Catherine Alman MacDonagh

Catherine is an award-winning lawyer entrepreneur who serves as a catalyst for growth. She is driven to help people work even better together and develop competitive advantages in ways that improve the experience for everyone.

She is known as a pioneer and leverages her experiences as a corporate counsel, legal tech sales professional, and law firm executive to consistently innovate and launch first to market offerings to the legal industry. She also works others, such as technology and professional services firms on engagements that include strategic thinking, planning, and organizational assessments, design and development.

A Legal Lean Sigma® Black Belt, certified Six Sigma Green Belt, and Accredited Partner of the Smart Collaboration Accelerator, Catherine is the CEO and a Founder of the Legal Lean Sigma Institute, which remains the first and only company to provide process improvement and project management certifications, courses, and workshops designed specifically for law.

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 and services industries.

She also invented both the multi award-winning Legal WorkOut®, a collaborative method of engaging in process improvement that delivers rapid results and harnesses the power of diverse, cross-functional teams, and Legal Lean Sigma Design Thinking™, an amalgamation of methodologies and tools that unleashes creativity and produces innovative products and approaches.

Catherine is an adjunct professor at Suffolk Law School in Boston, MA where her PI/LPM course is a requirement of the Legal Innovation and Technology concentration. She is a frequent guest lecturer at other academic institutions and a highly rated keynote and presenter at industry and private events.

Catherine offers coaching, training, and strategy consulting services through her String of Pearls Companies: FIRM Guidance, and Mocktails LLC, which offers training programs with a completely novel and experiential approach to networking training.

Catherine is also a founder of the Legal Sales and Service Organization, which has presented the annual RainDance Conference since its launch in 2003, as well as coveted sales and service awards.

A serial entrepreneur from her childhood days, she is an idea factory who thinks that curiosity, “trying things,” and resiliency are vital. They are also keys to becoming a learning organization and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. Her early experiences in improv, theater, and working as a summer camp counselor allowed her to develop unique skills that are invaluable in working with people.

She is a member of the Association of Legal Administrators, having served on the Professional Development Advisory Committee, and the Standards Review Committee, where she contributed to the development of the Uniform Process Based Management System’s standard code set. She has a long service history with the Legal Marketing Association, which elected her to the illustrious Hall of Fame, including International Board, Northeast Regional 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.

Catherine lives in Florida, USA. She enjoys spending time with her family (of two and four legs), friends, and smart, nice people. She is committed to volunteer work and is active in her community, where she survived serving as the first President of her Homeowners Association. She is a volunteer at Street Sox JAX, which exists to acquire and distribute socks to homeless individuals in the Jacksonville FL community and surrounding areas, promoting dignity, health, and comfort. She is also a Chef for Lasagna Love, which feeds people, spreads kindness, and strengthens communities. A suicide loss survivor, Catherine has a particular interest in removing the stigma around depression and in preventing suicide. Her work in this area includes more than five years of service on the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Greater Boston Board.

Books

Author: Lean Six Sigma for Law, Second Edition

Author: Lean Six Sigma for Law Firms

Co-author: The Woman Lawyer’s Rainmaking Game

Co-author: The Law Firm Associate’s Guide to Personal Marketing and Selling Skills

Contributing author:

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

Select Honors and Awards

Manage HR Top 10 Organizational Development Companies

American Lawyer’s inaugural Trailblazer’s list of “professionals who have moved the needle in the legal industry”

Fastcase50, which honors “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders”

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)