Law Firm PM Watch: Morris James

I get excited when I learn of law firms who apply project management standards and process improvement methods to their services (I know, I'm odd). I get even more excited when the lawyers who are responsible for implementing these programs read and comment on my blog. Therefore, I was elated to see Christopher J. Spizzirri's comment  on my first post in a series on ABA material discussing Six Sigma.

Chris is the e-Discovery Coordinator at Morris James LLP and author of the Delaware eDiscovery Report blog. I was interested to learn that his firm has begun a program of implementing Six Sigma techniques into its e-discovery processes. I asked him a number of questions about his firm's use of the Six Sigma methodology and he was good enough to respond. His response follows.

 

I'd like to answer your questions as a narrative, in a more general format.  The specific questions you've asked are deep into the entrails of "formal" Six Sigma and are a bit premature for me to answer just yet with respect to Morris James.  I think the more important focus is on the process we are using.

 

As a brief aside for the benefit of your readers, the term "Six Sigma," although in generic and popular use, is actually a registered trademark of the Motorola Corporation (Registration Number 1647704).

 

Rather than embarking on a formal program, purchasing Six Sigma materials and engaging in extensive training, as a starting point, Morris James is taking a more pragmatic and tactical approach.  We are using the principles of Total Quality Management that were formalized by Motorola in the 1980's into its now famous Six Sigma program and adapting these generic quality management principles to improve e-discovery at the firm.  One key dimension of Six Sigma as executed at General Electric was a focus of quality on business impact.  The dimensions of quality have always been important to manufacturing engineers, but GE emphasized that there was a business cost associated with rework and defects.  This got the attention of the business folks, brought quality out of the shop floor, into the consciousness of business decision making, and thus spawned the "six sigma" (generic) industry of today.

 

In its essence, Six Sigma is a form of structured problem solving and data-driven decision making.  The fundamental tools have been in widespread use where ever quality has been identified as key for equipment and process reliability (such as in communications during WWII at Westinghouse).  These principles have long been taught by quality gurus such as Juran, Deming,and Shewhart for improving manufacturing.  At Morris James, we are starting with the idea that we first need to understand a process in order to improve it.  As a first step, we plan to understand discovery in general.  This is something that has traditionally been done as one-off and on an ad-hoc basis, as cases would require.  Understanding what we currently do will lead us to understand and quantify how documents flow, how many times the same document is received (perhaps in different forms such as electronically, facsimile, or paper), and how many times a single piece of information is handled.  We are still in the process of formally documenting our current processes and procedures, so it is premature to discuss metrics, such as defects per million.

 

eDiscovery is currently considered a subset of discovery in general.  Because of the magnitude and variety of formats of ESI, the legal environment has changed.  What had previously be been done as dictated by the unique situation of each case, is now untenable because of the volume of information.  We are trying to understand, guide, and structure processes for information flow while allowing the flexibility needed by the unique needs of each case.  The role of the Six Sigma Master Black Belt has been to serve as a philosophical "thought partner," to provide a sounding board, and to provide new ideas for ways to look at the problem.

 

You ask, "How can firms make Six Sigma and its focus on improving existing processes co-exist with their need for innovative and flexible legal problem solving?"  I think the answer is simple.

 

Let's take the example of fixing dinner.  If you're like some and cannot plan ahead, the process starts by making a list of items, going to the grocery store on the way home from work, and cooking a meal.   Or perhaps we have a ritual of making a weekly menu list, shopping on Saturdays, and storing food in the refrigerator and cupboard.  In either case, there is a "generic" process for procuring ingredients.  The final step in the process is to actually cook a meal.  The meal can vary from hamburgers on the grill to a complicated recipe for soufflé.  The analogy here is that the final "recipe" is the legal case facing the attorney.  In all cases where discovery is required, there is a flow of information from the source to the litigating attorney or team.  Making that process as standard as possible simplifies and speeds the flow.

 

In our dinner example the process is:
(1) Make List
(2) Procure ingredients
(3) Cook meal

The process does not specify what needs to be on the list, where to procure the ingredients, or when/what to cook.  We have a general process flow that allows for individualization tailored to meet the demands of the individual eater, er, case.

 

There are a lot of concepts from manufacturing that can be brought in to the eDiscovery process if one thinks of this as a supply chain of information.  The process starts with volumes of documents from the client or other sources.  These are the starting raw materials.  These materials are touched, sifted, or transformed several times until we produce a "finished product" which is presented to the opposing party.  Understanding what happens in that information flow is the first step to improving the process.  We are currently traveling that road.  The point is eDiscovery does not need to "do Six Sigma" in its full blown incarnation with Green Belts, Black Belts, etc. to have processes that are well documented and defect free.  eDiscovery can embrace some of the fundamental principles of structure, process knowledge, and data-based decision making to improve any law firm's discovery efforts.

Chris, I couldn't agree more with your conclusion. Thank you again for taking the time to write such a thoughtful response.