The Knowledge Management Report – 20 standout teams in the know

Knowledge in law firms remains crucial but hard to capture. In a special report, we assess the standout KM teams aiming to give their lawyers an edge and clients the intelligence they crave.

Not so long ago, access to the knowledge management (KM) function at a law firm meant running the gauntlet to avoid confrontation with a law librarian or wrestling with a ridiculous microfiche machine. Thankfully, the service has evolved a lot since then. The sophisticated technology, the experienced and professional staff and the sheer volume of instantly available knowhow means that KM is an integral part of a law firm’s arsenal, and one that is increasingly being harnessed directly by the firm’s lawyers and clients.

Andrew Woolfson, director of KM and capability at RPC, uses the phrase ‘knowledge as a service’ – a wordplay on the technology terminology ‘Software as a Service (SaaS)’, ie managed or cloud services – meaning in this context moving towards delivering knowledge on tap when and where required.

Co-publishing feature

The future of knowledge management: out of the library into the front line

– Ian Mason and Rob Martin, Thomson Reuters

‘The end product is legal advice. If you haven’t got decent information services and KM then your end product isn’t going to be of good quality or innovative,’ says CMS Cameron McKenna head of KM Kate Stanfield. ‘If you don’t utilise KM, then you may as well be buying Tesco law.’

Teams at leading City and international law firms are broadly split between centralised operational KM specialists, led by either a chief knowledge officer (CKO) or head of KM, and an army of professional support lawyers (PSLs), who usually report into discrete practice and sector teams. But such is the evolution of KM, that the term ‘PSL’ is becoming increasingly dated, particularly the ‘support’ tag, harkening back to the days where PSLs were largely stereotyped as bookish types that would wilt if placed in the same room as a client. Now, titles such as ‘knowledge development lawyers’ or ‘professional development lawyers’ have gained traction, underlining the rise in status of the career KM lawyer.

In recognition of the frontline role increasingly being played by knowledge teams, Legal Business conducted an extensive research project canvassing law firm KM leaders, partners and technology suppliers to draw up a list of 20 of the most influential and highly regarded KM teams at UK-based and international firms. We then spoke to senior KM professionals at those firms to get a sense of how the function has evolved and the key challenges facing teams in the future.

With a ‘small and perfectly formed’ core team of four dedicated KM staff, including two qualified lawyers, Ward is described as ‘the queen of wikis’ by peers. She reports to Allen & Overy’s (A&O) Belfast legal services centre head, Jane Townsend, and both sit on a 15-strong strategy-setting knowledge steering group, alongside partners with a responsibility for, or interest in, KM and PSL heads.

At A&O, PSLs are directly tasked with executing the firm’s strategy and given a high degree of autonomy. PSLs have been at the forefront of A&O’s ahead-of-the-curve push to exploit social media for clients’ benefit, including regular client-facing Twitter feeds, podcasts, blogs and video briefings. Ward, a former banking lawyer who trained at Berwin Leighton, says: ‘There is a huge amount of PSL-driven innovation on the client side.’

Other client-facing innovation includes A&O’s online document sharing and multi-jurisdictional collaboration platform Dealroom, first introduced in 2000, which is driven by HighQ Collaborate software. But the latest development for Ward and her team is an overhaul of the Magic Circle firm’s internal KM system, following years of consultation and an extensive survey among fee-earners.

Phase one of the overhaul, rolled out in September this year and built on A&O’s existing IT architecture, has seen a new, highly personalised entry portal through which lawyers access core knowhow from a range of systems, called ‘my knowledge page’. The page draws together internal and external documents, precedents and tools used by the lawyer on a regular basis. Phase two of the overhaul is expected to see A&O replace its standard form contracts and key documents.

Ward says: ‘We needed something that really resonates with the way our lawyers need to access knowledge on a daily basis.’

