Incorporating Lean Six Sigma management methodology is relatively unknown in the legal world, but technology-driven Hunoval Law Firm in Charlotte is raising the bar.
Partnering with the University of North Carolina at Charlotte Center for Lean Logistics and Engineered Systems, Hunoval Law is offering Lean Six Sigma training to its employees and has already incorporated its strategy into key business processes.
“The driver here is client results,” said firm founder Matt Hunoval. “A firm like ours has a very different focus than a large general practice firm doing multi-billion dollar deals that are highly customized and non-repetitive. A lot of what we do is highly process oriented, where you are dealing with the same basic set of form documents with minor transaction-specific variations, which is the perfect environment for Six Sigma analytics.”
Six Sigma is a data-driven, quantitative management tool first used in manufacturing and then adopted by large financial institutions.
“This is the language spoken by our larger institutional clients, so I’ve made a commitment for it to be the language of my law firm,” Hunoval says. “This is not a passing fad, not a management flavor of the week.”
Six Sigma training for Hunoval takes place on the UNC Charlotte campus through a five-week program customized specifically for the practice. It is designed to provide a Lean Six Sigma certification, so employees will be skilled in quickly identifying defects and redundancies, eliminating waste and translating work into faster processes done with fewer errors.
This is the first time UNC Charlotte’s Center for Lean Logistics has partnered with a law firm.
“Through proper training and cultural change, we believe that law firms such as Hunoval can create a dynamic continuous improvement culture, where the employees will be part of the solution, identifying and solving system-related issues as they arise,” said Ertunga Ozelkan, director of systems engineering and engineering management at UNC Charlotte. “Lean Six Sigma will give them the proper methodology and toolset.”
The UNC Charlotte training programs covers a wide breadth of Lean Six Sigma education, from the very basic overview levels to the most advanced theoretical mathematical levels. By using real-life examples from the law firm, the training demonstrates how Six Sigma process analysis works to create less room for error and better efficiency throughout the workday.
With the addition of Lean Six Sigma to the law firm’s business processes, Hunoval is excited about delivering a streamlined operation for clients, thereby saving them time and money. “Right or wrong, many clients tend to think of lawyers as Don Quixote figures nobly tilting at windmills but somehow not quite getting it,” Hunoval said. “Partnering with UNC Charlotte in Lean Six Sigma, we’re planning to change that perception.”
Photo: UNC Charlotte instructor Jonathan Mayhorn, director of the UNC Charlotte Center for Lean Logistics; Gary Teng; Hunoval Law Firm founder Matt Hunoval; Hunoval Director of Six Sigma Kevin Divine; Bob Johnson, dean of the UNC Charlotte Lee College of Engineering Dean; and UNC Charlotte Director of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management Ertunga Ozelkan; at the formal announcement of the partnership between the University and Hunoval Law Firm.