The international law firm Seyfarth Shaw, based in Chicago, employs almost 800 lawyers. The firm tried to change how it practices law. Top managers applied lean-management principles in order to make their work more predictable, transparent and to collaborate more. Gradually they managed to offer more to their clients at the end of the process.
Today, the firm doesn’t just provide legal consultancy, it also helps to improve workflow within its clients' law departments. It also expanded its scope of advice to training on compliance issues that are highly risky. Seyfarth was able to survive in a period during which many legal firms disappeared. As a result of its efforts during the last four years, its revenues have grown more than 20 %.
The Director of Legal Products and Technology, the Director of Legal Process Improvement and other top managers were interviewed by McKinsey.
Crafting a shared vision
Before they corrected the situation four years ago, there was a problem. Internal clients urged corporate legal departments to deliver higher value at lower costs. The legal departments, who were cost centers, desperately needed to become value centers. The key was to provide business solutions delivered by lawyers rather than legal services.
It was important that colleagues working for the company gained business literacy through an executive training program. Law schools alone didn’t provide it and it turned out to be necessary to create a shared view of the way the market was going. What also helped was a series of client speakers who spoke to the firm’s managers. Some of them mentioned how lean focuses on delivering value to clients.
The beginning
The vision was consolidated with two projects. One aimed at speeding up a complex process of reviewing for conflict of interest. That is a check whether a firm or an individual is qualified to perform legal duties for someone – you want to be sure there is no possible conflict of interest. The second project focused on helping a small team that specialized in certain type of lending to become more successful. These projects started the transformation.
-jk-