Walker Clark
Worldview Archives
Removing Barriers to Pride and Professionalism
Most law firms talk a lot about their "professional quality."
Most of them also unwittingly obstruct it.
By identifying and dismantling the barriers that prevent legal professionals from taking pride in their work, law firms can unlock a higher level of personal satisfaction and commitment, leading to superior service, client loyalty, and overall firm success.
Driving Fear Out of Law Firms
Law firm leaders must foster environments in which everyone feels secure and valued.
This is the ninth in a series of sixteen articles that will explore the relevance and, for some law firms the existential importance, of W. Edwards Deming's Fourteen Points, especially for small and midsize law firms.
Leading the Way to Quality in Legal Services
The legal services industry is awash in advice about leadership. How can Deming's Seventh Point build better leadership in law firms?
Here are five practical actions that Walker Clark clients are taking that are consistent with Deming’s Seventh Point and the outcomes that they are experiencing from each one.
Continuous Improvement
To remain competitive and profitable in today's legal services market, law firms need to continuously improve how they work.
The fifth of W. Edwards Deming's Fourteen Points, Improve Constantly and Forever the System of Production and Service, calls for a never-ending commitment to enhancing quality and efficiency within an organization. This principle has profound implications for law firms, impacting not only day-to-day internal operations but also bottom-line profitability.
Cease dependence on inspection.
"Cease dependence on inspection," W. Edwards Deming's third point for effective management, is perhaps one of the least understood principles in the context of service industries like law firms.
Conventionally, it translates into the notion that quality should not be an afterthought checked through after-the-fact inspections but ingrained in every step of the production process.
For law firms, this means shifting the focus from reactive measures to proactive strategies that enhance the quality of legal services by reducing or eliminating altogether the causes of mistakes and rework.
Constancy of Purpose
This is the second of a series of sixteen articles that will explore the relevance and, for some law firms the existential importance, of W. Edwards Deming's Fourteen Points, especially for small and midsize law firms.
The first of W. Edwards Deming's Fourteen Points for effective management calls for organizations to "Create Constancy of Purpose for Improving Products and Services." How can law firms do this in the face of changing client expectations and market dynamics?
Why Law Firms Need Deming’s Fourteen Points Now More Than Ever
Quality service, not price, rankings, or size, is what will differentiate successful law from from those that merely survive the 2020s.
Delivering the best quality legal services is a sincere aspiration of almost every law firm. For most of them, however, the word quality is little more than a slogan on their websites.
This is the first of a series of sixteen articles that will explore the relevance and, for some law firms, the existential importance, of W. Edwards Deming's Fourteen Points.
Fix the work first...
If you apply technology — even artificial intelligence — to a flawed work process, you will only make mistakes and lose money faster.
Before a law firm applies a technological tool or system to its internal operations, especially at the practice group level, it should first analyze, understand, and implement responses to weaknesses in the internal systems and processes by which it prepares and delivers legal services to clients.
Artificial Intelligence: A Powerful Tool to Improve Service Quality
In today's highly competitive markets for legal service, it is service quality, not technical expertise, that will differentiate your law firm from your equally well-qualified competitors.
Artificial intelligence will never be a substitute for quality management, but it can provide powerful diagnostic tools and methods to build sustainable quality into every aspect of your practice.
Quality management could be your law firm’s best investment.
In an increasingly competitive legal market, law firms must constantly adapt and evolve to stay ahead.
While many firms focus on expanding their client base, increasing billable hours, or adopting the latest technology, a crucial factor in determining long-term success lies in the effective quality management of internal work processes.
Will 2022 be the year when everything changed?
For most law firms, internal operations and client service processes will not be the same in 2022 as before the COVID-19 pandemic. Many law firms have already announced how what began as temporary adjustments have already become, or soon will become, permanent components of their practice.
These changes will have substantial effects of law firm finances, lawyer performance, profitability, and in many cases, partner compensation structures and formulas.
There will be many responses by law firms around the world, but one response that will almost always be fatal eventually will be to throw up one's hands and say, "We'll figure it out as we go along — one problem at a time."
Quality Assurance: Where to Start?
All law firms talk about "quality," but few can actually demonstrate it consistently. To ensure a significant return on investment, quality assurance must be planned and managed using supervision and documentation methods specific to each practice area. It must also incorporate the special needs and characteristics of risk management in legal practice.
With all the possible areas for improvement, even in well-managed firms, where should a law firm start to build a systematic, sustainable quality assurance system?
We recommend that you begin with a quality assurance demonstration project.
Understanding How We Work
The British firm Addleshaw Goddard is taking a closer look at its internal work processes to make them less expensive and more efficient for clients. Under the direction of the firm's head of client delivery, Andrew Chamberlain, the people in Addleshaws have mapped the internal processes by which it delivers legal services in 46 service lines.
Their probing analysis of how the work gets done in a law firm is essential to achieving any serious improvements in client service and satisfaction. It is an essential element of a comprehensive approach to quality that is long overdue in the legal profession.
