BE THE BEST, LEARN FROM THE BEST!
LEGAL PROCESS IMPROVEMENT CPD UNIT EVERY LAWYER NEEDS
Do you want to take your practice to the next level?

Do you want to increase quality and reduce effort?

Are you ready to deliver more effectively on client expectations?

Are you ready for world-class CPD training that will give you a competitive edge?

CRITICAL SKILLS TAUGHT BY A GLOBAL EXPERT!
This CPD unit is designed and delivered by Therese Linton, a global leader in Legal Project Management and Legal Process Improvement. Over the last decade, she has worked with thousands of lawyers to transform their ways of working. 

You can gain your CPD points and learn practical skills that will make a real difference to the way you approach your work

That's amazing value for $97 USD

You can add on a second CPD Unit for $47 USD after you've checked out!
That's 2 world class learning units for $144 USD 
Privacy Policy: Your information is 100% secure and we don't share it with anyone.

Want to find out more about all the CPD units we have available?

What's covered in the Legal Process Improvement CPD Unit?

Introduction to Legal Process Improvement

This first section covers critical context and definitions, as well as the driving forces that are making Legal Process Improvement essential for any legal practitioner.

Legal process improvement is a core part of the transformation in the legal industry that has become a necessity post the GFC. If you’re not on board yet then you are in danger of undermining the success of your practice and losing your competitive edge. It's critical to support you to deliver what your clients want, more efficiently and more effectively.
Connection to Legal Project Management

 This next section is all about the connection to Legal Project Management and the fundamental differences between the two disciplines. 

Many legal practitioners get confused when adopting new ways of working and this can lead to wasted effort and disappointing results. It is critical to understand the differences between LPM and LPI so you can choose when to apply tools and techniques from either discipline for the best effect.
Quality Fundamentals

Tensions sometimes exist between clients and lawyers when it comes to the notion of quality. Clients expect to be involved in discussions around quality and may request advice that is broad and narrow, or ‘quick and dirty’ to describe their requirements.

‘The best is the enemy of good’ Voltaire...It is an endorsement of pragmatism, of analysing the cost of quality and allowing the client to decide what level of risk is acceptable. Legal practitioners can draw on this concept to prevent over crafting and to ensure legal deliverables 'conform to requirements', are ‘fit for purpose’, and are delivered on time.
Guide to Legal Process Simplification

This section covers the primary approaches that can be taken to simplify legal processes. You'll learn a step-by-step approach to redesign both legal and support processes to focus on efficiency and quality improvement.

Understand different defects and wastes in processes, and be introduced to Juran’s Pareto Principle for Quality where 80% of the defects in any process are created by 20% of the process steps.
Applying the Tools to Legal Processes

This section considers how to apply the quality management and Lean Six Sigma tools to legal processes. 

You'll also consider ISO 9001:2015, an international standard for organisational Quality Management Systems (QMS), and how it can be applied to your legal processes and your organisation. The implementation of this standard is seen as a commitment to continuous improvement and is often required by law firms if they wish to undertake work for certain types of clients – major corporates and government organisations.

Next Steps

The last section looks at some common questions around Legal Process Improvement and some common mistakes that can be prevented through the application of the tools and techniques. 

It also covers a change management model that will support the adoption of Legal Process Improvement by a legal team or firm. Including the key commitments that are necessary for any Legal Process Improvement efforts to be successful.
Get a competitive edge and transform the way you work... 

You can add on a second CPD Unit for $47 USD after you've checked out!
Hi, I’m Therese Linton, a global leader in legal project management and legal process improvement. 

Over the last decade, I’ve worked with thousands of lawyers to introduce innovative ways of working that delights clients, reduces stress, improves work-life balance, and leads to better legal outcomes. 

I've got the practical experience and academic credentials to support you to adopt new ways of working. I'm one of the founders of the field of Legal Project Management and literally wrote the book in 2014. 

Legal Process Improvement can give you a competitive edge. You'll deliver delight clients by delivering higher quality in less time, and for lower cost. You'll increase the sustainability of your legal practices by delivering more with less effort, and be able to take on higher volumes. 

