Some of the leanest people I know are lawyers.   One of my partners is a crazy  ultra-marathoner who doesn’t carry much extra weight. But being lean means more than having a lean BMI score.

Can a law firm benefit from Lean teachings?  What is ‘waste’ in such an organization and what are the steps in the process of delivering legal services, at each of which value must be added or the step eliminated?

I don’t know offhand the answers to these questions but I am going to give it some thought, and get some advice and guidance from a Lean manufacturing expert.

Recessions end. Things will get better.   But the current business climate does provide an opportunity to closely review how even a professional service organization can learn to eliminate waste and add value at every stage of the service delivery process. We are going to take that opportunity.

We’ll post on our progress as we go along. In the meantime, if you want to share with us your experience getting Lean, we’d love to hear from you.   You can email me atgary.graham@gowlings.com.

Going forward, watch this space for expert insights from lawyers with in-depth experience advising manufacturers or visit our website atwww.gowlings.com/industry/md.asp.