Blog – LegalKaizen Advisory

Legal+Kaizen Blog

Applying legal and engineering
ideas to make better, safer products.
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Legal+Kaizen is a blog about the intersection of product safety & integrity, litigation, compliance, and process. We’re interested in ways that engineering concepts can be adapted to improve outcomes in legal matters. We’ve experienced the competitive edge that the considered application of tried and true engineering processes (e.g., root cause analysis, Kepner-Tregoe, 5-whys, Kaizen, and LEAN) can bring to litigation and compliance. We’re interested in hearing about, evaluating, innovating and sharing the effective ways that data is being used to improve litigation and compliance results.

Before founding LegalKaizen and the Legal+Kaizen blog, founder Rich Young had global, enterprise-wide responsibility for litigation and compliance at a Fortune 100 diversified business active in over 130 countries. Prior to that Rich was a partner with the nationally lauded trial law firm, where the Fortune 100 bring their most challenging product liability and mass tort cases.

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This site and blog have been created to promote our professional services, and to provide a place for our clients and consultants to locate information and resources regarding legal product safety compliance, anti-corruption compliance and other specialty areas within our practice. If you have come to www.legalkaizen.com for legal or engineering advice, please be advised that ideas and opinions shared on www.legalkaizen.com are not a substitute for, and do not constitute, the professional advice of a lawyer or engineer. Please be advised that no attorney-client or other professional relationship is formed as a result of you accessing www.legalkaizen.com. Please be aware that even if you act in reliance on the information or opinions contained in www.legalkaizen.com, that does not result in the formation of an attorney-client (or other professional) relationship among you and LegalKaizen LLC or any of its partners/consultants. Please also be advised that absent the formation of an attorney-client relationship, LegalKaizen LLC is unable to assure the confidential treatment of any notes, opinions or comments that you may leave on the site or send to LegalKaizen LLC partners or consultants by email, voicemail or any other media.

-Testimonials-

I have worked with Rich as my law partner managing nationwide litigation (including trying and winning a catastrophic exposure case) and later as a client handling worldwide litigation. Rich gets great results—in both settlements and trials. He systematically sets resolution strategies early and is disciplined about clearly communicating this to his teams, helping them stay focused. He also is creative, thinks out-of-the-box, and has the necessary experience to create novel approaches to solving problems. But most important, he is a merciless straight-shooter in advocating for his clients, but still manages to treat his teams, vendors, and even opponents with respect and integrity. He truly has a rare combination of skills that make him unique in the legal world.
Bowman and Brooke LLPTim Mattson, Partner
Rich provides legal counsel to my group in Europe and globally through product safety leads in the Americas and Asia. As a core member of the global product safety team, Rich regularly attends global meetings in Germany and elsewhere and provides excellent training and support. Rich is able to identify problems and drive the effective use of problem-solving tools such as 8D. His experience as a trial lawyer -- and his understanding of how engineers think -- make him an excellent resource for product safety.
Schaeffler GroupBernd Kramer, VP Product Safety
Rich is wonderful to work with. He easily grasps complex litigation scenarios and provides clear and thoughtful direction. His strength is in using data analysis to analyze overall trends and to create consistent reporting methods. His excellent appreciation of litigation risk keeps the client in excellent positions and maintains leverage throughout the case.
Reed SmithMaryanne Woo, Partner
Rich directed my work in the corporate law department. His exacting expectations taught me that a job worth doing is worth doing well. Working together on financial analytics for the e-discovery program I learned about the danger in assumptions, the value of data, and the power in knowledge. Above all, as my mentor, Rich impressed on me the duty of in-house counsel to the legal profession and as the company conscience. Rich is a true man of integrity, and he has been a guiding inspiration through my legal career. Rich is not only a great man, but he is a good guy to be around.
T. Wall EnterprisesTaylor Brengel, General Counsel
Rich Young has a unique ability to assess procedures and quickly identify ways to eliminate money wasting tasks. He has the ability to thoroughly evaluate and understand extremely complex systems. He is creative, tenacious and brings a high level of energy to each project. I have worked with him on many projects over the years and consistently marveled at his productivity and intelligence.
Midwest Legal & eData Services Inc.Shawn Olley, President/Owner
As an attorney just out of law school, I benefited from Rich's example as a principled, energetic, and inventive attorney. I've been impressed with Rich's ability to speak with engineers in their own language, and I've learned from him the importance of learning the business, not just the law. While assisting Rich in various product safety matters, I've seen how Rich provides clients with creative and effective solutions to difficult problems. When conducting root cause analysis, Rich always has an eye towards solving the underlying problem, not just putting out the immediate fire.
Kapstone PaperTim Schmidt, General Counsel

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January 9, 2015

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Common Sense Record Compliance

November 13, 2013

Litigation and regulatory investigations aren’t “black swan” events. They’re a cost of doing business. How much it costs the business is impacted by how well a business [...]

Anti-Corruption Program Maintenance

September 9, 2013

It’s no secret, designing, implementing and training a large scale global compliance program is a massive undertaking. It requires commitment, focus, and resources. When the CEO and [...]