Moving away From the Command and Control Approach to Knowledge Management

I remember listening to David Jabbari, Global Head of Knowledge Management, Allen + Overy LLP at LegalTech 2008. He spoke on a panel entitled: Technology Integration – The New Face of Knowledge Management. Part of presentation focused on the growing use of wikis and blogs at his firm.

Mr. Jabbari has now gone on to embrace Knowledge Management 2.0 in an article in the ABA's Law Practice Today: The End of 'Command Control' Approaches to Knowledge Management?

"If you see knowledge as an inert ‘thing’ that can be captured, edited and distributed, there is a danger that your KM effort will gravitate to the rather boring, back-office work preoccupied with indexes and IT systems. This will be accompanied by a ritualized nagging of senior lawyers to contribute more knowledge to online systems. If, however, you see knowledge as a creative and collaborative activity, your interest will be the way in which distinctive insights can be created and deployed to deepen client relationships. You will tend to be more interested in connecting people than in building perfect knowledge repositories"

As he writes in the article, Mr. Jabbari first caught onto this idea after seeing a seminar on Wikipedia a few years ago. He now sees knowledge management as a three prong approach: Collaboration, Location and Navigation.

I like the focus on these three areas so this is my take on them:

Collaboration. We must encourage the unregulated proliferation of content online (internally and externally). At law firms, this is already this occurring in our document management systems. Moving it online is just changing the forum. Even though enterprise 2.0 is more open, it surprisingly easier to monitor the content. As wikis are growing at The Firm, our KM team is taking on the role of wiki gardeners, as well as wiki champions.

Location. Google has raised the expectation of people when looking for information. The junior associates coming into a law firm are used to finding whatever they want at the snap of their fingers. Law firms need to have that same capability internally. This can work by just pointing the search engine at your document collections. But then you lose the inter-relationship between the content. The use of wikis and enterprise 2.0 tools allows you link to relevant content found elsewhere.

Navigation. Search is great, but you also need to guide people to the good content. Search is important when you are not sure what you are looking for and navigation is important when you do know what you are looking for.

Also see:

• Mary Abraham's view: So You Think You Should "Command and Control"?
• Mohamed Amine Chatti's view: The End of 'Command Control' Approaches to Knowledge Management?
  

Knowledge Management and Practical Law Company

Practical Law Company (PLC) (www.practicallaw.com) is invading the United States later this year. Like the Beatles did for music, the British invasion from PLC looks like it will change knowledge management for law firms. Jeroen Plink and Denise Caplane of PLC bought me lunch and gave a demo of the UK deployment of Practical Law and a preview of the US deployment of Practical Law.

Why Use Practical Law Company?:

• Increase efficiency and productivity
• Cost Savings
• Risk control
• Attract and retain talent
• Training and Professional Development Tool

Obviously, those are the goals of knowledge management. But can PLC pull all of this off? So what does PLC actually do?

It is web-based collection of transactional documents, notes, articles and know-how. All these resources for its US deployment are developed and maintained by US lawyers in PLC's NY office.

To show how it works, Jeroen jumped into the process a junior lawyer might go through for a private stock acquisition. You either browse to the private stock acquisition section or search for a "private stock acquisition." All resources relating to private stock acquisitions are assembled in one location: practice notes (explanatory notes), standard documents/forms, market practice analysis, checklists and news items. You can start off with practice notes section and can pull up an overview of this type of transaction. The overview goes through matters such as the typical structure of this type of transaction, the key documents, interests of the main players and what the key documents do.

Then you can jump to the standard documents/forms. Most form documents also have drafting note document that take you through each provision in the document, what each provision does and practical tips for either party to the deal. You can download the form document into Word using either a PLC standard style or your firm styles. (You do know how to use Word Styles? Don't you?) Even better, many of the forms have an automation feature called FastDraft. This document assembly engine allows you to answer a few questions and have the draft document be better suited to your transaction and fill in repetitive information.

