all emphasize that personal executive involvement in projects and strategy is the key to overcoming these stumbling blocks. In an interview with iSixSigma Magazine, Thomas Sager, Vice President and General Counsel for DuPont, said executive engagement is critical, because "it is too hard to work on continuous improvement if you have people saying that we've been doing things the same way for 25 years and that's fine." Leadership engagement, instead of mere support and commitment, is the essential ingredient in overcoming both the "we're different" attitude and the perception that TQM is merely another management fad. LegaL CaSe STuDieS As in-house counsel grow bolder, only time will tell whether more law firms will move forward with Lean Six Sigma initiatives to tackle the challenges of cost and value. Today a number of factors indicate a growing interest in Lean Six Sigma within the legal industry. First, as the ACC Value Challenge continues to gain momentum, more law firms are considering process improvement as a means to understand their costs in alternative fee arrangements. Second, there are a growing number of blog posts, conference sessions and webinars on this topic, as well as training courses, such as Hildebrandt Baker Robbin's "Work Process Redesign" program, which explicitly ties the knot between project management and process improvement. By some accounts, more than100 legal organizations have requested presentations on process improvement over the last few years. In part, the number of legal departments interested in Six Sigma is growing because more than half of the Fortune 500 companies have already deployed Six Sigma to an extent. Organizations like Bank One, Caterpillar, DuPont, GE, IBM, ITT, Jones Lang LaSalle, Kodak, Lockheed Martin, Motorola, Raytheon and Texas Instruments have also implemented Six Sigma in legal services. Collins noted last spring that "in many companies the general counsel are being held to the same standard and metrics as other business unit colleagues and are expected to implement process improvement in measureable ways. In companies that have embraced Six Sigma, implementation of the philosophy is as serious in the law department as it is on the manufacturing floor." Many law firms reviewing their institutional client lists will likely discover any number of their top clients already practicing Six Sigma methods. Some writers have speculated that the use of Six Sigma in legal departments may actually accelerate the trend toward assigning matters to more efficient law firms. In Robert Ambrogi's Fortune article, "For the Record," James Michalowicz, former litigation manager at DuPont and Tyco, pointed out that "a number of law departments are now seeking to integrate the so-called Six Sigma method of quality improvement into the management and monitoring of their outside law firms." The trend to assign work on the basis of efficiency has already begun in some areas. In November 2009, Tyco announced a two-year contract with Eversheds, which, through the utilization of project management, had reduced Tyco's fees by 27 percent and the number of litigation cases by 60 percent, resulting in a 300 percent increase in