Baker & McKenzie’s Swiss Verein structure informs its approach to KM, which is a matrix organisation with both global and local layers. Global director Campbell is based in Chicago, sits on the firm’s international executive management team and works closely with the global head of technology, Daniel Surowiec.

There is a strong local jurisdictional element. The London office has 17 local PSLs and two global PSLs, a dedicated knowhow partner and knowhow partners in each practice group. Kathy Jacob is head of KM in the UK.

Jacob’s team includes 11 people in London and two in the firm’s captive outsourcing hub in Manila, information specialists and a programme manager who liaises with global teams and external stakeholders on issues around information governance and content management. ‘We do not create knowledge – we support and help those who create it and consume it,’ she says.

Major KM projects include a new global knowhow system, built on SharePoint, and upgrading Recommind enterprise search to tailor search capability to knowhow content. KM measurement, like content creation, depends on the maturity of the KM model and the legal market, and this varies between jurisdictions. In general, it relies on basic usage statistics, and qualitative and anecdotal feedback.

Jacob sees KM becoming increasingly process driven and the firm applies project management techniques to resource tasks efficiently, including to its centres in Manila and Belfast. For Jacob, the challenge is to ensure KM systems are scalable and sustainable in the face of ongoing change. Ultimately it is about managing fee-earner and client expectations. ‘We follow the John Lewis approach to customer service – to under-promise and over-deliver,’ she concludes.

When Dillon introduces Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) trainees to KM, she describes it as the research and development department of a law firm. ‘Law firms sell knowledge; knowledge is our product and our competitive advantage,’ she says.

BLP has 25 knowledge development lawyers (KDLs) and the KM hierarchy includes career progression to associate director, which is equivalent to a senior fee-earner. ‘Although the path is different, the top level is the same,’ says Dillon.

Dillon is herself a director of the firm and reports to managing partner Neville Eisenberg. She has direct board access and works closely with the practice group heads, which she says helps her match the KM function to the firm’s strategic direction and business needs.

Recent initiatives focus on promoting excellence and constant process improvement. For example, all content has been transferred to SharePoint. On the business efficiency front, BLP has launched a dedicated process improvement team, which focuses on handling work at the right level, and boosting profitability and cost-effectiveness. Because KDLs map processes across the firm, they are ideally positioned to share best practice.

‘It’s not about automating everything: it’s about better communication, teamwork, project management and resourcing. We’re not tinkering with content or intellectual process – it’s about minimising waste and duplication to offer our clients a value-driven service,’ adds Dillon.

Measuring value involves more than tracking usage of knowhow systems and training course attendance. With this in mind, BLP recently conducted an internal survey on the SharePoint project and KM generally in which fee-earners responded favourably towards the KDLs’ personal involvement in dealing with queries and providing training and documentation.

Looking forward, Dillon says her main challenges are to keep up with legal developments and changing expectations around technology and value. It is feasible for the firm to share more of its information and knowhow with clients, and this requires open communication.

Knowledge solutions manager Green explains that the KM function at Bird & Bird combines KM, learning and development, and library services, while board-level representation is achieved through the firm’s international knowledge steering group.

Partners value KM technology, particularly online client portals and e-learning tools. A new knowledge-sharing platform is being rolled out that will connect people and knowledge, and will include integrated social media features to facilitate real-time collaboration.

Another ongoing challenge for the firm is helping fee-earners to better understand their clients’ businesses in order to provide distilled knowledge in bite-size chunks that are tailored to their needs.

According to Green, senior KM roles are increasingly client-centric and there is increased demand for client-specific services, including commercial and sector-focused insights, knowledge-sharing sessions and bespoke knowledge programmes that combine face-to-face training sessions, discussions and webinars, practical tools and online resources. ‘Clients appreciate the firm’s proactivity and the integration of legal knowledge into a trusted service,’ she says.

