Article: The End of Your KM Job

My friends were so worried about me that they rushed over to check that I hadn?t lost my marbles. In fairness, their response could be considered reasonable given that I had just declared to a group of law firm knowledge management specialists that much of what we collectively were doing at that time shouldn?t be done the same old way.? It was a point of view many didn?t want to hear.

Several years later, we?re enjoying the benefits of enterprise search, better document management and work product retrieval tools, and lawyers who are much less phobic about technology. As a result, I?m even more convinced today than I was back then that law firm knowledge managers need to think hard about the work they are doing.? If they are still stuck in the mode of document collection and organization, they may face the unpleasant discovery that electronic tools can do much of this work in an automated and more reliable fashion.? Even those involved with content creation (i.e., the classic practice support lawyer), may soon find that the materials they currently create and struggle to maintain can be produced and more reliably maintained outside the firm on competitive economic terms. For example, the Practical Law Company offers lawyers an up-to-date set of model documents, practice notes, checklists and guidance on market terms (among other things), coupled with the economies of scale that are possible because PLC has more practice support lawyers than most firms and can spread the cost of those lawyers across many firms.? (Disclosure: I?m on PLC?s advisory board.)? For many firms in the UK and the US, this is an attractive option.