Reduce Cost and Improve Effectiveness

Clients say litigation costs too much. The Courts say litigation costs too much. Thepoliticianssay litigations costs too much. Despite the fact that politicians say this too, it’s actually true. Litigation costs too much!

How do we reduce the cost and increase the effectiveness of the process?

I think I know how. We have to be more efficient than we were before and than anybody else is now. Efficiency = lower cost per task = bigger BANG per billable hour to the client. I have spent almost all my life working on improving the efficiencies of law firms.

Bigger bang for the golden goose's buck can come in two ways;

a) Have cheaper people do the same tasks the firm have always done -> less cost per hour = less cost

b) Have the same priced people get the task done faster -> less time = less cost

The answer is a combination of BOTH strategies. Both strategies also require INVESTMENT.

Cheaper people means taking tasks and structuring them into steps that are easily followed - checklists. Cheaper people are those who lack the skills/experience to make their own judgment calls. They repeat a process consistently and don't vary from it. The results they generate are reliable because of the PROCESS. The investment for them is developing and maintaining the process they are to follow while policing their adherence to the process and monitoring for required changed/adjustments/improvements.

Reducing client costs with the cheaper people strategy means LEADERSHIP and PLANNING. Cheaper people need a senior experienced leader to guide them and give them structure to manage their workflow and keep them on track. This senior leader is costly but their costs are spread over many cheaper people and so their skills and experience are spread over the productivity the PROCESS brings. This senior person is the trainer, mentor, coach, and cop to these cheaper people.

Costs go down!

This is the model of the assembly line. Many tasks in law are well suited to the assembly line. Constant repetition of a set number of predicable tasks.

As business people we are always looking for a lower cost per task - cheaper people is ONE of the answers. The other answer is efficiency. Experienced/skilled people whose work is varied, challenging, and frequently demands creative thinking and solutions are expensive people. Involving these people in PROCESS work is a needless expense to the firm and the client. These people are the 'USERS' of the results of the process work. These people are far more self managing, RESULTS oriented and RESULTS measured. But they need LEADERSHIP and PLANNING from senior people too. While they are focused on the RESULTS they often don't have the time to consider the BEST WAY to get those results. They need an environment that gives them the tools and skills to get their results. They need to be well trained in the tools they have. They need quick answers to road blocks they encounter. They need leadership too.

CHEAPER TO THE CLIENT then means MORE PROCESSES done by "cheaper people" and MORE RESULTS generated by the firm's "expensive people”. Good people working at the PROCESS level will graduate to the RESULTS level. Their compensation will be increased commensurately. Their profitability to the firm will also increase. Their VALUE to the client gets greater and greater.This path is the incentive to PROCESS people to do their job well and stick with it.

What's the reality? What's going on in firms now?

Many firms have no PROCESSES because process people have no LEADERSHIP. Many firms are led by administrators that are in fact bookkeepers/accountants, secretary/law clerks. This person is often the BEST law clerk and/or the BEST bookkeeper but they are NOT developing processes to be followed - not training staff to be efficient and effective. Often having success with the 'status quo', this person will RESIST change and insist on dealing with PAPER documents even though volumes make that approach COMPLETELY inadequate and expensive. Often processes that should be adopted to address the needs of RESULTS oriented USERS are ignored. Further, the USERS get zero input on how to improve their practice from the 'leader'.

The problem is you often have an office manager that DOESN'T MANAGE. He or she takes on NO ROLE in leadership or planning to meet the challenges of the firm. This subject does not interest him or her. I have worked CLOSELY with dozens of law firm administrators. Some administrators are amazing leaders but some are not and those ones need to train to increase these leadership skills.

The bookkeeper/accountant and secretary/law clerk is worth only so much because it is a role that has NO LEVERAGE. Leverage only comes when skills and experiences filtered down into the firm's cheaper PROCESS people and the firm's expensive USER people are provided with a productive supportive environment. The firm NEEDS this LEADERSHIP ROLE.

So, the SUMMARY.

You want to keep the GOOSE happy? You MUST implement ever improving PROCESSES in the office that are reliably and consistently produced by cheaper people (young and inexperienced). You MUST implement an ever improving environment for the expensive people to more quickly and efficiently generate the RESULTS of the firm.

That requires LEADERSHIP - NOT FROM THE LAWYERS PERSONALLY (they should be doing the 'law work' - that's the RESULT we talked about) but the partners must delegate their authority and actively SUPPORT their LEADER. The most senior experienced COSTLY Lawyer in the firm is the ULTIMATE USER of the output of the firm - the one who applies the CREATIVITY to get the HIGHEST RESULT for the client. This person cannot be distracted with process at all.

Final word - every firm needs an administrative LEADER.

Find them, grow them, cherish them - do this now and the client COSTS will GO DOWN.