A combination of measures analyse how KM is contributing to the firm’s success. Green’s team has defined a system for capturing and measuring the benefits of using KM, including an ‘adoption and awareness’ programme for the new knowledge-sharing platform. These include client feedback, training and events feedback, success stories and seminar attendance rates. Cultural and behavioural changes are tracked by employee and external industry surveys.

Reporting to the board-level director of operations, Emma Dowden, Aldridge says the cultural value that Burges Salmon places on its KM function is reflected by the fact the firm has 11 knowledge, learning and development partners who, along with Dowden, monitor the progress of the KM function throughout the firm.

For Aldridge, key recent developments within the team include introducing a business information and business intelligence aspect to the function, as the need for KM to be more directly client-facing grows ever greater.

She comments: ‘We’re still providing the traditional support for knowledge content and legal training, but we’ve developed the team to include some business information and intelligence experts as well, to make sure we are doing that type of information-gathering that really helps to target our legal services.’

In 2008, the firm sought to overhaul its KM system and went through a competitive tender process, where GateWest’s University-in-a-Box – a non-legal sector product which harnesses the power of Autonomy’s enterprise search software – consistently came out on top in all areas, including functionality, flexibility and added value. Aldridge says, wherever possible, the firm will try to purchase products off the shelf and adapt them for its own purposes, as such products are easier to maintain than those built from scratch.

‘There probably isn’t enough tailoring for the legal industry and we work hard with our IT team to buy as much off-the-shelf stuff as possible. We don’t want to customise things unduly, but we have to choose the tools that are most suitable for the legal market,’ she says.

For Aldridge, the key challenge going forward for KM teams is not knowhow content, but effective and appropriate delivery of that content to better service clients. ‘A step-change is needed to ensure we use KM as a routine business tool rather than something that’s nice to have,’ she says. ‘So your default setting is that you do use the firm’s precedent on a transaction, as that is the best starting point. We don’t want to inhibit anyone’s creativity, but we do need to think about how we harness KM because firms have invested in it and really it’s going to help with the pressure put on cost and resources.’

While KM is still in its infancy at Cleary compared to some UK rivals, Andrews and her team have not let that stand in their way.

For the collegiate Manhattan-headquartered firm, which has had a dedicated KM function for around eight years, the focus in the UK and globally is on supporting associates, and Andrews says: ‘Our clients are our lawyers and our raison d’être is to support Cleary associates and the practice.’

Both Miller and Andrews are part of a senior KM committee, which includes a partner from each office, the executive director and chief information officer (CIO), and is chaired on a revolving basis by a partner, currently New York M&A partner Duane McLaughlin.

Local committees achieve KM buy-in by drawing together representatives from different practice areas, including partners and associates.

Much resource is dedicated to gathering knowhow from lawyers across the firm, which is stored with HP Autonomy iManage, the dominant document management system within the top 100 (and indeed 200) global law firms.

The KM team uses the Confluence enterprise wiki as a platform, parcelling up and presenting practice-focused knowhow globally and regionally. ‘The way our wiki is used is very much as a publishing platform, rather like another firm’s intranet,’ says Andrews.

For searching knowhow, intranet content and library sources, Cleary uses enterprise search software Recommind Decisiv Search.

With a number of leading KM software tools under Cleary’s belt, the emphasis is on extracting the most value out of those products and Andrews has led in the creation of new user group forums with both Recommind and HP Autonomy. ‘We’re really using the tools we’ve got rather than leaping around,’ she says.

According to Gibbons, Clifford Chance (CC)’s KM structure is ‘a federal approach with responsibility’. She is assisted by Ford, director of KM, who focuses on systems and processes.

Each office has a knowledge partner or knowledge leader and in London each practice area has a knowledge partner. Gibbons and Ford work closely with CIO Paul Greenwood, and Gibbons sees IT and KM as separate parts of the same process.

Gibbons runs the firm’s knowledge committee, which sets the strategy and involves some of the KM leaders as well as the business support function heads.

