Knowledge Management at a Law Firm

The stages in a legal firm and the type of knowledge required

In the early years of a lawyer's career, research and document drafting are the predominant professional activities. The tools of legal research are knowledge management tools that help professionals locate the wisdom and analysis previously written by judges, expert scholars and lawyers for adaptation and use in the context presented by a current client.

More senior associates and young partners are entrusted with management responsibilities. At this stage in their careers they are responsible for a team of lawyers and paralegals delivering legal services on specific matters needed by the firm's clients. These lawyers require information about the matters that the firm is handling drawn from a variety of internal information sources like the time and billing system, the conflicts system, the document management system and external sources.

Knowledge about the client dominates the third, client development phase of a lawyer's career. News and stock reports are important to this work and a clear understanding of all the work in process for a particular client is critical.

Types of information that can be captured and stored

Client information,

Existing work product,

Record of firm activities on behalf of specific clients,

New developments inside a firm

Breaking news

Documents such as emails

Court filing and current dockets

Standard text when drafting documents

Process management documentation

Tools that be used to capture, store and retrieve information

Knowledge management strategies for legal advisors extend from the application of repetitive document assembly through creative uses of the conflicts database. Knowledge in a law firm is not confined to legal research or the use of good models of prior work product for transactional documents or pleadings. In addition, knowledge management tools in law firms include at least the following types