I’ve always been fascinated by the intersection of people, business, and the way work actually gets done
Early in my career, I worked at the intersection of law and emerging technology, and later inside law firms. In both experiences, I saw firsthand the tremendous talent and expertise in the profession—but also the inefficiencies, silos, and missed opportunities that often surrounded that expertise. I also saw a lack of true alignment between law firms and their clients.
That ultimately led me to ask a pretty simple question: What if we applied some of the disciplines that other industries use to truly focus on clients and improve how work gets done and delivered? That question became the foundation for Legal Lean Sigma® , which really is unique in the application to law – so much so that it is a registered trademark.
What has kept me engaged is the opportunity to see what’s coming next—and help build it. Over the past 20 or 30 years, I’ve worked at the intersection of emerging needs and emerging opportunities: from business development and technology adoption to process improvement, project management, client experience, legal operations, and now AI, data, transformation, and the future of knowledge work.
What connects them is the ability to spot the gap before it becomes obvious, see where the market is heading, and build something new before there is a playbook. I’m drawn to the spaces where needs are emerging but solutions haven’t yet been defined.
For me, innovation is about continually asking: What’s missing? What’s changing? What will people need next?—and then creating the tools, frameworks, and approaches to help organizations get there first.
First, I’ve learned that being right isn’t enough. You can have the best idea in the world, but if people don't understand why it matters to them, don't trust it, or don't see how to apply it, it isn't going anywhere. Change management and understanding behavioral economics is so important.
I’ve also learned that lawyers are not necessarily more resistant to change than anyone else; what they are is resistant to change that feels imposed, irrelevant, risky, or disconnected from the way they actually work. That distinction is important.
The most successful innovations I’ve been involved with have started by understanding the challenges and opportunities from the perspective of those experiencing them. Then, we create something practical enough that people can try it, see results, and make improvements over time.
This is one reason I believe so strongly in pilots, the power of small gains and quick wins, collaboration, and experiential learning. You don't have to convince an entire organization to transform overnight. Give a team an opportunity to solve a real problem at the root cause, demonstrate a measurable result, and create advocates who can tell the success story.
Legal Lean Sigma itself followed that path. The first programs were developed specifically for the legal environment and launched through LSSO. The Institute eventually became a separate organization due to demand. To this day, we are the only certifying body in law with White, Yellow, Green and Black Belt certifications in process improvement and project management.
People, for sure. Technology gets a lot of attention because it is visible and exciting. Processes get attention when something breaks. But the people who have to use the process and the platform—and who ultimately determine whether change succeeds—can be an afterthought. If the people being asked to change don't understand it, don't believe in it, don't have the skills to work differently, or don't see what's in it for them, adoption will suffer.
There is another dimension to “people” that I think is increasingly important: the people closest to the work often know the most about how to improve it. When we bring together the people who perform the work, manage it, receive it, and are affected by it, and facilitate meaningful collaboration among them, we uncover insights and opportunities that leadership simply cannot see from the top.
People, process, and platform – always in that sequence. They are interconnected, but without people first, the other two don't deliver their intended value.
Pick one specific process that causes frustration, duplication, delay, rework, or unnecessary handoffs, such as a particular aspect of something like intake, billing, matter opening, a particular type of transaction, client reporting, conflicts, closing files.
Then ask three questions:
Map the process. Talk to the people involved. Identify things like handoffs, bottlenecks, errors, wait time. Then identify the root causes to solve for, rather than endlessly treating symptoms. Then design and test improvements, learn from those pilots, and tweak until the solutions are ready for full scale implementation.
You don't need a lengthy transformation plan to get started. Sometimes the best first step is simply getting everyone around a table and asking, “How are we doing it now?” and, “Why do we do it this way?” “How could this be better?”
They think sales means selling. I have a word association exercise I use where I ask lawyers, “I say sales… you think…?”
For many lawyers, the word immediately conjures up images of pitching, being aggressive or annoying, persuading, self-promotion, or asking someone to buy something. A lot of times the response to my question is: “Used car salesman.” That's not what good legal sales is. Effective sales is about understanding a client's world well enough to identify where you can create value—and then establishing trust and rapport over time by having conversations about that value – and delivering it.
