Catherine is an award-winning innovator who is known for consistently launching first to market offerings to the legal industry for nearly 30 years. She is driven by a passion to help people work even better together and to assist organizations in developing competitive advantages.

A former corporate counsel, legal technology marketing and sales professional, and law firm executive, Catherine now teaches and provides training and consulting services in the areas of process improvement, project management, operational and process excellence, innovation, organizational development, business development, and strategy. 

A Legal Lean Sigma® Black Belt and a certified Six Sigma Green Belt, Catherine is the CEO and a Founder of the Legal Lean Sigma Institute, which remains the first and only process improvement and project management certifications, courses, and workshops designed specifically for the legal profession.

Catherine created Legal Lean Sigma®  to bridge the concepts employed so successfully in manufacturing for more practical and relevant applications to the unique aspects of the legal industry. She also invented both the Legal WorkOut®, a collaborative method of engaging in process improvement that harnesses the power of diverse, cross-functional teams, and Legal Lean Sigma Design Thinking™, an amalgamation of methodologies and tools used in process improvement and Design Thinking that unleashes creativity and produces rapid improvements.

Catherine is an adjunct professor at Suffolk Law School and George Washington University (Master’s in Law Firm Management). She is a frequent guest lecturer at other academic institutions and a highly rated keynote and presenter at industry events.

Her publishing credits include:

• Author of the groundbreaking Lean Six Sigma for Law Firms
• Co-author of The Woman Lawyer’s Rainmaking Game and The Law Firm Associate’s Guide to Personal Marketing and Selling Skills

In addition to numerous articles, Catherine is also a contributing author to:

• Business Development for a New Legal Ecosystem 
• Design Thinking for the Legal Profession
• Redefining Matter Management: A Best Practice Guide to Improving Processes and Profitability
• The Lawyer’s Guide to Strategic Practice Management
• The Bigger Picture: Driving Client Value Through Collaboration
• The Lawyer’s Guide to Process Improvement
• The Procurement Handbook

Catherine’s honors and awards include: Fastcase50, which honors “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders;” 2018 Process Excellence Award for Best Business Transformation Project; elected Fellow, College of Law Practice Management; Legal Marketing Association Hall of Fame (the association’s highest honor); Boston Business Journal’s 40 Under 40; two years on the prestigious MLF 50 (Marketing the Law Firm Top 50) List; and multiple Legal Marketing Association Your Honor Awards.

Legal Lean Sigma Institute team awards include: Hall of Fame and Top 3 Management Consulting/Strategic Planning:  2019 National Law Journal’s “Best Of” awards. Top 3 Lawyer/Law Firm Business Development Training and Coaching, Legal Times “Best Of” 2018, 2017, and 2016

A serial entrepreneur, Catherine also offers coaching, training, and strategic planning consulting services through her practice, FIRM Guidance, and is the Chief Enthusiasm Officer of Mocktails LLC, which offers training programs with a completely novel and experiential approach to networking training for lawyers and everyone else. The Mocktail program is used as a standing part of the curriculum at two business schools.

Catherine is also is a founder of the Legal Sustainability and Social Impact Movement (Legal SASI), the Coalition of Professional Services Providers and the Legal Sales and Service Organization, which has presented the annual RainDance Conference since its launch in 2003.

She has a long service history with the Legal Marketing Association, including: International Board, LMA New England Chapter President for two terms, co-chair of the Education and Sponsor Relations Committees, Annual Conference Advisory Committee and on many task forces. She is a member of the Association of Legal Administrators and served on the Standards Review Committee, where she contributed to the development of the Uniform Process Based Management System’s standard code set.

Catherine lives in the suburbs of Boston, MA, USA and has three Havanese dogs. She is a sports fan and enjoys cooking, traveling, and spending time with family, friends, and smart, nice people. Catherine is deeply committed to engaging in volunteer work and, as a suicide loss survivor, has a particular interest in removing the stigma around depression and suicide. Her work in this area includes more than five years of service on the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Greater Boston Board.

Currently, Catherine is supporting multi-year, Legal Services Corp funded pro bono projects involving three legal aid offices. Part of the team’s mission is to design, test, and build process improvement training for legal aid that will serve as a national blueprint and address access to justice and legal counseling issues.

Mo Zain Ajaz is an intrapreneur working for National Grid plc as a GC and COO as well as the founder of LEx360, a legal optimisation consultancy. He is also a member of the Legal Lean Sigma Institute faculty and an affiliated consultant.

Recognised as one of the six in-house role models for the Financial Times 2018, being in the Hot 100 for the Lawyer Magazine in 2016, as well as being recognised for his contribution for numerous industry awards include best in-house team of the year 2017 and best legal technology adoption.

Mo is a Director of global energy giant with responsibilities for the legal function, change, process and communications. A practicing lawyer with deep experience in environmental, real estate and planning law. Holding a MBA from the prestigious Warwick Business School and a Masters degree in Science in Lean Enterprise from Buckingham University with a Distinction.

As part his consultancy work he has helped numerous GC’s undertake strategic reviews, efficiency and people development programmes, process optimisations, legal technology deployments and outside counsel best practice reviews.  In addition, he has helped law firms in client journey improvements, alignment of service delivery, process optimisation, what clients want and pricing strategies.

Mo is also the chair of Winmark’s Centre of Legal Operational Excellence, a regular writer for Thompson Reuters and Legal Business World and an active member of CLOC and ACCA.  Mo has presented key notes in Spain, Ireland, England, New York and Scotland.

Mo is has had excellent feedback his regular training programmes including topics like design thinking, digital transformation, process optimisation, legal operations, KPI’s and metrics, legal strategy and spend management.

Mo lives in Birmingham, England. He is married with two boys. He has a keen interest in diversity issues, exploring lean, operational and process excellence in the legal market.a