Raising the Bar: How Seyfarth Shaw Provides Efficient Delivery of Legal Services through Lean Six Sigma

Lean Six Sigma within a law firm may strike most people as a rather unorthodox use of the methodology, but as Seyfarth Shaw LLP shows, it can be done. In this Profit through Process podcast, Genna Weiss of Six Sigma IQ speaks with Lisa Damon, partner and Chair of Seyfarth Shaw's Labor and Employment Department, and Carla Goldstein, Seyfarth Shaw’s Director of Strategic Management, who discuss how Seyfarth Shaw took trailblazing steps to implement Lean Six Sigma within the firm in order to deliver more efficient delivery of its legal services to their clients.

Damon and Goldstein, who have both played integral parts in deploying Lean Six Sigma within Seyfarth Shaw, discuss how, from the beginning, Seyfarth Shaw’s constant drive to do things more efficiently led the firm to consider and embrace Lean Six Sigma for its own use. Inspired by Dupont’s pioneering use of Lean Six Sigma within that company’s own internal legal department, Seyfarth Shaw deployed its own version of Lean Six Sigma, SeyfarthLean, in order to cater more specifically to a law firm setting and its legal processes. Damon and Goldstein discuss how the firm overcame buy-in and training challenges and managed to get its clients onboard with Lean Six Sigma.

You will also hear about the key tools that the firm has used to better its processes, which include process mapping, kaizen and DMAIC. Damon and Goldstein reveal the results Seyfarth Shaw has achieved through Lean Six Sigma implementation, which includes a 15 to 50 percent reduction in costs of legal services, and give advice on how service organizations can make the same Lean Six Sigma deployment leap.