At the cutting edge

It may be quite a while before we have a generation of lawyers who are more comfortabke blogging than visiting the library, but it is already happening and law firms must be ready with the skills and tools to facilitate that change. By Beth Fletcher, Clifford Chance

The war for talent is raging. Demographic changes combined with the increasingly crowded and competitive marketplace mean that acquiring and retaining talent is becoming a key challenge for many professional-service firms, law firms included. I am amazed at some of the perks offered to potential trainees, for example. Gone are the days when a branded pen is the most you could expect on your first day. Trainees can now expect such incentives as i-Pods, educational travel and branded merchandise. Acquiring and retaining the best people is, of course, an issue that needs to be addressed at every level of the business and can not be achieved purely by sophisticated gadgets and gifts – although it does seem to help.

As knowledge-management (KM) professionals we are playing an increasingly important role in this battle for talent. At best, KM can facilitate an interesting, challenging and frustration-free environment for lawyers. At worst all the opposites of those qualities can be true. Creating tools and processes aimed at increasing efficiency and quality are some of the key objectives of KM, but it is necessary to think as broadly and holistically as possible about its scope. For example, one of the key objectives of KM should be to enable an increase in knowledge leverage and doing so is essential, not only for increased profitability but to provide the mechanism by which trainees and junior associates are exposed to more challenging, interesting work. While increased quality and efficiency are expected as the norm this widening of scope means there is a role for KM to play in enhancing professional development and job satisfaction.

In addressing the ongoing battle for talent it is important to consider what is going to provide the competitive edge to win the best talent in the future. The way we work is going through a fundamental change. Have a conversation with anyone under the age of 20 and they will probably be simultaneously texting a friend, editing their blog and uploading their latest video to YouTube, while still being able to hold a decent conversation. Adapting to this type of multi-faceted, multimedia way of working and communicating is going to be crucial in developing workable and effective KM tools and processes. The move from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 is what largely defines the next generation of lawyers. They are not simply passive consumers of content but expect and are able to be content creators and editors. They are the type of users who share their knowledge as a matter of course and are increasingly IT savvy. These are the type of users that can help embed KM in a firm and who, in the future, will be its key stakeholders.

The success of a firm is not simply a matter of having the best legal talent but further improving a structure and environment that can develop that talent to its full potential. As KM professionals, we must stay on the cutting edge of identifying and evaluating new technologies and see how they can best fit within our firms. At its core, KM is about facilitation, creating communities and opportunities for people to connect and share their knowledge and experience both in structured and unstructured ways. Only by mastering the tools and attitudes of the next generation of users can KM continue to be effective in this role. KM will also become more of a differentiator in winning clients who are increasingly demanding developed and sophisticated KM capabilities. The firms that can develop the most effective and integrated tools and processes will certainly be in the best position to meet this challenge.

It is an exciting time to be in KM and there is a sea of change in the way we are positioned and valued. Sometimes working in KM you must be an evangelist, your mission being to convince everyone of the value of knowledge sharing. Collaborative technologies and the way that they are increasingly infiltrating every aspect of our lives mean that in future, knowledge sharing facilitated by sophisticated tools will be the standard way that people work and communicate. Power will be less about keeping knowledge than about how and whom you decide to share it with. There will be a lot of experimenting to see in practice what works and what doesn’t. There will be a certain amount of waiting until we have a generation of lawyers who are more comfortable blogging than visiting the library, but it is already happening and when it does we must be ready with the tools and skills to facilitate that change. ?

Beth Fletcher is knowledge manager at international firm Clifford Chance. She can be contacted at beth.fletcher@cliffordchance.com