denotes premium content | Sep 3 2010 KIM Legal magazine archive
Volume 4 Issue 5
- Virtual insanity?
In 2007, Field Fisher Waterhouse generated a huge amount of excitement in the media when it became the first major UK law firm to open an office in the online virtual world, Second Life.
While the idea of the virtual law firm isn’t a new concept – and firms have been offering certain services to clients online for years, it has been pushed further into the spotlight in recent months. This is in no small part due to the ever-increasing reliance by consumers on web offerings from service providers that they use in everyday life.
Volume 4 Issue 4
- Everybody's talking about...
It would feel somewhat remiss not to make at least a brief reference to the chaos that ensued following the Eyjafjallajokull volcanic eruption in Iceland – and the subsequent cloud of ash, which grounded all flights into European air space. With UK flights finally taking off again at time of press, people and businesses everywhere in the City (and those unfortunate to be stranded a long way from home) are breathing a collective sigh of relief – and hoping that history doesn’t repeat itself.
Volume 4 Issue 3
- Innovate not recreate
The first 2010 issue of KIM Legal has a distinctly continental feel and anyone who attended Ark’s recent Knowledge Management in the European Legal Profession conference in Amsterdam, will recognise the names and faces of some of the contributors. At this stage I would like to thank all those involved in producing this issue of the magazine, during a period of substantial change – but more on that later.
Volume 4 Issue 1
- Editor's letter: Time flies
Once again, we’ve reached that time of year where you can’t walk into any shop without being confronted by a bumper selection of seasonal cards, decorations or tins of chocolates that are bigger than your spare tyre – and will no doubt add to your own ‘wide load’ by the time you’ve paused for breath, having cracked them open. Of course, that’s immediately after tripping over the pumpkins.
Volume 3 Issue 6
- Editor's letter
As KIM Legal moves into its fourth year of publication it feels appropriate to take a retrospective glance at the past three years. When the magazine launched in 2006, if anyone had told me that the global economy – which was enjoying a real boom period – would crash into recession in just a couple of years, frankly I would have thought them mad. Although with hindsight all the warning signs were there.
Volume 3 Issue 5
- Food for thought
A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending Ark Group’s KCUK event in London – and it was nice to see a few law firms represented among the delegates!
Chaired by KM ‘guru’ and knowledge café enthusiast David Gurteen, the conference featured presentations from heavyweights such as Dave Snowden and Richard McDermott, with topics covered including storytelling, intranet management, training, communities of practice and – of course – Web 2.0.
Volume 3 Issue 4
- Editor's letter: A valuable asset
Welcome to the April/May issue of KIM Legal magazine. First and foremost, I would like to extend my congratulations to editorial board member Juliet Humphries and wish her all the very best of luck within her role at Bird & Bird, where she has recently joined as head of Knowledge and Learning.
Volume 3 Issue 3
- Editor's letter: Libraries in the spotlight
Welcome to the February/March issue of KIM Legal. In this issue, we shift the economic focus to the law firm library – or information service – function, which is arguably going to be facing more scrutiny than ever before as firms seek to stabilise their business. It would be far too simplistic to suggest that, for the legal librarian, budgets have always been difficult to justify and attain.
Volume 3 Issue 2
- A happy new year?
This issue is focused very much on value, whether in the context of demonstrating value-added services to clients, which is explored in Andrew Todd’s cover feature on service blueprinting (page 10), or in the benefits that enabling better collaboration and knowledge flow across departments can bring. In two case studies, Taylor Wessing and Wolf Theiss demonstrate the strategic importance of KM when it comes to fully understanding clients’ business requirements – and in delivering them a service that will encourage them to return to the firm.
Volume 3 Issue 1
- Editor's letter
As I sat down to write this column I set myself a personal objective to mention nothing about the economy (it appears that I have failed just 20 words in). Not that I wish to stick my head in the sand – quite the opposite in fact. It’s just that I have a somewhat old-fashioned view that us editors get but one opportunity to talk about something that has captured our imagination in a completely opinionated and unrestrained manner: the editor’s letter.
