Over the past decade, or so, there have been a number of knowledge management (KM) publications produced that have been aimed at law firms with a varying amount of usefulness and quality. The latest offering in this area comes from Globe Law and Business, possibly a less well known publisher that has produced some extremely practical and relevant titles for law firms over the past few years.
From an initial glance at the publication's table of contents, the book looks to cover a wide-range of areas, with contributions by individuals from many organisations, including people who will be well-known to many BIALL members.
Chapter one begins with an introduction to KM in law firms, which turns out to be an excellent few pages. This not only sets the scene for a newcomer to the area, it succinctly explains why a law firm would want to achieve better KM, or, at the very least, some sort of useful management of its knowledge.
Chapter two investigates the all-important KM strategy, splitting discussion into knowledge-sharing, the actual implementation from a team perspective and piloting a project. Again, the section is extremely well set-out with some particularly valuable guidance. The case-studies provided were useful, although it would have been good to know which organisations these were from in order to apply some sort of context.
‘KM Governance’ is the title for chapter three, although it may also be thought of as covering risk and compliance areas in the UK. Whilst, again, much of the content is excellently written, reference to a seemingly very specific ‘Governance Board’ may not be of great relevance to some firms. Indeed, some of the practical considerations may not actually be that practical for all. Nevertheless, the points raised are engaging and prompt thought about internal processes.
Chapter four examines the role of the ‘knowledge professional’ in law firm KM, covering the varied titles and role specifications (or competencies) an organisation may employ (although seemingly excluding those from a research/information background). Talent retention is addressed along with career structure, which whilst interesting perhaps seems a little out of place so early in the ordering of chapters.
The following chapters cover taxonomy and tagging, enterprise searching, lawyer contribution to KM and also KM and human resources (HR). The latter seemed to be a curious inclusion, but ultimately it was educational and therefore justified its entry. All other chapters are definitely well-written.
Chapters nine and ten examine something of a hot topic within law firms at present, which is legal project management (LPM). Discussion covers the overlap between KM and LPM, what LPM actually is, achieving lawyer buy-in, why project management is necessary, client requirement and capturing knowledge from LPM. Both chapters are excellent and the practical steps to assist with any ‘after action review’ for project management are wonderfully helpful.
A useful summary for those involved with KM in a law firm is then provided in a chapter entitled, ‘Client-facing knowledge management’. This provides guidance on what a client may expect and how KM may assist in obtaining that information. This may also be useful for professional support lawyers (PSLs) and marketing or business development teams.
The seemingly niche ‘Knowledge management in mergers and acquisitions’ follows, examining the problem of lost knowledge following any sort of merger. The chapter actually provides some fantastic information which is relevant to those in a firm who also want to safeguard knowledge on a more day-to-day basis. The inclusion of checklists is once again very helpful. Further chapters cover client portals, collaboration (including a very interesting case study on information professionals) and KM organisation.
In conclusion, Knowledge Management in Law Firms provides fifteen rather distinct chapters on very relevant KM-related areas for the modern day organisation. The only criticism is that chapters do largely read as individual pieces when perhaps further integration (there is some) would be useful. This does lead to small amounts of discussion on similar topics. Having said that, the entire book is extremely well-written (as may be expected from the wealth of knowledge from its authors) and covers areas not necessarily examined in this context previously (constant references to clients as a possible KM-driver throughout underline practical understanding).
I am quite positive that this publication will provide an invaluable source for those interested in KM at a law firm, whether these are individuals specifically working within KM teams, PSLs, lawyers or other interested employees. Whilst there are no specific chapters covering basics such as ‘What is KM?’, introductions are included at the beginning of each section and therefore this is not exclusively aimed at those with a more mature approach to KM.
