Leading Dutch independent law firm NautaDutilh has launched the Lean Academy to train its staff in the principles of Lean Six Sigma methodology as 845-lawyer rival Loyens & Loeff selects Contentworker from Formpipe as its new document management system (DMS).
NautaDutilh’s academy is managed by head of the firm’s legal support & services department Ebbo Haantjes and professional support lawyer Laurens Braaksma. It will provide the Benelux firm’s staff with training for a yellow, green or black belt in Lean Six Sigma, which focuses on the continuous improvement of work processes and performance, with the overall aim of offering clients better value. Both Haantjes and Braaksma have a black belt qualification.
Haantjes said: “In essence, the point is to minimise activities that have no direct added value for our clients as much as possible.
“Once we eliminate non-value adding activities, the process gains speed and efficiency. In the LEAN Six Sigma philosophy, that happens in increments. A steady stream of simple, rapid advances speeds up the improvement process and leads to a better cumulative result. It’s a continuous process of infinite improvement.”
Within NautaDutilh itself, which has over 400 lawyers across Benelux, London and New York, the Lean Six Sigma Methodology has inspired the introduction of a new position – professional support officer – whose work consists exclusively of monitoring the firm’s processes.
Meanwhile, 845-lawyer Dutch independent Loyens & Loeff, which has offices in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg as well as across EMEA, has selected Contentworker from Stockholm-headquartered software supplier Formpipe Intelligo as its DMS.
Contentworker, which will be used by all Loyens & Loeff employees, is a DMS designed for law firms and corporate legal, offering a matter centric document management solution based on SharePoint.
“We have been looking to replace our current DMS with a SharePoint based DMS for a couple of years. Neither SharePoint itself nor any applications for SharePoint that we investigated prior to Contentworker by Formpipe was an option for a firm our size”, says Ron Blijleven, manager application services at Loyens & Loeff.
“After thorough evaluation, the key criteria for choosing Contentworker was Formpipe Intelligo’s extensive experience from the legal market and their ability to meet our requirements around usability, performance and the ability to scale to large deployments.”