Volume 2 Issue 6
- Editor's letter
To get straight to the point, many of you may have noticed something slightly different about the magazine this issue. Or, you might have heard some murmurings on the grapevine, of a new Ark Group publication. To set the record straight: yes, KM Legal has evolved, but the only major changes are in its name – and in the increased scope of the issues and functions that the magazine covers.
Volume 2 Issue 5
- Editor's letter
Within these pages much is written about the value of collaboration, knowledge sharing and transparency in our day-to-day working lives. Time and again law-firm KM professionals have provided detailed accounts of how their organisations have benefited from a more open, expertise-driven culture; one which thrives on the experience and input of talented individuals from myriad practice areas, support departments and job roles.
Volume 2 Issue 4
- Editor's letter
One of the true benefits of the editorship of KM Legal is the increasingly diverse information at my finger tips, when it comes to finding content to fill these pages. Gone are the days when knowledge management (KM) was relegated to the doldrums of a dusty back office, where technology-driven information professionals filed and guarded the organisation’s knowledge and data.
I’m beginning to lose count of the occasions that I’ve used this foreword to preach the evolution of KM in law firms. Rather worryingly, I have to wonder if it’s even a point in danger of becoming grossly over-exaggerated as time goes on. But each time such negativity plays on my mind I step back and look at the case against such an argument, which is beautifully illustrated by this particular issue.
Volume 2 Issue 3
- Editor's Letter
Once again another year has flown by at an phenomenal rate. On a personal level I’ve experienced significant flux both in my professional and private lives, which has probably added to the rapid passing of 2007. And, once again, I find myself wondering how I’m going to shoehorn all the coming year’s activities and tasks into a mere 12 months. I have no doubt that most law firms will be wondering the same.
Volume 1 Issue 6
- Visiting the world of KM
As some of you may know, for five years, I had the privilege of editing KM Legal’s sister publication Managing Partner. As part of that title, I sometimes covered knowledge-management (KM) issues, and reported on the evolution of this discipline within the overall management structure of the legal profession.
Volume 1 Issue 5
- Editor's letter
Over the past year or so I have been put through my paces in a baptism of fire introduction to knowledge management (KM) in the legal profession. And it’s been quite a ride.
Although I was familiar with KM as an enterprise-management function, I had very little knowledge of its context within the law-firm environment when I was first asked to launch this magazine.
Volume 1 Issue 4
- Editor's letter
The Law Society Gazette recently published a news item covering a Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) adjudication, which stated writing derogatory or potentially libellous comments about law firms does not necessarily count as bringing the profession into disrepute. The article highlighted a website set up by a London-based, locum solicitor, which included significant complaints about a firm that he had worked for.
Volume 1 Issue 3
- Editor's letter
Ark Group is currently working on production of its eighth-annual Knowledge Management (KM) for the Legal Profession conference, which is to be held in London on 25-26 April.
One of the most useful things about preparing for this popular event is the opportunity for our production managers to speak to law firm KM professionals and find out what’s been happening over the past year: how KM is evolving; whether or not the key issues and challenges remain; and so on.
Volume 1 Issue 2
- Editor's letter
It is without a shadow of doubt that researching and launching KM Legal magazine represents the most challenging period of my career as a journalist, so far.
In my editor’s letter for the launch issue, I highlighted the difficulties we faced simply picking an appropriate title for the publication. While some law-firm representatives thought that the term ‘know-how’ was more a reflection of the cultural, rather than technological, element of KM, others were of the view that the term bought forth images of outdated documents, rather than a people-centric approach.
Volume 1 Issue 1
- Editor's letter
Welcome to this launch issue of KM Legal, the first knowledge-management (KM) publication specifically tailored to the legal profession. The challenges and opportunities facing KM professionals in law firms are significant, with debate covering a broad range of issues from the initial value of KM activities to complex KM projects requiring the input of people across the firm.
