One thing that I have constantly struggled to understand, through years of dealing with compliance and quality – whether it’s been called benchmarking, quality improvement, auditing, continuous improvement; or whether the applicable standard is ISO, Lexcel or regulatory requirements – is how the legal profession is actually quite averse to it. Sometimes this is expressed as a lack of interest or ennui, sometimes it’s a nod in the right direction and sometimes it’s downright avoidance or blatant disregard.
This is not intended to be some long-winded preaching of the importance of compliance: intellectually, I don’t need to tell you that but perhaps the connection needs to be made in a more practical or visceral way.
This pondering intensified when I read a LinkedIn post from a respected contact who seemed to feel the need to justify the lengths they go to monitor and measure performance. It led me to think of the old carpenter adage:
“Measure twice, cut once”
I then wondered what an appropriate adage for legal compliance would look like and came up with:
Comments and thoughts always welcome.
All the best
Michaela Hardwick
