Why Process-Driven Legal Teams Are Better For Everyone

Premium legal services are one of the last areas within wider professional services still to adopt a process-first mindset; approaches such as Lean and Six Sigma are well entrenched in many other industries, with large-scale programs and teams of professionals commonplace across healthcare, manufacturing, and banking. However, process improvement methodologies are much newer to many in law; As Richard Susskind described in The Future of Law, the legal industry is on a trajectory toward systemized, and more commoditized services, but much of the work still sits at the ‘bespoke’ phase, where projects are not treated as a series of definable process-driven workstreams or tasks; often they also lack the project management layer that's commonplace in other industries, even in 'small scale' engagements. This can impact service delivery and customer satisfaction, and a process-driven culture where operations are defined, managed, and optimized brings a real competitive advantage in the legal industry.

Two reasons why process-driven teams are primed to understand their customers and excel in service delivery

1. Process improvement methodologies such as Lean, Six Sigma, and Design Thinking are commonly employed by process-driven businesses - these methodologies embody a focus on ‘voice of the customer’. Before we know what a good process looks like, we understand who the 'customer' is, what they actually need, and what their objective is. Gathering insight from customers, be that external clients, or internal business units, is essential to providing services and outcomes that they value and want to ‘consume’ more of. This is true whether we’re manufacturing a new formula for a favourite drink or providing legal services – if our ‘product’ and the delivery mechanism don’t align with customer expectations, we have a business problem.

Truly innovative thinking takes this a step further – Elon Musk doesn’t start from how things work today; he understands the big objectives that we want to achieve and takes that as the starting point, reinventing from the ground up. Design Thinking leverages a similar idea, requiring us to be curious about people and objectives, approaching process design with creativity.

2. The Lean methodology focuses on ‘value’ and ‘waste’ throughout every process. 'Waste' can be a loaded and negative term in the business environment, but it simply references a review of process steps to determine what doesn't add customer value or serve essential business needs; 'value' is predominantly defined according to the customer and desired objectives. If we know what adds value– and what doesn’t – we have immediate clarity on where to prioritize time and resources and a clear view of what we can eliminate or at least reduce.

It’s this focus on 1) customers, and 2) value and waste, connected together, that enables teams to create and maintain processes that are internally efficient and deliver maximum value. In short, process-driven businesses understand what they do, how they do it, and why they do it, and they're laser-focused on aligning the 'what', 'why,' and 'how' to customers' expectations.

Process-driven legal teams support lawyers' working preferences and strategic business goals.

When process improvement methodologies are used to instil process-driven ways of working, it doesn’t just deliver improved customer outcomes; it can provide a more rewarding experience for lawyers, enabling a greater sense of purpose, whilst also aligning with strategic department and business objectives.

For example:

An ambitious junior lawyer naturally prefers to focus on higher value and interesting tasks, rather than tasks of lesser value that may not have a significant impact on the project and are burdensome to undertake. With advances in technology, they question the need to undertake low-value tasks in the same way as their more senior colleagues did many years ago.

A process-driven team's approach:

• The team invests in process definition and documentation as a foundation for everything they do, defining their process 'inventory' and then mapping those processes one by one. At the same time, they gather customer information, feedback, and data – to understand needs, objectives, and expectations.

• Documented processes bring easy subsequent opportunities for review - surfacing pain points and gaps between what we do and what customers require.

• Processes are then improved to run in an effective, well-documented flow with each task being done by the most appropriate person (typically the lowest cost staffing that can deliver the required quality), with resources, know-how, and technology at their fingertips, customer needs are designed into the process.

• This sets the stage for automation (where it's possible and sensible - determined by time, cost, scale, and risk factors). Some lesser 'value-adding' and more commoditized tasks will be automated.

The impact on the lawyer: Less (or no) hands-on time is required for lower value tasks– whilst maintaining or even improving quality and delivery. Better for the lawyer, and beneficial for project budgets, profitability, and customers. 

Thinking about Process Improvement in this way, it's easier to understand how process driven operations go hand-in-hand with the shifting needs that legal teams are being challenged to meet. A process-led approach is equally relevant to legal departments and law firms, and those that define, manage, and optimize their processes can achieve real advantages; they're naturally set up to deliver in efficient and scalable ways, whilst being customer-led and 'connected'.