Ford says that from a technology perspective, the strategy is to deliver what people want as cost effectively as possible. The firm has invested in cutting-edge, robust, user-friendly platforms and recent initiatives include an upgrade to Recommind Decisiv Search, migrating knowhow and templates on to SharePoint and designing a new intranet.

Ford and his team focus on processes to create templates as well as managing content volume to enable people to retrieve relevant information quickly and easily. ‘Big data is a hot topic, and managing that and making it easily digestible is a key challenge,’ he says.

Ford manages some 200 people across the firm’s 36 offices. Efficiency and consistency are boosted by global systems and standardised practices. However, different offices have diverse resources and needs, so content is localised. ‘We look for synergies between offices, but the expertise for developing knowhow and creating material needs to be local,’ he says.

CC conducts a benchmarking survey around KM every three years, which includes user satisfaction. This is followed by workshops across the firm presenting the survey results. Other measurement methodologies include tracking usage of online KM resources and common search terms.

Ford emphasises that KM is not just about technology: it also requires fee-earner engagement and lawyers in London are incentivised by the fact that a portion of their bonus relates to knowledge work.

The knowledge function at Clyde & Co is divided by geography, with separate groups for the UK, US, MENA, and Asia-Pacific, which are structured to reflect the needs of local markets.

Reeves, as head of KM, is based in Dubai, but has oversight of the entire function, reporting in to the management board. Her 12-strong team in Dubai includes Arabic legal researchers and translation services, and English-qualified PSLs. Lawyers generally advise on matters that are governed by English law, operating within the local legislative framework.

Her MENA team supports 40 partners in offices in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Qatar and Libya. Developing markets present specific challenges for legal practice as there is no ready access to local laws and their practical applications. There are no external publishers or specific legal content products. Therefore the knowledge function is about going back to basics – finding out about the law and how it is applied locally. Clyde & Co has invested heavily in knowledge capture, with PSLs embedded into practice areas.

KM in an emerging market is a constant education process. ‘Our Arabic legal researchers give back what they have created for clients using localised practice notes and precedents. We prioritise capturing and storing information and knowhow that is not readily accessible in an easily retrievable form,’ says Reeves.

Language skills are an ongoing challenge. With communication generally in English, it is important to produce reliable translations and legal terminology can create complexity.

Effective knowledge capture relies on close working relationships. Guidance on how to go about doing something when the process may not be immediately obvious is extremely valuable in emerging markets and tends to be captured via keeping records of conversations.

While in-house counsel face similar challenges in emerging markets, law firms tend to have better legal research resources than most in-house teams, presenting them with opportunities to leverage their knowhow by supporting their regional and multinational clients. Further developments are likely, with law firms starting to offer bespoke legal education and training.

The structure of the KM team at CMS is more unusual than most: the firm’s head of KM Stanfield is now employed by Integreon after the firm moved all of its business services departments through a business process outsourcing in 2010.

‘The library and information services team was outsourced by CMS three-and-a-half years ago and I was one of 153 people moved over to Integreon,’ says Stanfield. She explains that because of the Integreon arrangement, the staff numbers of the firm’s KM team are very fluid as extra resources can be called upon on an ad hoc basis.

‘We are just about to go live with a new KM system. We will have the platform to support every transaction as it goes through and to support the future development of strategic projects.’

October was a busy month for the KM function at the firm, with it rolling out a new SharePoint-based system, followed by a client relationship management (CRM) system a few weeks later. The KM function has also needed to assimilate resources and knowhow following the firm’s combination with Scotland’s Dundas & Wilson earlier this year.

‘Partly it’s been about managing people and resources, looking at where people sit within the firm leveraging our Integreon model,’ says Stansfield. ‘This year has been very much about systems. We’ve got a new CRM system coming out and obviously you have to have KM input into that because good KM can help with all the underlying system information and all the intelligence about the work we have done.