The subject area also has checklists, legal updates, articles and a glossary on that area of the law.

The materials are labeled as maintained meaning they are maintained and updated by the PLC staff attorneys. Or they are labeled with a last updated date, which is mostly used for articles and news.

Jeroen moved on to the market analysis feature of Practical Law called "What's Market." For public transactions, they do a summary of significant transactions and chart key terms. This allows you to search by deal type to see key terms. For example, you can pull a chart of break-up fees for transactions similar to the one you are negotiating or risk factors in 10k's in a particular industry.

Practical Law has collections of briefs on cross-border transactions so you can see how transactions are handled in other countries. These are outsourced by law firms in those countries, not the Practical Law staff. I assume those firms do it to attract work. Law Departments are big users of Practical Law in the UK.

You can also personalize Practical Law for your firm. You can add annotations to items that are viewable just for your firm. For example, you can note that your firm handles these type of issues in a different way and links to other resources.

Since Practical Law is web-based you can also integrate it into your enterprise search tool and index the Practical Law content along with your firm's internal content.

The invasion by Practical Law is scheduled for later this year. The initial subject areas will be limited to (a) Corporate and Securities and (b) Finance. They have plans to expand beyond those subjects into a robust collection of information on US law. One of the challenges in the US is the number of jurisdictions involved. When they move to real estate they will have 51 different jurisdictions that each handle things in a different way (51? Don't forget Washington D.C.!)

Practical Law is surprisingly inexpensive. There is a sliding scale of prices, but it should be less than $2000 per attorney, depending on the number of subjects, size of the firms, etc.

Practical Law has an army of attorneys producing their information. According to Jeroen, his staff is comprised of attorneys from the top law firms (http://www.practicallaw.com/5-382-8863). It seems to me that it may be much cheaper (and easier) to buy into PLC's army of KM attorneys than it will be for an individual firm to do the same.

Practical Law offers up a free trial period once it launches in the US. I think this may be like a crack dealer offering free samples to get you hooked.

Xconomy’s Cloud Computing Extravaganza

As a follow-up to my post on Cloud Computing and Law Firms, I ran across the materials for a recent conference on cloud computing from Xconomy: Notes From Xconomy’s Cloud Computing Extravaganza. They have also posted the slides from conference:

• IBM executive Irving Wladawsky-Berger spoke on Cloud Computing: The Coming IT Cambrian Explosion
  Slideshow
  Text
  
• Sun Microsystems VP Rich Zippel
  Project Caroline
  
• Microsoft’s Scott Jamison
  Microsoft Software + Services slides

Says Irving Wladawsky-Berger:

"Nicholas Carr nicely framed the historical shift to cloud computing in his keynote, which was based on his recent book, The Big Switch. Carr first talked about the evolution of power plants in the 19th century. In the early days, companies usually generated their own power with steam engines and dynamos. But with the rise of highly sophisticated, professionally run electric utilities, companies stopped generating their own power and plugged into the newly built electric grid.

IT, said Carr, is the next great technology that is going through a similar transformation. Many IT capabilities, now handled in a distributed way, will be centralized in highly industrialized, efficient, scalable data centers—Clouds—which should free companies to invest in innovation where it really matters to their business. Nick acknowledged that IT clouds are quite different in nature from electricity—more complex and diverse in the services they offer. So it is too early to tell how IT clouds will evolve."

Thanks to Lee Gesmer of MassLawBlog for his story:  Cloud Computing - The “Next Big Thing”?

