This is the fourth of a series of posts about the compelling business case for quality assurance in law firms.
The third characteristic of successful quality assurance programs in law firms is that they focus on the greatest risks and attack the biggest quality problems.
A practical approach is best. The best quality assurance methods do not seek to perfect each and ever task, function, and process in the firm. Although my Walker Clark colleagues and I believe that ISO 9001 can be a very useful quality assurance structure for a law firm, we never recommend it as a first step in law firms. Unlike ISO 9001, we do not recommend detailed documentation of each and every process. However, we do recommend intense focus on the ones with the greatest risks. In law firms, most quality assurance issues can be isolated to one or two critical weaknesses. Our approach focuses on these “significant few” issues, rather than every possible one.
In particular, we recommend that a firm start by improving the processes that are currently causing the greatest problems. Focus on problems that annoy the clients the most, such as missed deadlines, errors in documents, and untimely or inaccurate bills. In our experience, most of these problems can be mitigated substantially, and sometimes even solved entirely, with relatively simple, low-cost improvements.
We favor a practical approach. The best methods do not seek to perfect each and ever task, function, and process in the firm. Unlike methods such as ISO 9001, we do not recommend detailed documentation of each and every process. However, we do recommend intense focus on the ones with the greatest risks. In law firms, most quality assurance issues can be isolated to one or two critical weaknesses. Our approach focuses on these “significant few” issues, rather than every possible one. In particular, we recommend that a firm start by improving the processes that are currently causing the greatest problems. Focus on problems that annoy the clients the most, such as missed deadlines, errors in documents, and untimely or inaccurate bills. In our experience, most of these problems can be mitigated substantially, and sometimes even solved entirely, with relatively simple, low-cost improvements.
Norman Clark
Tags: billing, client service, law firms, quality, risk, risk management
This entry was posted
on Thursday, March 4th, 2010 at 20:13 and is filed under client service, quality, risk management.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
March 5th, 2010 at 14:56
[...] read the complete post, visit the Walker Clark Worldview Blog. function OpenPopUp() { [...]