Legal Research

"Legal Project Management (Part 5): Six Sigma and Lean"

This post was written by Jim Hassett: "...When experts talk about increasing legal efficiency these days, the conversation often turns to Six Sigma and Lean. 

...The reason the term comes up so often in discussions of legal efficiency can be traced to the well publicized success of a single firm: Seyfarth Shaw.  Several years ago, Seyfarth managing partner Steve Poor went out to dinner with DuPont General Counsel Tom Sager to discuss how to increase efficiency.  Sager's advice on Six Sigma was crystal clear: you can have an enormous impact if you do this right, but you should not start down this path unless top management is 100% committed to making it work.

According to the book Six Sigma for Dummies (p. 10), the approach is "not for the faint of heart. It is intense and rigorous, and it entails a thorough inspection of the way everything is done."    Would you guess that implementing an approach like this would be fast or cheap?  If you guessed no and no, you are getting warm..."

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Source: Legal Business Development, 21 April 2010, reproduced with permission of the author

Full post as published by Stark County Law Library Blawg on April 22, 2010 (boomark / email).