One clear message from General Legal Counsel is “law firms must lower fees and follow increasingly restrictive guidelines”. Law firms, like corporate legal departments are being asked to systematically manage and reduce costs. This white paper will discuss: what are the signs that your firm needs process improvement? What type of process improvement methodologies and methods exists for law firms? Where in transactional, litigation and operational areas can process improvement be deployed, and how should your law firm proceed? This paper is authored by George Dunn is a worldwide recognized consultant, speaker, instructor, and author on process improvement (Total Quality Improvement, Continuous Process Improvement, Business Process Management, Re-engineering, LEAN and Six Sigma) Key indexes: law firm, law firm partner, law firm chief, lower cost law firm, law firm client guidelines, law firm lean, law firm six sigma, George Dunn, CRE8 Independent Consultants

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CRE8 Independent Consultants
(888) 963-6524 Voice • WWW.CRE8INC.COM • E-Mail: Consulting@CRE8INC.COM
WHAT ARE THE
SIGNS YOUR LAW
FIRM NEEDS
PROCESS
IMPROVEMENT?
By George Dunn, President CRE8
Independent Consultants
One clear message from
General Legal Counsel is,
“law firms must lower fees
and follow increasingly
restrictive guidelines.”
In addition, law firms are
now being asked what type
of process improvement
framework the firm is
deploying.

2. WHAT ARE THE SIGNS YOUR LAW FIRM NEEDS PROCESS IMPROVEMENT? 8/23/2016
INDEPENDENT CONSULTANTS FORMS AND METHODS  1993- 2016
1
ABOUT THE WHITE PAPER
One clear message from General Legal Counsel is “law firms must lower fees and follow increasingly restrictive
guidelines.” Law firms, like corporate legal departments are being asked to systematically manage and reduce
costs. This white paper will discuss “What are the signs that your firm needs process improvement? “
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mr. George J. Dunn, Founder and President of CRE8 www.cre8inc.com specializes in process improvement for law
firms, legal departments and courts. George is a worldwide recognized consultant, speaker, instructor and author
on business process innovation (Lean, Six Sigma, BPM, Re-engineering, CPI, TQM), paperless technology planning
and computer system replacement planning.
He has successfully designed processes for AMLAW 200 firms and organizations in size from 25 to 250,000
employees. George has written articles for Law Technology News, Corporate Counsel and sponsored forums for
Law Firm Chief Information Officers and for Corporate Counsel.
George has served in executive and leading roles with CRE8 Incorporated, GTE Corporation, Wang Labs, ASA
International, and KPMG Peat Marwick. He is a past advisor to AIIM worldwide workflow standards committees,
Director of Education/Board Member for numerous AIIM chapters, a presenter for worldwide AIIM webinars and a
subject matter expert author/blogger for Document Strategy Forum, AIIM and ARMA.
CRE8 INCORPORATED
CORPORATE OFFICE Mailing Address
936 N 34th Street, Suite 400, 12819 SE 38th
PMB29
Seattle, WA 98103 Bellevue, WA 98006
(206) 257-7347
www.cre8inc.com
consulting@cre8inc.com
CRE8 Independent Consultants provides:
 process improvement consulting www.cre8inc.com/consulting/process
 law firm process improvement www.cre8inc.com/consulting/lawfirm
 legal department process improvement www.cre8inc.com/consulting/legal-department/
 paperless technology planning consulting www.cre8inc.com/consulting/paperless
 complex computer replacement planning consulting www.cre8inc.com/consulting/complex and
 LEAN, Six Sigma, Agile, BPM and paperless technology training, exam prep/certification and PDU
www.cre8inc.com/workshops

3. WHAT ARE THE SIGNS YOUR LAW FIRM NEEDS PROCESS IMPROVEMENT? 8/23/2016
INDEPENDENT CONSULTANTS FORMS AND METHODS  1993- 2016
2
One clear message from General Legal Counsel is “law firms must lower fees
and follow increasingly restrictive guidelines.” Law firms, like corporate legal
departments are being asked to systematically manage and reduce costs.
What are the signs that your firm needs process improvement?
 External Signs
o Are your clients consolidating the roster of firms they engage?
o Are your clients asking for lower fees?
o Are client guidelines becoming increasingly restrictive as to who and what can be
billed?
o Is your client’s procurement office more actively engaged in fee, billing and
payment discussions? Are clients are looking at your firm as a vendor versus a
valued partner?
o Are clients asking for holdbacks, discounts, write-offs, alternative fee
arrangements, or fixed fees for the life of the matter?
o Do existing and prospective clients ask what process improvement framework
your firm is using?
 Internal Signs
o Is the firm writing off fees or costs billed to clients?
o Is realization not consistent?
o Is your culture “star” (individual) centric, or “process” centric? Do the hours
required and result of the process depend on who is doing the work?
o Are processes defined by how work was previously performed versus by today’s
client needs?
o Are there process silos within and between groups and support areas?
o Are processes not fully mapped out and measured?
o Are processes not fully automated with up-to-date templates, workflows and
databases?
o Are computer systems installed not fully supporting processes and workers?
If any of the above is YES, your firm will benefit from process improvement!

4. WHAT ARE THE SIGNS YOUR LAW FIRM NEEDS PROCESS IMPROVEMENT? 8/23/2016
INDEPENDENT CONSULTANTS FORMS AND METHODS  1993- 2016
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