Be the First to Blog Inside Your Firm

Being the first or one of just a few bloggers inside your organization can put you in an influential position. Scott Gavin put together five reasons why in his First Mover Advantage article:

1. Senior management will want to know who you are and what you are saying. Are you a threat or an innovative individual who’s willing to share his thoughts in a public forum?
2. The first blog is like a when a new kid starts school. People want to know who you are, what you are like and what you have to say. Whether they take to you after this is another matter and is up to you.
3. It can feel like a new era has dawned on your company. This is especially true if the blog originates outside of a technical IT line. Such a simple thing as a blog can make people feel like the company is moving with the times both culturally and technically.
4. You are doing something new that others wish they had the courage to do, so they’ll take notice and champion your efforts.
5. You’ll be seen as a risk talker and innovator. In many companies this is a good thing.

. . .
I’m not saying any old Joe can achieve great things just by blogging. However if you really are great, and have great ideas and interesting things to say, then step up and get noticed.

If your firm has an internal blogging platform, jump on board and start writing.  It is good for your career to think about your job for a few minutes a day and write down a few of those thoughts.

If your firm does not have an internal blogging platform, set up an external blog.  It only takes a minute to set one up using a hosted blogging platform like Blogger or WordPress. (Of course check to see if your firm has a blogging/internet/social media policy and make sure you comply with it.)

Enterprise Social Network at Sabre

In continuing to explore Enterprise Social Networks after my Beyond Blogs and Wikis post I came across an an article by Toby Ward: Employee social networking − Sabre Town case study.

"We humans are social creatures. With rare exceptions, we strive to relate, converse and connect with others. Social networking promotes online communities of interests and activities that promote connections between users in a more open and robust manner than simple e-mail. While best represented by the quintessential MySpace and Facebook, social networking has made significant strides into the corporate intranet where employee networking is becoming a valuable asset to leading organizations that covet the new breed of employees. This young, web savvy employee cohort desires – if not demands – a more social and dynamic work environment that uses the best possible Web 2.0 (Intranet 2.0) technology."

Sabre runs most of the world’s airline flight reservation systems among other systems, with nearly 10,000 employees. They rolled out an enterprise social network called Sabre Town. The employee profile is more casual and friendly than your standard employee directory. The profile includes the following, if answered by the employee:

• Shared photos
  
• Blogs
  
• User commenting
  
• Network connections and feeds
  
• Enterprise question and answer functionality
  
• What’s your hometown?
  
• Where do you live now?
  
• What do you really do for a living?
  
• What are your corporate gigs and contacts?
  
• What are your skills, expertise or things you rule in?
  
• What is your favorite lunch spot or watering hole?
  
• What are the sports you can’t live without?
  
• What are your favorite hobbies?
  
• What’s the music you put on continuous repeat?
  
• What celebrity are you most like?
  
• Places you’ve traveled
  
• Places you dream about going
  

Sabre is able to show an ROI from the system's question and answer feature.

Thanks to James Robertson of Column Two and Step Two Designs for pointing out this article:
Employee social networking at Sabre .

Beyond Wikis and Blogs

We are continuing to roll out wikis at The Firm and getting ready to push out internal blogs. Wikis are rapidly gaining traction at The Firm. We now have more wiki pages than conventional web pages on our intranet.

With this success, I am thinking ahead to what is coming next. An article by Ashley Jones in E Content Magazine gave me some ideas: Studies Suggest That Enterprise Social Media Will Change the Face of Business.

Though many companies already have enterprise-wide wikis and blogs to promote collaboration, enterprise social networking brings something a little different to the table. "We’re huge fans of wikis and blogs, but they don’t do a good job of helping users find those people who would be interested in collaborating in a wiki in the first place," notes [Peter Biddle, VP of development for Trampoline, which offers its SONAR suite—a portal delivered via API that provides tools for employees to locate experts, connect, and collaborate.]

Unlearn What You Have Learned

In making the case for enterprise 2.0 and web 2.0, there is usually the argument about showing the return on investment from the CIO and CMO. I ran across the Afterthought column in E Content magazine by David Meerman Scott: Unlearn What You Have Learned.

