denotes premium content | Feb 8 2012 KIM Legal archive
Volume 3 Issue 2
A happy new year?
Considering the sombre mood that has been in place since the news of Lehman Brothers first hit, New Year’s Eve 2008 was still a very lively – and positive – event for most. In fact, for one close friend, it proved to be rather painful following quite a comedic injury involving a fence, which could probably have been mitigated by consuming one (or five) less shots of black Sambuca.
Back at work, however, those who have spent recent months simply assuming that ‘this will not affect me’, now realise that the recession will not be lifting any time soon. As we go into 2009, for most businesses the onus is still very much on streamlining processes, driving efficiency and keeping costs as low as is humanly possible.
In that vein, this issue is focused very much on value, whether in the context of demonstrating value-added services to clients, which is explored in Andrew Todd’s cover feature on service blueprinting (page 10), or in the benefits that enabling better collaboration and knowledge flow across departments can bring. In two case studies, Taylor Wessing and Wolf Theiss demonstrate the strategic importance of KM when it comes to fully understanding clients’ business requirements – and in delivering them a service that will encourage them to return to the firm.
On a separate note, I’m sure that many of you will be already be aware that editorial board member David Jabbari will be leaving Allen & Overy to start as chief operating officer at Barlow Lyde & Gilbert – the firm’s first in this role – at the beginning of February. The KIM Legal team would like to wish him all the very best in his new position.
If you have any feedback on the magazine or would like to contribute an article I would love to hear from you. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this issue.
Kate Clifton
Head of Editorial
Features
Technology focus: SharePoint at Wolf Theiss
Wolf Theiss has grown rapidly over the past 10 years. Today, we have more than 600 employees in 12 offices, which includes more than 300 lawyers divided into nine practice groups. Due to this rapid organisational expansion, we have faced many problems in relation to the accumulation and sharing of knowledge, information flow between offices and departments, and the developing and strengthening of our corporate identity.
In 2007 we decided that we needed an intranet platform to resolve these problems and developed a tool that supported the growth of our firm.
Q&A: Doom and gloom?
In an environment where costs are being scrutinised ample opportunity exists to discuss the benefits of KM and demonstrate its value to leadership. We know that lawyers and firms that embrace KM will be those that best serve clients’ needs, so we should be taking this opportunity to demonstrate its benefits.
The profile: Justin Harness
Having escaped the grey skies of the UK, Justin Harness chats to Kate Clifton about his new role at Macquarie Group in Sydney and the knowledge journey that took him there.
Masterclass: Intranet usability and redesign
The desire to redesign an intranet should come from an assessment of its ability to achieve its stated aims and not from observing the latest fad on the web. If an intranet is failing to achieve its objectives, either as a result of usability issues or a lack of functionality, there should be motivation to consider redesigning it in some way.
The emergence of Web 2.0 technologies has changed the focus of the web from a publication medium to a participation and collaboration channel that will gather pace on the intranet, too. This will advance the case for complete intranet redesign.
The supporting role
The business of law has changed dramatically over the past 20 years. The turnover of the UK’s Top-100 law firms has risen by almost 50 per cent in the past five years alone, jumping from £8.5bn to £12.4bn. City law firms, in particular, are now operating on a far larger scale, often with a global outlook, but whether this period of almost uninterrupted growth can continue in the face of the continuing credit crunch is in doubt.
Case study: Taylor Wessing
At Taylor Wessing, each practice group has at least one professional support lawyer (PSL) responsible for KM. These individuals keep the members of their practice group up to date with the law through the use of precedents, qualitative judgements and guidance notes.
Firm policy is that a matter-review meeting is held soon after each matter is closed. The practice group PSLs attend these meetings and ensure that the relevant information is then documented and added to the KM system.
Sponsored comment: It's all about the style
Law firms invest significant sums in the creation and management of their unique brand and document identities, meaning that correct use of document styles is vital in the protection of this investment. House style ensures consistency, creates a unified look and most importantly as a by product, maintains document stability.
Cover feature: Tricks of the trade
How often do clients come to us at the end of a transaction and complain that our fees are too high for the work we completed for them? Yet, from our perspective, all we remember are the late nights and weekends, and the thought that we could perhaps have charged higher fees.
This conflict between the work we do and the service the client believes that they receive is one that we, as designers of legal services, can mitigate and plan for by a using a process known as ‘service blueprinting’.
Regulars
Thought leader
As we enter ever increasingly difficult economic times in the new year, the thought on every knowledge management (KM) professional’s mind, working in legal practice, must surely be: how will KM be viewed in the new climate? Will it be seen as a non-essential overhead or as a key business driver to help the organisation survive and thrive in challenging times? The former view leads to the spectre of cuts in investment and job redundancies as firms reduce their cost base in response to the recession, while the latter places KM at the heart of a vital response to the economic climate.