My approach to Legal Process Improvement draws on my extensive Lean Six Sigma experience and is specifically tailored to the practice of law. It is equally beneficial to all practice areas; in-house legal teams; and external counsel. 

You don't need to waste time studying general Lean Six Sigma concepts to figure out which are most effective. I've done all the work for you!

My purpose is to inspire you to transform your working life and achieve great things.

Cheers....T
Take control of your work and deliver better legal outcomes...

 You can add on a second CPD Unit for $47 USD after you've checked out!

DOES THIS STUFF REALLY WORK? HOW DO I KNOW FOR SURE?

YES, YES, YES it does! I've got so many examples of the amazing outcomes and improved delivery that can be achieved by individual lawyers, as well as legal teams. I've only got room to share one with you now.

A few years ago I was working with a Workers Compensation Claim practice, the third one that I have worked on within the last decade. They appeared to have a thriving practice, in an area where many firms are shutting down due to reduced profit margins. The whole sector is heavily regulated and the majority of transactions are fixed fees.

At the initial briefing, I was informed about the issues they were facing and asked to conduct an analysis into the application of Lean Six Sigma principles to their processes so they could increase their efficiency and profitability. The issues as explained to me were -

- write-offs were considered too high by other partners

- the Practice Lead wanted to hire new legal and support staff to handle the same volume

- concerns were raised over the future viability of the practice

- many team members were unhappy with the supervision style of the Practice Lead

- a critical senior team member had left due to the supervision style of the Practice Lead

- experienced legal assistants were unhappy due to a lack of flexibility in working arrangements

HOW DID WE IDENTIFY THE INITIAL QUICK WINS?

The first step was to understand exactly what was going on by conducting a kick-off workshop with the whole team to train them in basic legal process improvement concepts. Then one on one discovery interviews were conducted with each team member, including the 3 partners.

Findings and recommendations were then presented before more detailed workshops were undertaken to tackle quick wins for both administrative and legal processes. The quick wins identified were surprising and could be easily implemented for maximum impact, they included -

- Introduction of task tracking for legal assistants – for consistency and re-prioritisation

- Changed timesheet capture for legal teams to gather data to support further process improvements

- Process mapping and standardisation for both legal and administrative tasks

- Updated several out of date precedents and implemented a regular maintenance process

- Re-introduced critical compliance activities that had been dropped from processes

- Simplified the finance processes to removed excessive partner review and redundant steps

NEXT ROUND OF RECOMMENDATIONS

Once the quick wins were well underway, it was possible to concentrate on the short and medium-term opportunities that were identified in the initial phase of discovery. Further workshops and training were conducted with the Practice Lead and Partners to support them to adjust their leadership approach and consider further improvements. These sessions led to the following recommended actions -

- Introduced paper light to massively reduce administration effort

- Introduced laptops for fee earners and dual monitors for all team members

- Reduced supervision hours for experienced lawyers

- Increased supervision hours for less experienced lawyers regardless of the level of seniority

- Standardised legal processes based on best practices identified in process mapping workshops

- Delegated more legal administration activities to senior legal assistants

- Provided detailed report of findings to the regulator to support change in the sector

THE OVERALL RESULTS

Were quite frankly AMAZING! Perhaps the biggest win was that the regulator had more confidence in the team and started to allocate a higher volume of cases. 

The team was also happier and able to increase overall productivity by 30% so the additional cases could be undertaken successfully without needing additional team members.

It was possible to reduce the administration hours for legal assistants and allocate more of their time to simple legal tasks, as well as provide increased flexibility to reallocate tasks and work from home.

The Partners had more capacity to focus on client relationships and business development activities which has been abandoned due to over supervision and excessive-quality reviews.

The team was able to adjust to drastically altered working conditions during the pandemic that saw outstanding outcomes, including -

- further increases in productivity

- greatly increased profitability and reduced write-offs

- internal promotion of a new Partner

Ask yourself, with these sorts of results...

Can you really afford NOT to apply legal process improvement concepts to your processes?
Legal Process Improvement can be a path to partnership... 

You can add on a second CPD Unit for $47 USD after you've checked out!

ORIGINS OF LEGAL PROCESS IMPROVEMENT... 

Where did it all begin?

