denotes premium content | Aug 1 2010 Current issue
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. From a personal point of view, I access my bank account online daily (hoping that my balance will have been bolstered by a mysterious benefactor) and tend to go to Amazon for pretty much any item that I need before thinking about stepping out of the house. I’m insanely busy most of the time, so the fact that Amazon knows where I work, remembers my card details and delivers in excellent time, makes it much more attractive then traipsing round the shops with everyone else who has rushed there straight from work!
Epoq, which runs online legal services tool DirectLaw, recently commissioned a survey in which the majority of respondents (all consumers) said that they expected good law firms to offer their services online within the next couple of years. Certainly, for those firms that step outside of their comfort zone and take full advantage of the tools on offer, this could be a major differentiating factor. Of course, there will always be a requirement for face-to-face real relationships and communication – but it will be interesting to see how far firms are willing to go down the virtual path. Grahame Cohen discusses the issue further on page 14.
On a different note, I always find this time of year is good for reflection so would like to invite you to get in touch with any ideas of how you think the magazine could be improved – any topics that you would like to see covered or sections that you think are missing. Alternatively, if you have a story that you would like to share in an article, then get in touch.
In the meantime, I hope that you enjoy the summer break – and I look forward to seeing you in August, when the magazine will celebrate its fifth birthday.
Features
Going for gold
Clifford Chance is a global law firm, with 6,000 lawyers and business services staff in 29 offices in 20 countries. In 2007, the firm’s knowledge management (KM) leaders undertook a survey of its partners and lawyers to find out how the firm was performing from a KM perspective. A common thread in the responses was the plea to improve the ability to search simultaneously across the firm’s KM and other systems. As one lawyer stated, “searching here is like looking for gold nuggets in a very deep mine.” Of course we knew we had valuable knowledge and expertise within the firm, but we needed to provide a more efficient and effective way for people to access and unlock the value that it represented.
Mixed fortunes
The low ceilings of The Thistle Westminster’s conference suite belied KM Legal 2010’s high ambitions to help delegates achieve the positioning of KM as the efficiency engine of their firms. The joint speakers for the first presentation, ‘Is KM fundamental to the future of the profession?’ gave listeners a trip down memory lane as to what life was like in City of London firms in the prehistoric days of knowledge management and professional support, followed by anecdotal evidence of how professional support roles in their firms have developed over time into large teams and very mature functions.
Holding on to knowledge
An area that has always gained much attention from a KM perspective is knowledge retention. How do you know what knowledge your business has and how do you hold onto it? For succession planning, this issue has particular resonance. If an important lawyer leaves the firm, they may well take their vital knowledge with them. With baby boomers coming up to retirement, it’s not just individuals who are likely to leave, but a whole swathe of partners who are currently the lifeblood of the business.
10 years in KM
In a 2009 blog post Nancy Dixon discussed the different ways in which people conceptualise ‘knowledge’ and the subsequent impact on how knowledge professionals approach their work, including the premise of the strategies that they design and implement. Within this overview of conceptualisation, she touched upon examples such as ‘who in the organisation has useful knowledge?’, ‘how stable is knowledge over time?’, and ‘how can we tell if the knowledge is valid or trustworthy?’
Regulars
New horizons
There are interesting and challenging times ahead for law firms. Not only do they have to deal with the trend questioning the billable hour and arguing for fixed prices and other alternative fee arrangements, there is also a more general shift towards stronger and more demanding clients and competition from new players – such as virtual law firms and outsourcing service providers.
Building a buzz
Unless a firm understands the value of knowledge management (KM) within its business model – and the contribution it makes to efficiency and profitability – it will not invest adequately in it.
Marketing KM internally within your firm can no longer be an ‘added extra’ and could improve usage of existing systems, enhance collaboration and build a better knowledge-sharing culture. All of which are key goals for KM professionals. You wouldn’t expect a law firm to rely solely on its reputation for excellent legal work without marketing itself; similarly you shouldn’t fail to market KM.
Building communities
This article reveals how a move from British American Tobacco’s information technology (IT) function into human resources (HR) prompted the knowledge management (KM) team to experiment with innovative approaches of design thinking, usability and social media to understand the needs of its internal customers.
The potential of KM was first explored at British American Tobacco back in 2000, by an internal division aptly named ‘Imagine Evolution’. Its brief was to investigate new working practices as the internet at that time was starting to have an effect on business, but the possibilities for collaboration had yet to be fully understood.