The best business developers I know are extraordinarily curious. They have good Emotional and Personality Intelligence, which I consider essential (not soft) skills. They ask good, open-ended questions. They listen and observe. They understand the client's business, pressures, goals, personality, preferences, communication style, and problems. They connect people and ideas. They practice empathy (also the first step in Design Thinking, by the way).
I also think lawyers sometimes underestimate how much of “sales” is actually about service excellence and the client and employee experiences. If you consistently deliver an excellent experience, know what matters to your clients, communicate proactively, and make it easy to work with you, you are already doing some of the most important work in business and client development.
Sales isn't a separate activity that happens before or after the legal work. Every interaction could be the “moment that matters” to the client. There are millions of these every year and each one creates an opportunity to leave an impression whether good or bad. And, it’s all a part of the sales and service experience.
I think the biggest misunderstanding is that client experience is the same thing as client service. It's not.
Service is often evaluated from the firm's perspective: Did we respond? Did we do good work? Did we meet the deadline? Did we solve the legal problem?
Client experience requires us to step outside the firm's perspective and ask: What was it actually like to be the client? A firm can deliver technically excellent legal work and still create an experience that is frustrating, confusing, unpredictable, or unnecessarily difficult.
At RainDance, Steven and I talked about designing the client experience intentionally rather than leaving it to chance. That means understanding the client's journey, identifying friction points, listening to what clients actually need, and then using process improvement and design thinking to do something about what we learn.
One of the things I particularly loved about the workshop was that we weren't simply talking about “CX” as a concept. We were giving people tools to create an empathy map, examine the client journey, identify root causes, and develop a practical 30/60/90-day pilot. Because ultimately, client experience isn't a slogan or some flowery language on a website or response to an RFP. It's the cumulative result of hundreds of interactions and decisions.
My favorite part is getting a front-row seat to the creativity and excellence happening across the profession. The awards are particularly meaningful to me as they recognize something I have believed for a very long time: impact and innovation in legal deserves to be recognized, celebrated and treated as a source of inspiration. The award winners can spark ideas for our community on everything from better sales strategies, stronger client relationships, redesigned processes to more effective teams and new approaches to service.
Honestly, what I love most is seeing people challenge the assumption that “this is just how law firms work” and demonstrate that there is a better way.
When we founded LSSO, the idea that legal organizations should think seriously about sales, service, client experience, and business development was still relatively new. There were only 12 people with business development in our titles that we could find in law firms that first RainDance Conference. Look at us now!
Today, those concepts and roles are much more firmly embedded in the profession. We've seen the rise of sophisticated business development teams, client teams, pricing and legal project management, legal operations, client experience functions, data-driven business development, and now AI and other technologies that are changing how legal services are delivered.
Sales. Service. Client experience. Innovation. Technology. Data. Process. People. These aren't separate conversations anymore. What excites me about LSSO's future is the opportunity to bring all of these pieces together.
Legal is undergoing massive transformation. With that comes a demand for smarter, faster, sustainable, scalable, and more strategic business development. To have been able to bring a community of truly smart, nice, generous people together, where members tell say “I found my tribe,” is genuinely thrilling. I’m deeply grateful to everyone on our team, Board of Advisors, and Editorial Board members for everything they’ve done to elevate LSSO. We are incredibly fortunate to have the brightest, more generous people involved in the organization.
My hope is that LSSO continues to create connections among people who are creatively addresses similar challenges, bring strategies and tactics that are working, especially those from outside the traditional legal bubble, into the profession, celebrate the people who are bringing us all forward, and give legal and business professionals practical ways to turn smart ideas into better results.
After more than two decades, I still think we're just getting started.
Catherine is happiest when she’s learning and creating something new, having a great conversation, laughing with family and friends, traveling, performing for an audience of one (and everyone else on the road) in the car, or cooking. She is a volunteer chef with Lasagna Love, which spreads kindness to neighbors, and a certified barbecue judge. Before deciding on law, Catherine was a theater major and spent two years doing improv. That, along with her experiences as a corporate counsel and summer camp counselor, make her supremely prepared for working with lawyers.