Chicago-Kent and SeyfarthLean Consulting bring innovative new course to law students
Continuing its legacy as an innovator in legal education, Chicago-Kent is offering a new course this spring, titled Legal Project Management and Legal Process Improvement, in collaboration with Seyfarth Shaw LLP. The course provides students with practical skills that address the demands of various segments of the legal market. Professor Daniel Martin Katz and Kim Craig, managing director, Lean Solutions at Seyfarth Shaw, teach the course along with Seyfarth legal project managers Kyle Hoover and Larissa Kruzel.
Students in the course receive focused training in legal project management and process improvement complemented by actual industry use cases. The emergence of alternative fee arrangements, proliferation of new legal technology, and growth of multidisciplinary legal teams are just some of the market forces reshaping the delivery of legal services. Whether undertaking work for a large institutional client, a small business or a single individual, legal project management and process improvement (such as Lean Six Sigma) can be effective for ensuring both quality and efficiency in providing legal services.
"It's not enough for our students to know only legal doctrine, writing and research," said Professor Katz. "They also need to understand the business of law and how they can cultivate skills and leverage proven techniques from other industries to provide better legal services. We need to make law better, and skills such as legal project management and methods such as Lean Six Sigma are an important part of the equation."
The course also teaches effective facilitation and change management techniques that are essential to managing and leading legal teams. Students will have the opportunity to learn from industry leaders through direct instruction, hands-on exercises and actual legal project management scenarios.
"We're providing an exclusive window into the legal industry insights learned during our decade-plus SeyfarthLean journey," said SeyfarthLean's Kim Craig. "Anchored in our core principles, Chicago-Kent students will take with them marketable skills in areas beyond substantive legal knowledge, developing a unique skillset that is critical to the success of future lawyers," said Craig.
Students recently participated in an intensive Saturday workshop at Seyfarth Shaw to kick off the course and will have an opportunity to earn a Yellow Belt in Lean Six Sigma after passing the certification exam at the end of the semester.
About Seyfarth Shaw LLP
Seyfarth Shaw has more than 900 attorneys and provides a broad range of legal services in the areas of labor and employment, employee benefits, litigation, corporate and real estate. With offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, New York, Sacramento, San Francisco, Shanghai, Sydney and Washington, D.C., Seyfarth's clients include over 300 of the Fortune 500 companies and reflect virtually every industry and segment of the economy. A recognized leader in delivering value and innovation for legal services, Seyfarth's acclaimed SeyfarthLean® client service model has earned numerous accolades from a variety of highly respected third parties, including industry associations, consulting firms and media.
About Chicago-Kent College of Law
Founded in 1888, Chicago-Kent College of Law is the law school of Illinois Institute of Technology, also known as Illinois Tech, a private, technology-focused, research university offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering, science, architecture, business, design, human sciences, applied technology, and law.
