A day in the life of... A head of litigation knowledge management

Catherine Milton explains the diverse and unpredictable nature of her role as head of litigation knowledge management at international firm DLA Piper, and provides a glimpse of its forthcoming KM strategy and cross-practice initiatives.

The best aspect of my new role as head of litigation knowledge management (KM) at DLA Piper is that I rarely know what I will be doing from one day to the next. In broad terms, my current workload breaks down as follows:

30 per cent project facilitation/management;
30 per cent planning for International Litigation Group Training Conference;
15 per cent business-development support;
10 per cent KM strategy;
10 per cent professional support lawyer (PSL) team management;
5 per cent legal sounding board/specific legal support.

All that I can be certain of at present is that this will change!

The litigation group has recently been asked to compile a reference work on international arbitration and to contribute a chapter on evidence to a leading IT loose-leaf. In addition to drafting my fair share of content, I am facilitating both endeavours, coordinating as necessary with colleagues from the US, Asia and Europe, as well as the third-party publishers. I am also developing content and liaising with IT and business-development colleagues to configure a number of original, client-facing online products.

Planning the legal-training syllabus and organising the entertainment for the DLA Piper International Litigation Group Conference is proving to be a considerable challenge. This is the key annual opportunity for the 300-plus dispute-resolution fee earners from around the globe to meet and compare notes. This year, the event will be held during March in Barcelona. More than 25 different jurisdictions will be represented, ranging from zero to more than 20-years post-qualification experience. It is my task to provide them all with an enjoyable and worthwhile international conference focusing on black-letter law training, with the usual extra-curricular activities too.

On the business-development front, we are fortunate to have no less than three executives dedicated to the litigation group nationally. Currently I am supporting the London executive in developing the 2007 client seminar programme and planning the key client events for the year, as well as collating credential materials for the re-vamped pitch pack and legal directory submissions. One of my team, Paula Johnson, meets regularly with our PR agents and is very successful in securing opportunities for our fee earners to demonstrate their expertise externally. Soon, I expect to help deliver client seminars and am already exploring the potential for adding real value in retainer relationships.

As the firm is multi-office even within the UK, let alone globally, developing an effective KM strategy for the litigation group can be interesting. I hold regular meetings with my experienced PSL team, which is based throughout the UK. At present we are focusing on determining the best way in which to outsource our more routine know-how activities so that we can be more flexible in delivering bespoke client products and progressing innovation to fruition. We are also reviewing the dissemination of information and training to ensure that all of our offices and specialist practitioners are well catered for.

We will shortly be setting individual and team objectives based upon our findings. Again, no easy task, but we are admirably assisted in this not only by our indispensable specialist litigation KM research officers, but also by the dedicated dispute-resolution partners and associates from all UK offices who sit on the litigation know-how and quality committees.

As the firm has expanded exponentially in recent years, so have the opportunities for cross-practice and cross-border initiatives. In conjunction with the heads of KM in other practice groups, I support these projects by matching pockets of enthusiasm, preparing detailed business cases, controlling budgets and, not least, working to maintain momentum.

The EMEA head of knowledge management, David Halliwell, recently asked me for my work plan for the next year. I have a problem with this. My capacity and diary are jammed full until about April or May, whereupon they will become very empty if I have performed my job well – although I am pretty confident that by then I will face a whole new set of exciting challenges.