‘It’s a massive project to replace a KM system, but you’re engaging with every level of firm and finding out what they need, where there’s a problem, where there are gaps to be able to design your system. The end product is just a new system, but the process is like a refresh of the KM within the firm.’

DLA Piper’s central KM team, which supports over 4,000 lawyers in 33 countries, is headed jointly by Megan Jenkins and Geraldine Jackson, and includes dedicated specialists embedded in practices, PSLs and research experts across different countries and work streams. International heads of KM are a mixture of KM professionals and partners.

The global practice is headed by CKO and CIO Daniel Pollick, who is a member of the directors committee and reports to the chief operating officer (COO).

Recent initiatives include developing an international framework to co-ordinate KM planning across practices, sectors and countries, allowing for different priorities based on client need and local market differences.

DLA Piper’s definition of KM falls into seven areas: methods, processes and standard documents; fee-earner legal support; legal awareness; training; expertise sharing; clients and markets; and tools, legal resources and consistency. The definition was driven by the many interpretations of KM across the firm, with the idea of getting everyone using the same terms.

The team regularly reports to the board and measures KM usage and tracking traffic on the KM website and knowhow database, but it recognises the difficulty of proving a correlation between KM and profitability. ‘Our ultimate goal is to support the business strategy, add value, boost efficiency and make life easier for the lawyers,’ says Jenkins, adding that KM is also considered risk mitigation against potential negligence claims. ‘PI insurers see effective knowhow as a way of restricting the number and seriousness of claims. This is another indicator of its financial value to the business,’ she adds.

The biggest challenge is engaging fee-earners who are naturally focused on urgent work, but they are usually incentivised by efficiency gains. For example, KM checklists enable trainees to operate above their typical level of expertise and build their reputation as a safe pair of hands.

Jenkins envisages increased emphasis on client knowhow and repackaging the firm’s knowledge resources for clients, as well as boosting efficiency by process re-engineering and document automation.

With more than 20 years at DWF, head of knowledge services Smith leads a well-established team that has needed to be very agile in recent years: a succession of high-profile acquisitions by this North West firm has seen it evolve into a top-25 national giant with revenues of £191m. As such, Smith no longer reports directly to chief executive and managing partner Andrew Leaitherland; as the business has grown and the management team has developed, chief technology officer and board member Richard Hodkinson now has oversight of the KM team.

‘Richard and Andrew give me the ability to take KM into new areas and permission to be agile,’ says Smith. ‘That’s really helped us keep pace with that level of change.’

One change that Smith has noticed in particular is that KM ‘has become very client-led’.

‘We make sure our teams are efficient and effective in their legal research – that’s almost a business-as-usual activity now,’ says Smith. ‘Now it’s about who our clients are, what the issues are affecting them and how we can deliver. The focus is very much shifting away from the legal research. The research tends to be now on the more complex matters.’

One particular frustration for the DWF team is finding tailored systems and software suppliers that are aware that a one-size-fits-all approach is no longer workable. This situation has led Smith and Hodkinson to take a closer look at the firm’s suppliers.

‘We need suppliers who are innovative. Our clients are asking us to think about things differently, to take an approach where we aren’t afraid of doing something just because someone hasn’t done it before. In many ways it’s been helpful for our suppliers, because we’ve designed new services with them and they’ve gone and sold them on to other law firms,’ adds Smith.

A former commercial partner responsible for managing Eversheds’ Leeds, Manchester and Newcastle offices, Jukes became a PSL six years ago and more recently took over as head of one of the most developed KM functions in the industry, with a mandate to shake things up.

‘I’ve been brought in with a change agenda,’ says Jukes. ‘We wanted to update and align what we’re doing across the firm.’

Eversheds’ SharePoint-powered intranet was completely restructured last year so that it is now accessible from every Eversheds office. ‘We’ve made it global, so whatever office you sit in, it looks and feels the same and you have direct access to both global and local content relevant to you,’ says Jukes.

