Management commitment to quality - an essential component of any QMS

Previously I summarised the general and documentation requirements of a quality management system for law firms under the LAW 9000 standard.

In this and the following posts I will dissect each requirement and provide examples.

Management commitment - an essential requirement

I want to make sure that all law firm directors and partners understand the following. If you think that you can develop, implement and maintain a quality management system for your firm by delegating all responsibility to someone within your firm or to an external consultant without your full commitment than you may forget about it. It isn't going happen.

The standard recognises the importance of senior management providing commitment and guidance. This is expressed in the requirement for evidence of such commitment under clause 5 of the standard titled "Management Commitment".

Now we have established that you must be fully committed to the implementation and maintenance of your QMS I will set out what you need to complete to show sufficient evidence of commitment.

Definitions

Staff - includes both professional and administrative staff.

Practical guide to demonstrating management commitment 

The following are the minimum requirements you need to meet to show your commitment to the QMS:

• You need to communicate to the firm the importance of meeting client needs and all statutory and regulatory requirements. Tip: Communicate the importance of meeting your client needs and statutory requirements by including them as a standard clause in your employment contract. Ensure that when training staff this requirement is regularly reinforced.

• You need to draft and communicate your quality policy to staff and clients. Tip: This policy should reflect the management's commitment to quality. The quality policy must include a commitment to comply with the QMS and to continually improve it. The policy should also include your firm's mission, vision and values. The policy should be communicated to staff and clients. More details in later posts.

• Establish your quality objectives and communicate them to your staff and clients. Tip: If you want to improve your service and increase the level of client satisfaction, reduce the number of complaints, train your staff so they can better serve the clients' needs and consequently increase the level of staff satisfaction than just include them in your quality objectives list. More details about the quality objectives will follow.

• Ensure that you have a regular schedule for reviewing your QMS and the schedule is communicated to staff. Tip: Only implementing your QMS cannot demonstrate your commitment to quality. What you  need to show is that you are reviewing your QMS regularly and assessing the need for changes to the QMS and reviewing your quality policy and quality objectives. The review of the QMS can take place at a special QMS yearly review meeting or be included as an agenda item on any of your other regular business meetings.

• You need to ensure that you can provide the resources needed for the implementation and maintenance of the QMS and its continual improvement. Tip: Part of the QMS review process in the previous paragraph must include also a review of the resources needed by the practice for the maintenance of the QMS. Before embarking on the quality journey ask yourself: Do I have the people, suppliers, information, infrastructure, technology, work environment and money required for implementing and maintaining the QMS? Am I prepared to fill in any resources related gaps?

• You must encourage competent work practices and avoidance of negligence.

• The management of the firm must ensure that the client's requirements are met to enhance customer satisfaction. Tip: You might meet the client's requirements only if you review the client's instructions in the context of the practice's capabilities. You need to determine the client's requirements and then prepare a working plan (project management plan) for the client's matter. This requirement can be satisfied by ensuring that a robust system for supervision of matter files is in place. I will post more details about this requirement later.

By now you would have seen that a management team committed to the development and continuing improvement of the QMS is an essential component of the system. You would have noticed that the QMS is not about drafting a bundle of policies and procedures and storing them in a safe place. It is about communicating your commitment and making it seen and felt by staff and clients.

I also hope that so far you would have considered none of the LAW 9000 requirements as outrageous. They are just good practice.

In the next post I will provide more information about the quality policy and quality objectives.