Law Times

Law Times • May 25, 2015 Page 9 www.lawtimesnews.com Drive for efficiencies Firms looking to take project management to next level By marg. Bruineman For Law Times W ith the endless pressure to seek more efficiencies at law firms, Os- ler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP's Mara Nickerson is exploring ad- ditional approaches beyond the project management techniques adopted several years earlier. "The drive to look is com- ing from the clients . . . that we work efficiently and to find ways to reduce the costs," says Nick- erson, Osler's chief knowledge officer. "A key component of legal project management is making sure the right people are doing the right work, no more, no less. But we decided to take that fur- ther," she adds. She found that project man- agement on its own was effective but the next step was the need to ensure the way the work was be- ing conducted was effective as well. The firm decided the Lean Six Sigma approach provided the f lexibility it required. Lean Six Sigma is a hybrid of two approaches: lean opera- tions, an approach refined by the manufacturing sector, and a set of process improvements seen to be a good fit for law firms wanting to become more efficient. The process began with training lawyers on legal process improvement with the objective of making everyone aware of the methodology. The next step was picking the projects. The starting point at Osler was incorporations and that involved bringing in all of the law clerks and junior associates involved with doing the bulk of the work on the files and exam- ining what they do and the tasks involved. "Through that process, they identified inefficiencies and waste," says Nickerson. "It's one of the rare times they talk about what they do, how they do it, and what the process is." The first day involved ex- amining the current state of af- fairs. On the second day, they developed solutions to address the various inefficiencies and frustrations. That led to a list of improvement projects followed by the development of a project plan, assigning roles, and imple- menting it. The process also included establishing metrics to measure successes. For that first project, they included the length of time it took to complete incorpora- tion and the number of visits clerks had to make to the law- yers and the clients to get all of the necessary information. But there were additional benefits as the exercise allowed everyone within that group to work as a team to achieve an end goal. It also provided those involved with some insight into the work of some of their colleagues. The firm's overarching goal is to examine legal processes further with an eye to working as efficiently as possible and sharing that information with clients. "This is a journey. It will take time to go through our le- gal processes and tighten them up," says Nickerson. Lean Six Sigma examines eight areas to remove waste. In the legal office structure, that could involve ensuring law- yers aren't doing work better accomplished by assistants or clerks and senior partners aren't spending time on tasks junior counsel should be undertaking. "The whole idea of using the right people with the right skills at the right time is very, very im- portant," says Karen Skinner, who with her husband, David, is one of the principals of Gimbal Canada Inc. Both are lawyers with diverse backgrounds. They point to lawyers stand- ing in front of the photocopying machine and in-house counsel doing compliance filing them- selves when a better option is to include an assistant in the pro- cess or outsource the work. The question, according to David, is whether a client should have to pay the cost of a senior lawyer when an assistant, para- legal or junior lawyer can do the work. Lean Six Sigma includes a series of steps best undertaken in a project structure to achieve those efficiencies. Mapping a plan allows those involved to vi- sualize it both in its entirety and as a step-by-step process. David describes them as small, incre- mental actions that over time produce a significant change. That focus on the client is where Borden Ladner Gervais LLP had great success with Lean Six Sigma. "We conducted a fair number of process improve- ment projects that were cli- ent facing," says Patricia Olah, the firm's national lean project management counsel. "It was very well received by the clients and the lawyers." Bank clients are also very keen to learn more about the methodology. As a result, BLG and the banks have collaborated on training workshops as well. While Olah says she "abso- lutely" follows the methodology of Lean Six Sigma, she simply refers to the exercise as process improvement because it's less intimidating. She also seeks people within the firm who have an interest in embracing change. The process improvement projects focused on high- volume, recurring work with clients using BLG's in-house counsel. By working with the client, there was buy-in all the way around with an eye to im- provements and efficiencies down the road. The process has been more difficult to implement else- where in the firm where lawyers are working on compensation models in which any time taken away from the direct practice of law and generating revenue is difficult to snag. That brings Olah back to project management and ad- dressing the clients' demands for budgets. "If their client says, 'I want a budget and you need to stay within in that budget,' then the lawyers listen," says Olah. And that focus on project management can then lead back to process management "be- cause you have to manage an ef- ficient process, not an inefficient one," she adds. 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