Layered on top is a revamped knowhow site, simply called ‘Knowledge’, which was rolled out around the same time and draws together all precedents, knowhow, library tools and current awareness feeds, to which Jukes says: ‘The feedback has been amazing.’

Eversheds is notably one of the forerunners of document automation, which it uses for engagement documents right through to share purchase agreements. The firm has its own dedicated team of coders, who use an own-brand version of Business Integrity’s ContactExpress DealBuilder software.

Jukes says: ‘A lot of firms are talking about it now, but we’ve been doing it for an awfully long time.’ Eversheds is now looking at more sophisticated ways of customising documents and she adds: ‘The worst thing is to write the document and then code it.’

Eversheds has already largely moved away from books to e-resources, which are available on smartphones and iPads. The firm has also closed all of its libraries apart from the one in Leeds, which has been significantly downsized after a ‘cleanse’. Books have been given to the teams that use them most.

The next task for Jukes and her team is to globalise Eversheds’ precedent offering and analyse how best the information should be collected and presented.

At Anglo-Australian firm Herbert Smith Freehills, Europe and Asia KM head Pearlman reports to Australia-based CKO and board member Peckham. Her team includes three knowledge partners and 32 PSLs, supported by ten PSL paralegals, while nine of the PSLs are based in the firm’s international offices outside Australia.

The UK knowledge function also includes a library team of 12, which also reports to Peckham, but is managed by Pearlman. Meanwhile, in Australia, head of knowledge and learning McNamara heads a central content team, which includes four knowledge and learning consultants. In Australia, a separate project management team reports to the CKO and handles internal and external work, and in some cases clients pay for their services.

Pearlman’s team is responsible for delivering training and knowhow, including blogs, seminars and webinars. On the client-facing side, PSLs work with the business development function to produce thought leadership and partners focus sharply on meeting clients’ expectations in terms of knowledge sharing. ‘It is crucial to package information in a way that suits clients’ preferences,’ says Pearlman, adding that these differ significantly according to geography and culture, as well as sector and industry.

Measuring and benchmarking KM is a perennial challenge. Post-merger initiatives include integrating the firm’s knowledge platforms and resources, including the intranet, document management system and knowledge databases. ‘We consider contributions to practice areas, increasing our market profile and winning business, as well as client appreciation and feedback,’ she says.

When a thought leadership piece leads directly to instructions, or a KM tool produces measurable time savings, there is an easy correlation between knowledge, business development and profitability, but qualitative benefits are harder to measure. KM is positioned between the lawyers and the systems. ‘Partner buy-in and recognition of the importance of the knowledge function is stronger than ever,’ adds Pearlman. ‘Technology increases lawyers’ awareness of its role and appreciation of its value.’

Knowledge sits at the heart of the business at Lewis Silkin and its team of professional development lawyers (PDLs) works closely with five departments across three offices. The knowledge and information functions also work together. Newman routinely collaborates with Jan Durant, director of IT and operations, with Durant attending knowhow committee meetings. Department heads and partners are fully engaged with KM and, although Newman attends department meetings and appraisals, each department decides how it works with its PDLs.

KM initiatives are currently focused on moving information online. The Library and Research Centre is moving away from paper publications and focusing on online knowledge resources and the firm is piloting the use of Kindle devices to enable fee-earners to read document bundles on the move. These contain precedents and court documents that are not confidential and the idea is to enhance mobility while reducing printing, photocopying and binding costs.

‘KM is not just about documents. It is about not having to reinvent the wheel each time we handle a similar case,’ says Durant. ‘This means organising our knowledge resources in a way that enables fee-earners to find relevant information and expertise quickly.’ To this end, the firm has invested in expert systems, including BA Insight and Microsoft Lync.

