One of the biggest challenges facing the legal services market today is the need to develop a common definition of “value” between law firms and their clients.

The heightened emphasis on value may be a relatively new development, but the issue itself is not new. At Seyfarth, we are continuously looking for better ways to meet our clients’ needs for value and efficiency, while maintaining high quality with our legal services. Based on that goal, we have become the only large law firm to build a distinctive client service model—called SeyfarthLean—that combines the core principles of Lean Six Sigma with robust technology, knowledge management, process management techniques, alternative fee structures and practical tools.

The broad, systemic use of such a model across multiple practice areas is unique to the legal profession and reflects a fundamentally different approach to delivering legal services. This approach manifests itself with tangible processes and special tools, as well as the more intangible and fundamentally different way of thinking about how to deliver legal services.

SeyfarthLean Approach and Tools

• Voice of the client
• Data-driven decision making
• Client-facing project management
• Process mapping
• Online client services
• Knowledge management
• Matter management
• Continuous improvement

SeyfarthLean Value

• Clear understanding of client needs and desired outcomes
• Consistent, high-quality legal services
• Increased efficiency
• Improved communication and collaboration
• Right-sized staffing approaches
• Committed transparent pricing
• 15-50% reduction in overall cost of services