Total quality management: applicability to law firms

The practice of law is under pressure from various sources. Economics is one such source. The number of licensed lawyers is growing rapidly at a time when other disciplines are threatening areas of practice that were once the sole province of lawyers. Another pressure on the profession comes from the courts which are in some instances attempting to reduce legal fees. Thus, a question arises as to whether law firms may be implementing TQM techniques developed by other disciplines and by the few law firms which are leading the way for change. To answer that question a survey of Iowa law firms was conducted. The survey was sent to 100 law firms in Iowa in an attempt to determine the extent to which these firms are adopting TQM in an effort to reduce costs and increase efficiency. The research in this exploratory study shows that Iowa lawyers are not embracing even simple means of increasing efficiency such as employing paraprofessionals and upgrading employees’ skills.