I am one of the founders of the Legal Process Improvement movement that has changed client expectations forever and led to new ways of working for lawyers. As a result of my work (and the work of other leaders in the field), it is now possible for lawyers and non-lawyers to embark on a new career path as a Legal Process or Legal Operations professionals. 

It all started on 2010, when I was invited by the Australian Head of Information Logitics (eDiscovery) at Herbert Smith Freehills (then Freehills) to work with the team on understanding their processes and implementing process improvement concepts. It came on the back of interesting work being done by Seyfarth and Shaw to implement Lean Six Sigma through the firm as part of their recovery from the Global Financial Crisis.

They were having major challenges with the Partners they supported due to cost constraints and unclear expectations. Partners were regularly costing major cases and matters without correctly estimating the cost component of the eDiscovery and Information Logitics activities. 

This led to conflict, mismatched expectations with Partners and clients, as well as excessive write offs for these valuable services. It was a tense situation - the entire team were incredibly disengaged and unhappy. 


What did we do?

By this time, I had over 15 years of experience as in the area of operational and process improvement, having completed my Executive Masters at Harvard Business School in 1999, and my Lean Six Sigma Black Belt ceritifcation in 2004. We started with learning workshops for the entire Information Logitics Team, comprising highly experienced support lawyers and specialised eDiscovery professionals. These workshops - 

- introduced the concepts of Lean Six Sigma and business process simplication

- identified the major sources of Partner conflict and mismatched expectations

- identified the major processes and opportunities for quick wins

- learnt basic process modelling standards and approaches

Actions were then assigned to different team members and sub teams to commence mapping processes in detail and to produce briefing packs for Partner and Clients to highlight the various service offerings and costs.

Some of the results...

Within a few weeks there were processes to review and improve, quick wins had been implemented and the relationship with Partners and Clients was improving due to the use of high level process maps that showed the complexity or the processes, and the significant value add provided by the Information Logitisics team. Many of these process maps are still being used today as visual management tools to support the induction of new team members, and when briefing clients on major cases and matters.

Most surprisingly, the entire team exhibited greater engagement and were able to substantially improve their productivity. This was due to the compounding positive impacts of -

- process simplification and standardisation activities that resulted in significant efficiencies

- reduced rework due to adoption of quality assurance techniques

- improved and consistent data capture supporting further improvement

- increased levels of visibility and control

- increased productivity and greatly reduced overtime 

It was an incredibly rewarding experience with amazing outcomes...any legal team can achieve similar results eith the right education and support!

Are you ready to transform your working life and achieve great things? 

You have the power to use Legal Process Improvment techniques to deliver higher quality in less time, and with less effort...

And be able to perform better, achieve more, and stress less!

You're invited to take control of your working life... 

You can add on a second CPD Unit for $47 USD after you've checked out!

HERE'S WHAT OTHER CLIENTS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT OUR LEGAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT TRAINING & COACHING SERVICES

I've been working with Therese for years, during that time she worked with us to create Ashurst's Legal Project Management Framework and introduced my team of Legal Project Managers to amazingly simple tools that have increased their productivity.
Rachael Moore, Former Global Head of Legal Project Management, Ashurst
The number of our matters doubled unexpectedly one January. The lawyers who were actively using the frameworks and tools introduced by Therese sailed through it and the others really struggled to keep up.
Ben Martin, Joint Managing Partner, Norton White
Therese has delivered training for me when I was at Gilbert + Tobin and again in my role at McCabes, where we also engaged her to provide on the job coaching to our practice groups. In the coaching she is gently persuasive, and is such an expert that she is able to select exactly the right tool for every situation and every individual. 
Jane Hogan, Quentin Bryce Scholar & Head of Knowledge & Transformation, McCabe Curwood
It's easy to take the first step to transform your working life... 

You can add on a second CPD Unit for $47 USD after you've checked out!

Find out more about ALL the CPD Units...

Or take it to a decision maker to discuss rolling out across your organisation

TERMS & CONDITIONS   |   PRIVACY POLICY   

© Creative Planet Pty Ltd as the Trustee for The Creative Planet Trust 
(ABN 84 558 995 183) trading as ‘The Basalt Group’ (2018). All Rights Reserved
Powered By ClickFunnels.com