"I suggest that when people are faced with the inevitable push back from executives about "the ROI thing" to ask the executives a few questions: 1) Have you answered a direct mail ad or visited a tradeshow as an attendee? (Nearly all answer "No.") 2) Have you used Google or another search engine? (Nearly all answer "Yes.") OK, I then ask, why are we putting all our marketing resources into the old stuff such as tradeshow booths and direct mail instead of the things that people are using today?"

Law Firm Recruiting and Blogging

Wilmer Hale has launched four associate blogs as part of the firm's Wilmer Hale Careers website.

• Julie Smolinski from the Palo Alto office and is a member of the Transactional Department, Corporate Practice Group
• Ross Firsenbaum from the New York office and is a member of the Litigation/Controversy Department.
• Anne McLaughlin from the Boston office and is a member of the Litigation/Controversy Department.
• Kevin Chambers from the Washington office and is a member of the Securities Department, Securities Litigation and Enforcement Practice Group.

Although Lisa van der Pool was dismissive of the blogs in the Boston Business Journal (Blog Fog subscribers only), I liked the use of blogs as a recruiting tool.  They give some insight into the lives of these associates and, by proxy, into the life of an associate at WilmerHale.  Sure it may be a sanitized view, showing everything is great. But it is still a view that will appeal to recruits. It certainly gives a recruit plenty to talk about if they get to interview with any of these four bloggers.

Cloud Computing and Law Firms

I was sharply critical of the Law Firm CIO 100 panel for being dismissive of using Enterprise 2.0 tools. [See: Web 2.0 - What is Means to Law Firms] The Law Firm CIO 100 had a presentation on Google Apps and were impressed with the functionality and cost savings.  Apparently they were impressed with cloud computing approach of Google Apps, not the collaboration approach.

As Dave Rigali commented on that post:

"In the end, it was the economics of something like Google Apps that caught the CIOs attention. Isn't this where their focus should be?"

Cloud computing can show a tangible cast savings and return on investment.  The same is not true for enterprise 2.0 for law firms.  The benefits of the knowledge sharing and platform communications are difficult to measure at law firms. Law firm revenue is tied to hourly billing. Most enterprise 2.0 and knowledge management tools lead to efficiency, which is a reduction in hours for a task, and a direct reduction in revenue. You need to make the leap that those gains in efficiency will lead to better client satisfaction, increased realization, stronger client relationships and improved attorney satisfaction.

Cloud computing offers lots of possibilities.  I first became interested in the possibility after listening to Rishi Chandra, Product Manager, Google Enterprise, give a brief presentation on cloud computing at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference: Working in the Cloud: How Cloud Computing is Reshaping Enterprise Technology.

Anita Campbell posts on the {App}Gap:  Cloud Computing - Get Used to the Term.  The term "cloud computing" did not spring up as significant Google search term until October, 2007. Anita offers a few definitions of cloud computing.

Over the past weekend, I saw Dennis McDonald post on his Lesson Learned From Using Google Docs. Like the Law Firm CIO 100, he thinks the product needs a lot of improvements but sees much value:

"In summary, Google Docs is impressive. The fact it is available free and can be configured to run locally are additional reasons to consider it for serious applications. Still, I can see how introducing its use into an organization accustomed to more traditional tools might take some time."

I have used Google Docs to write a few of my print articles. See: Wiki While You Work and Wikis and Document Management Systems at Law Firms. I find it a great way to collaborate with co-authors and editors. I really like that I had quick and easy access to edit the articles whenever I had internet access.

It is clear that the tools need some improvement before they will be adopted by large law firms. But the cost savings and ease of maintenance make for a compelling reason to consider cloud computing.  

Killable Hour

This week's Economist has a brief article on whether the time is up for clockwatching lawyers: Killable Hour.

"If the billable hour does perish, it will be at the hands of the clients, rather than the private-practice lawyers themselves.
. . .
But the legal industry is not known for welcoming change. Whatever it turns out to be, the billable hour’s replacement must be easy to use—and must strike a compromise between clarity for the client and profits for the law firm."