‘Firms are grappling with how to incentivise engagement and innovation,’ comments Newman. At Lewis Silkin, KM activities are rewarded as investment time, which is tied into fee-earner bonus schemes at all levels. Investment time includes writing and contributing to articles and research. Secondees are rewarded for investing in client relationships. However, Newman recognises that investment time is only one element of KM, which is also about behaviours, including collaboration and facilitation – making it easier for fee-earners to access and share information and knowhow – and is central to the firm’s strategy and PDL training.

Linklaters KM heads Manser and Rodwell look at how KM is used in other industry sectors to drive innovation. ‘Innovation is generated by a synthesis of different viewpoints and if you rely on what you have always known, it will become a challenge,’ observes Rodwell, who says he was struck by ‘the extent to which organisations outside legal have after-action reviews or debriefs hard-wired into the DNA of their organisations’.

A network of knowledge and learning partners are responsible for KM in various regions and practice groups at Linklaters. The knowledge and learning committee is a sub-committee of the executive board. ‘They are looking for strategic input rather than facts and figures based on an understanding that knowledge is at the heart of the business,’ says Manser.

Linklaters’ strategy focuses on collaboration and engagement across functions and practice areas. ‘KM is the catalyst that keeps knowledge moving around the business,’ says Manser. ‘It depends on having the right culture.’

Recent KM initiatives relate to the firm’s new intranet, which was brought in to help staff access the firm’s knowledge much more easily. Other projects include plans to improve efficiency, automation and mobility in delivering knowhow, as well as experimenting with social media technology.

‘We are looking to create a global corridor where knowledge exchange “just happens” across time zones and cultures,’ says Rodwell. To this end, the knowledge and learning function organises courses and workshops that bring people together face to face. When people have met in person, it is easier for them to collaborate. ‘Technology is a great tool, but KM is about people,’ adds Manser.

In terms of benchmarking and evaluating return on investment in KM, appraisals measure individual contribution and the regular firm’s engagement survey includes questions about knowledge and learning. Linklaters also measures its own efforts against industry norms and breaks down the results by region and office. ‘This allows us to benchmark KM and foster consistency by helping offices to learn from each other,’ says Rodwell.

At Pinsents, KM director Halliwell reports to the board via the head of client operations, Richard Masters. Halliwell is responsible for the central knowledge team, which comprises some 34 people, split across a library function, a research function, a legal knowledge engineering team and a web team. 32 PDLs report to the practice groups, but also have dotted line reporting to Halliwell and two further PDLs support the Middle East and Asian offices.

Key projects include establishing the legal knowledge engineering team, which is working to transform the firm’s service delivery model through process mapping, document automation and client-facing systems, ensuring that work is handled at the right level. Proprietary software, including elements of artificial intelligence (AI), is used to build workflows and client reporting functions. Apart from using Business Integrity’s ContractExpress DealBuilder for document automation, the team has developed its own KM systems.

Another initiative created explicit links between the knowledge function, sector groups and clients. PDLs and the business research team are aligned with specific sector groups and clients, providing value-added services, horizon-watching and thought leadership. This ensures that KM at Pinsents is client-facing rather than a back-office function and builds lawyer engagement, with PDLs working directly with fee-earners to develop and protect client relationships.

Lawyers are worried about the pressure on margins from new market entrants, including the accountancy firms, who have particularly well-developed thought leadership. Halliwell comments: ‘The knowledge function has been focused on the same topics for years, but a harsher competitive environment and the fact that people are generally more tech-savvy means that partners and fee-earners understand and value KM’s contribution much more now.’

Future challenges include keeping up with expectations around technology, particularly in terms of search and reporting tools. Halliwell believes that AI will change the practice of law, as clients expect the same level of personalisation that they get from other services when it comes to relevant information. ‘However, there is only so much that technology can do and machines cannot replace business relationships,’ he says.

At RPC, Woolfson heads a core team of nine who work on business intelligence, business and legal research, process and innovation, supporting the firm’s 350 lawyers. He presents directly to the board and works with partners and leaders throughout the business.

Woolfson observes that the knowledge function increasingly touches on every part of the firm. ‘The knowledge itself belongs to the lawyers and the KM function is an enabler,’ he says.

