Lean In Law Firms & Departments (UK)

Applying Lean Management  in Law Firms

We help legal teams to

• turn work round to clients faster – reducing WIP & Lock-up,
• improve Processes & Productivity,
• develop staff to take on more responsibility and be more accountable.

HOW? 

Lean Management in Law

Every day you are faced with frustrations. Frustrations that mean you are;

• waiting for information, paperwork, emails to be returned – checking this information for errors,
• stopping and re-starting work due to interruptions,
• waiting for call backs from clients and third parties,
• checking the work of others for errors and compliance,
• searching for notes in a file, on a PC, across different software screens,
• generating bills and checking invoices bills,
• providing a Rolls Royce service for Mini revenues….

These (and the another 40+ frustrations we have seen whilst working with legal teams) Waste Your and Your Teams Time and Effort. 

These Frustrations delay work to clients and increase Lock-Up, WIP. 

The 8 areas of Frustration lead to the 8 Wastes found in Lean Management projects.

All the Daily FRUSTRATIONS are listed in our latest FREE PDF booklet * keep reading to get your copy.

“Daily FRUSTRATIONS – STOP throwing time and effort away!“

The Good News? these frustrations CAN BE removed or reduced – meaning you get more time to do the work you want and deliver improved work, faster to your clients.

What can Lean Management deliver for Law Firms?

• Faster Delivery to clients; 20-40% faster, we’ve seen an example of 60 days taken down to 8 days.
• Improved communications to your clients about progress and costs.
• Reduced Costs –  becoming more efficient means you can identify ways to reduce costs. (15-30% can be achieved)
• Faster Delivery brings the benefit of reduced WIP & Lock-up.
• Embed improvements in the way work is delivered.
• Deliver a STRATEGIC advantage over your competitors.

Levantar have developed a number of services for law firms looking at continuous improvement, process improvement or productivity;

• whether you are just starting to consider options,
• want initial training,
• want to discover what Lean management could bring to your firm etc..

To Get Your Lean in Law Firms Book fill in your details

we’ll get a copy to you within 24 hours.

“The Lean in Law book listed many of the things and frustrations we lose time on and the lost time calculations were frightening for our firm”

Senior Partner – regional firm

Using the Frustrations Booklet

The booklet takes about 10 minutes to read through and complete the Time Wasted Frustration Calculator.

When you’ve done it yourself, share the book with colleagues, staff in other departments, get them to complete the Time Wasted Frustration Calculator.

Work out how much time you are losing to the Frustrations and see if it starts a discussion about improvement in your firm.

5 Principles of Lean Management in Law Firms

5 Principles of Lean Management

Lean is often thought of as applying to manufacturing only. We’ve applied in law firms and regulated services;

How? there are 5 Principles of Lean Management which can be applied in many sectors and department.

1. Understand the VALUE that you provide to clients and how you can improve it.
2. Identify the VALUE STREAM; that is the process and steps you and your clients take to deliver your service. This includes finding the daily frustrations and the 8 Wastes that exist in your service delivery.
3. Get the service to FLOW by removing the wastes from the Value Stream.
4. PULL work when it’s required, not when you want to. This is the most difficult concept for Legal Firms to address.
5. Learn to strive for PERFECTION everyday, whilst still delivering your current service to your clients. Aim for continuous improvement.

If you want to read more you can always visit our article On Lean In Law Firms published by the Lean Management Journal.

We also have a small but growing number of Continuous Improvement Case Studies for Law Firms and Lean Management in Law Firms Blog stories which you are welcome to contact us about.

We also have a number of articles on Lean in Law Firms which we are happy to send through.

Just drop an email to Mark@levantar.co.uk to get your free copy or to find out more.

Lean and Process Improvement techniques have been delivering efficiency improvements in large and small businesses since the mid 1980’s.

In the legal world the adoption of such techniques has been much slower and is still being established. 

In the past month you and your team will have become frustrated the activities listed in our latest Frustrations Guide. 

All of the frustrations we list are things that we know legal staff tell their friends, their partners about their business -it really is a list of things that frustrate you and your staff.

All of the frustrations we list, waste your time and effort.   

We know because our clients have told us. 

Time and effort you could have put into other matters, files, tasks, & activities. 

Time that costs you money!

Read Our Lean Management Legal Blog for our latest insights to productivity and efficiency improvement in factories and operations management.

Go here for our general Lean Improvement Stories can be found here.

LEVANTAR     (verb) – to lift, to raise up