KM Legal 2007

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.

This year, key themes mentioned during the research calls remained pretty standard. As could be expected, the changing role of the professional support lawyer (PSL) continues to be top of mind for almost all the knowledge managers we spoke to. Perhaps a slightly different element of debate, however, was the relationship between PSLs and business development staff – even looking at the benefits that could be gleamed from merging the two functions.

Across the board, alignment of KM with other departments around the firm was also a popular talking point, in particular aligning KM teams with other service functions – business development, human resources and information technology. In today’s climate of merger activity and mobility between law firms, the service departments need to be providing exactly what the business needs to remain ahead of the competition.

The use of social software is also a hot topic, with more firms biting the bullet and enabling staff to share knowledge through the use of wikis and blogs, for example. International firm Allen & Overy is currently doing a lot of work in this area, which global head of know-how David Jabbari discusses in this issue’s profile interview (page 10).

On a seperate note, I would also like to introduce Karen Battersby as the latest addition to the KM Legal editorial board. Karen has written numerous articles on KM for Managing Partner magazine, as well as Ark Group’s recent Know-How in the Legal Profession report. You can find out more about her on page 6.

If you have any project experiences that you would like to share in an article, or have suggestions for topics that you would like to see covered in these pages, do get in touch. Similarly, if you have any feedback on the magazine, you can contact me by telephone on +44 (0)20 8785 5954 or by e-mail at kclifton@ark-group.com. In the meantime, I hope that you enjoy this issue of the magazine.

Kate Clifton
Editor

Features

Masterclass: Knowledge audits This article is for subscribers only
The knowledge audit is a much discussed element of knowledge management (KM). It is not only an essential pre-requisite for a knowledge manager, especially one new to their role and eager to make their mark, but for providing a KM reality check and giving an organisation an idea of what it needs to do next.

Feature: KM technology and people This article is for subscribers only
The Three Musketeers is inspired by a 17th century work entitled Memoires de d’Artagnan by Gatien de Cortilz de Sandras, which Dumas and Maquet stumbled across in their research. This work essentially became an outline for part I of The Three Musketeers. At the time, Dumas did not believe that the Cortilz novel was historical, but thought he was simply plagiarising and developing a previous writer’s work.

Case study: Latham & Watkins LLP This article is for subscribers only
Rumour has it that knowledge management (KM) makes sense. But just how much has been a question that knowledge-intensive organisations like law firms have been struggling with for a considerable time.
Of course, there is a plethora of theoretical and empirical analysis on the impact of KM, partially venturing so far as to link its performance to certain financial indicators. Identification and evaluation of those indicators, however, requires long-term projects with appropriate staffing and funding.

Cover feature: Measuring value Free
What is the value of knowledge management (KM) in law firms? In many respects, it’s the same as for any business: it is the value derived from leveraging the explicit and tacit knowledge within the firm. In common with other professional-services organisations, law firms trade on their specialist knowledge and expertise.

Regulars

The last word This article is for subscribers only
Some people can write almost as naturally as they breathe – regardless of their profession – and some people cannot. Likewise, some people simply ‘do’ knowledge management (KM) as if it were an integral part of the way they work. It’s simply the way they are.
Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey is one such person.

Profile: David Jabbari This article is for subscribers only

A day in the life of... A head of litigation knowledge management This article is for subscribers only
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.

Opinion: Catherine Flutsch This article is for subscribers only
I recently watched an episode of Star Trek Voyager featuring captain Janeway’s arch enemy, the Borg. As I watched the Borg queen notify her ten-billion drones of a change in attack strategy using the collective consciousness that they all share, it struck me: that the Borg’s knowledge-sharing strategy is fairly advanced.

Thought leader Free
Measuring the value of knowledge and knowledge-management (KM) initiatives is the holy grail for law firms. Doing KM requires an investment in terms of time, people (both professional support lawyers and fee earners) and equipment (such as IT systems). Those making the investment therefore wish to see tangible benefits from their efforts, usually either financial cost savings, or increased profitability.