Quality is a cultural change

This is the final posting in a series about the characteristics of successful quality assurance programs in law firms.

How does one measure the success of a quality assurance program? When Walker Clark advises a law firm, we tell the partners to look for these indicators:

1. Improved productivity by fee earners - because they can spend more time on billable work and less time fixing mistakes and responding to client complaints
2. Higher collections realization rates - because the firm now manages the major reasons for fee write-downs and write-offs
3. Higher levels of client satisfaction - because the firm meets or exceeds client expectations and gets things done right the first time
4. Competitive advantage - because the firm can demonstrate quality, rather than just mumble slogans about it

As the previous parts of this series suggest, serious quality management is a challenge for most law firms.  People have to discard bad habits.  They have to sharpen their thinking about the routine work that they do every day.  In some instances, lawyers need to change some of their long-held, fundamental ideas about what constitutes quality in a legal service.

To read more, visit the Walker Clark Worldview Blog.