The Agile Attorney Podcast
John E. Grant
The Agile Attorney podcast teaches legal professionals how to streamline their legal workflows using the principles, practices, and tools of the Kanban Method.
Join Accredited Kanban Trainer and award-winning legal operations professional John E. Grant as he shares the keys to implementing effective strategies, practices, and technologies to drive true efficiency in your legal processes.
For more information on how John can help you develop an agile mindset and bust through your legal delivery bottlenecks, visit https://agileattorney.com.
This is the show for you if you find yourself asking questions like:
-How can I make my law practice more efficient?
-What is the best way to implement legal project management in my legal workflow?
-How can I best leverage technology to improve my legal workflows?
-What is the best way to transition my practice to flat fees or other alternative billing structures?
-How can I get my legal team to perform better?
-How can I better build productized legal services?
-What is the best way to increase law firm revenue without adding headcount?
Join Accredited Kanban Trainer and award-winning legal operations professional John E. Grant as he shares the keys to implementing effective strategies, practices, and technologies to drive true efficiency in your legal processes.
For more information on how John can help you develop an agile mindset and bust through your legal delivery bottlenecks, visit https://agileattorney.com.
This is the show for you if you find yourself asking questions like:
-How can I make my law practice more efficient?
-What is the best way to implement legal project management in my legal workflow?
-How can I best leverage technology to improve my legal workflows?
-What is the best way to transition my practice to flat fees or other alternative billing structures?
-How can I get my legal team to perform better?
-How can I better build productized legal services?
-What is the best way to increase law firm revenue without adding headcount?
Episodes
Mentioned books
7 snips
Mar 24, 2026 • 45min
112. The Problem with Billable Hour Targets & What to Measure Instead with Radhika Dutt
Radhika Dutt, author and product-thinking expert behind Radical Product Thinking, explores how common metrics like billable hours can distort priorities. She discusses why targets create perverse incentives. She offers the puzzle mindset and the OLA (observe, hypothesize, learn, adapt) framework as alternatives. Short, practical ideas on reframing work to focus on real outcomes and client alignment.
Mar 17, 2026 • 27min
111. The Core Patterns Behind an Agile Law Practice [Agile Lawyering Finale]
A finale that pulls together core patterns for building a resilient, intentional law practice. Topics include professionalizing operations before scaling and applying matter-level patterns firmwide. They discuss prioritization as a capacity discipline and the idea of being adaptable like water. The conversation highlights visibility, negotiated agreements, and keeping people central to systems.
Mar 10, 2026 • 27min
110. Why Every Legal Matter Needs a Strategy Plan [Agile Lawyering Part 10]
Legal work is complex and high-stakes, yet many law firms still rely on outdated project management approaches. In this episode, I introduce the concept of a matter strategy plan, a flexible, evolving document that keeps legal teams aligned and informed. I discuss how this Agile approach fosters collaboration, smarter decision-making, and helps legal teams stay adaptable, ultimately leading to better outcomes for both the team and the client. Get full show notes, transcript, and more information here: agileattorney.com/110 Take your law practice from overwhelmed to optimized with GreenLine Legal Follow along on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/johnegrant
Mar 3, 2026 • 33min
109. Creating Consistency in Law Firms Without Sacrificing Autonomy [Agile Lawyering Part 9]
A deep dive into making law firm processes reliable without stripping away professional freedom. Conversations cover turning memory-based practice into repeatable systems, creating shared context instead of top-down edicts, and using experiments to resolve disagreements. Practical tools include drafting policies from stakeholder talks, service-level expectations for client timing, and using data and AI with human review to keep practices honest.
Feb 24, 2026 • 32min
108. The Client Journey Map: A Systems Tool for Better Client Experience and Law Firm Flow [Agile Lawyering Part 8]
They explore mapping the full client journey to spot blind spots that cause friction. Topics include clients' practical and emotional needs, value exchanges in every interaction, and questions to build a map. The conversation covers phase structure, visual progress tracking, onboarding goals, ethical and operational payoffs, and links between journey maps and Kanban practices.
Feb 17, 2026 • 33min
107. Beyond Tracking Hours: The Law Firm Metrics That Improve Flow [Agile Lawyering Part 7]
A practical shift from tracking hours to measuring flow in law firms. Six actionable metrics are introduced to manage work, not workers. Topics include throughput, matters in progress, cycle time, commitment versus arrival rates, and flow efficiency. Advice on cadence for weekly and monthly tracking is also covered.
Feb 10, 2026 • 33min
106. Breaking the Cycle of Urgency in Law Firms [Agile Lawyering Part 6]
A practical blueprint for breaking the nonstop urgency loop in law practices. Topics include using capacity limits and WIP controls to stop firefighting. Hear why FIFO prioritization and cadence meetings create predictable delivery. Learn how classes of service, fixed-date handling, and scheduled maintenance prevent manufactured emergencies.
Feb 3, 2026 • 30min
105. The Counterintuitive Solution to Getting More Work Done [Agile Lawyering Part 5]
Getting more work done often starts with doing less, even though that idea can feel uncomfortable for lawyers. When everything feels urgent, it’s tempting to push harder, take on more, and hope it all evens out.In this episode, I explain why the most reliable way to increase throughput in a law practice isn’t effort or efficiency, but smarter constraints. You’ll hear how counterintuitive Agile principles help firms reduce overload, protect capacity, and deliver more consistently without burning out the people doing the work.Get full show notes, transcript, and more information here: agileattorney.com/105 Take your law practice from overwhelmed to optimized with GreenLine LegalFollow along on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/johnegrant
5 snips
Jan 27, 2026 • 34min
104. Quality Standards for Law Firms: How to Make Expectations Explicit and Work Predictable [Agile Lawyering Part 4]
They tackle uncertainty in legal work by making quality expectations explicit. They explain fit-for-purpose standards, definitions of done and ready, and simple checklists to prevent rework. They cover delegation pitfalls like boomerang and shotgun delegation, urgency camouflage, and using templates and SIPOC to stabilize workflows. Practical tips focus on starting small and co-creating standards with the team.
Jan 20, 2026 • 35min
103. Bottlenecks in Law Firms: Fixing Flow Without Heroics [Agile Lawyering Part 3]
Discover how visibility in workflow can transform bottlenecks into smoother legal processes. Learn the importance of distinguishing between unfinished work and actual waiting time. Explore how to pinpoint the most critical bottlenecks, such as client homework and quality reviews. Embrace a team-oriented approach to process improvement, moving away from personal heroics. Delve into three essential levers for relieving bottlenecks: focusing on finishing tasks, empowering others, and enhancing upstream quality. Optimize your legal practice for better flow!
