For Episode 5, we were lucky enough to snag an interview with Ken Grady to discuss the application of lean thinking to the practice of law. 

Ken has unique insight about the legal industry because he has worked just about every position possible in the legal field.  He is currently a law professor at Michigan State’s Legal RnD program and held prior positions in corporate legal departments and law firms.

Ken explains that the main goal of lean thinking is to eliminate waste from business processes and that legal work is rife with waste. He also points out that eliminating waste from the practice of law might just free up time for lawyers to do other work, including the pursuit of access to justice initiatives.

Ken has a great blog on Medium called the Algorithmic Society and may be followed on Twitter at @leanlawstrategy.

For those interested, Ken mentioned a couple books on Lean:

Lean Thinking by James Womack

Karen Martin on Process Mapping

Legal Founder Segment: Gavin McGrane of PacerPro

In this episode, we also talk to Gavin McGrane the founder of PacerPro–great app that makes it a whole lot easier for attorneys and law firms to stay on top of federal court dockets and pleadings.

Episode Credits:

Theme Music: Home Base (Instrumental Version) by TA2MI

Photo above, Dennis Hamilton.