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. It is in those firms which have driven change to eradicate siloed information units (and prise personal knowledge out of people who have perhaps been unwilling to share traditionally) that the tangible value of KM can be exploited to influence growth – and attract clients.

Here at Ark Group, surprisingly enough considering the nature of the business, we haven’t always practised what we preach. Yes, here in the Editorial department we’re always bouncing ideas off one another. There’s also a certain level of ad hoc collaboration in that we might have a quick natter with an event producer, who happens to be working on an conference which is ‘on our turf’. It would be unfair (and untrue) to say that we do not share knowledge. More so, we transfer it in a rather unstructured way.

Over the coming weeks, however, we will be running focus groups specific to each market that we cover. Within these meetings, representatives from all areas of the business – Editorial, Event Production/Management, Publishing and Event Sales – will be able to discuss future ideas, deliberate events or publications that may not have met with the reception we anticipated, and brainstorm.

I attended one of the first just a couple of days ago. Once the logistics had been figured out (isn’t it amazing how you never notice how many people work in different areas of the office?) we got down to business. And it was a valuable exercise. Great ideas and feedback came from the most unlikely sources – people that have completely different interests in what is essentially the finished product, but spend most of their time talking to the market. As someone who finds speaking in front of large groups of people daunting, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself engaged in lengthy debate about client relationship management. This was followed by a slightly more controversial discussion about the fate of professional support lawyers and other support staff during times of economic downturn. It was highly insightful and I, along with others, came out with a few ideas – and some crossed-out proposals. Without this type of interaction it’s so easy to keep plugging away in the assumption that you’re providing what your audience requires, but how can you really tell?

Each month I urge you – our subscribers – to get in touch with feedback, or ideas for features that you would like to see covered in this magazine. I’m lucky in that I have a very vocal and supportive editorial board, and I do receive a few messages from readers congratulating us on a particular article, or commenting on the content more generally. However, as the readers of the highest-renewing magazine we publish, you’re rather a quiet bunch! With that in mind, I’m now asking you not to hold back. What do you enjoy? What would you like to see more of? What do you not want to read about? Without your input and opinion the magazine is not yours – in the launch issue I emphasised the importance of KM Legal being a part of your everyday toolkit, so get in touch! I expect to see my inbox brimming with feedback over the coming weeks. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this issue.

Kate Clifton
Editor

Features

Training and development This article is for subscribers only
As the professional support lawyer (PSL) role has matured and the number of PSLs has increased, more firms are considering or having to consider whether they need to put in place a PSL career development framework.

Case study: Nabarro This article is for subscribers only
When Nabarro Nathanson last year became simply Nabarro and ‘Clarity Matters’ became its brand promise, at the same time, ‘knowledge anagement’ at the firm became simply ‘knowledge’. At a stroke Anna Marshall, the firm’s professional practice partner, managed to cut through the esoteric debate about how we can possibly manage knowledge and how we should clearly distinguish between knowledge and information. In the practical commercial world of the modern law firm, it doesn’t matter. “Knowledge” plain, simple, clear and uncluttered had arrived at Nabarro.

Case study: A client perspective on KM This article is for subscribers only
When I presented at Ark Group’s KM Legal event in April, my main objective was to offer law firms an insight into a typical client’s perspective in knowledge management (KM). While many law firms – as knowledge-based organisations – might assume that there is a huge divide between the way they collate, store, manage and disseminate know-how across their organisations, and how an average enterprise business utilises its information and data, there are perhaps more similarities than you would think. In fact, many larger multi-national companies have the same business drivers for effective KM processes and systems, the same information challenges and, sometimes, additional factors that might not be relevant to a law firm.

Book review This article is for subscribers only
As a member of Patti Anklam’s 2003 Gennova Emergent Learning Network from which Net Work emerged, this is undoubtedly a positively biased review. Hearing the author explain ?energy? in networks in organisations at a 2003 Advanced Thinkers Summit both introduced me to Patti Anklam’s Net Work wisdom and prompted my pursuit of the ideas.

Profile: Managing information This article is for subscribers only
Amanda McKenzie’s career experience in information management is perhaps a little more unusual than the conventional route into library services, which more commonly, or traditionally, would start with a library sciences degree. After all, she actually trained for a legal career. Once she completed her LPC (or the Law Society Finals – LSF as it was called at the time), she started doing legal executive work. But the challenges and diversity of information services in the legal profession convinced her to move into information – joining the information team of a large law firm 15 years ago, followed by mid-tier UK law firm Olswang, where she has remained ever since.

Regulars

Cover feature: Worth their weight in gold This article is for subscribers only
Tim Castorina, managing professional support lawyer (PSL) at international firm Linklaters, discusses the characteristics that can make a PSL truly indispensable to their firm with Kate Clifton.

Thought leader This article is for subscribers only
One of the hot topics of the moment (and, in all likelihood, the foreseeable future) is the impact of external investment into the profession as a result of the Legal Services Act. The knowledge strategist will recognise that any assessment of their firm for investment appraisal purposes will involve thorough due diligence of the KM function and a view being taken of its ‘value added’ contribution and potential.