The firm’s knowledge strategy includes social business technology and new ways of recording management information, which Woolfson says is about providing ‘knowledge as a service’ to lawyers and clients, particularly around management information. RPC is currently creating a client-facing platform to share information extracted from the services it delivers.

The pace of change combined with cost pressures mean that lawyers engage with clients in a more sophisticated way. ‘In terms of technology, the iteration cycle is quicker and knowledge skills and resources are needed at the sharp end to make sure we work effectively and profitably,’ observes Woolfson.

Woolfson works closely with other directors whose roles are more operational, identifying tools and interventions that fit the business and are immediately effective, rather than rolling out systems that take time to understand. ‘A new KM competency is the ability to respond quickly,’ he says. ‘It is important to look closely at disruptive technology and work out where to invest our efforts.’

Former Magic Circle corporate lawyer Telling assumes the role of facilitator at Taylor Wessing, drawing together PSLs, IT professionals and partners, and says he favours influence and persuasion over tub-thumping.

Taylor Wessing is in the middle of migrating its Tikit KnowHow System software over to a reconfigured version of its existing SharePoint technology for intranet and knowhow use. The project is being led by head of information services, Jacqui Smith, and Taylor Wessing’s IT team collaboratively.

The move is partly in response to feedback from fee-earners that the KM system should be as easy to use and intuitive as Amazon. Telling says: ‘The big benefit will be that more knowhow will be generated from the matters that people are working on. The secret is to make it easy to put into the system and to find, in which case people will use it and add more.’ This particularly applies to non-transactional teams, which typically do not use standard form precedents and historically have received less benefit from precedents on knowhow systems.

Many of Taylor Wessing’s KM initiatives are now client-facing, including the creation of sector-focused microsites that provide clients with access to thought leadership articles in areas such as technology and life sciences. The firm is also in the process of creating an app to facilitate easy access to publications and client-facing material. Telling says: ‘It’s a major push for us and where you can really lead the market.’

The firm is also looking towards big data analytics for internal use, and now obtains more in-depth internal metrics to drill down into department performance and interaction. ‘In the past we might have tagged a matter as real estate, but note that the client’s sector was pharma,’ says Telling. ‘If you capture and tag it properly, you can see what your business is doing beyond the usual financial data.’

Knowhow is taken seriously by partners at the firm – the knowhow group includes the heads of Taylor Wessing’s core business groups and COO Clare Singleton, to whom Telling reports. He comments: ‘Our USP is being proactive and forward-thinking – anticipating what is coming and implementing the firm’s strategy.’

Benamram is a member of the firm’s knowledge and technology partner committee, and manages five directors who are responsible for professional support, knowledge systems, library and research, compliance and new business, and records and knowledge collections.

This year, the firm launched a knowledge ambassador pilot scheme, encouraging lawyers to promote knowledge technology to their peers. ‘We ask people to promote one tool or resource at every meeting they attend,’ says Benamram.

PSLs are involved in efficiency projects and finding ways of working smarter, including automating repetitive elements of transactions and disputes. The PSLs collaborate with the business development team on the firm’s matter-profiling project, which involves moving away from simply filing all documents and e-mails pertaining to a matter in one place and using a broader set of data to build up a stronger profile of each matter.

Says Benamram: ‘At White & Case, KM initiatives are measured in terms of their effect on the business as a whole. This includes measuring changes in the way matters are run against profitability and client satisfaction.’

However, he admits it is often difficult to find direct correlations between benefits to the business and particular KM activities. Cost reduction is a potential measurement, although he says this is not a key yardstick for KM.

Innovation is critical in KM, but delivery is not straightforward. ‘Challenges include connecting new developments like big data to the firm’s business goals in order to drive behaviours, and identify and respond to market trends,’ says Benamram. ‘The key challenge is to blend the new openness with the firm’s client confidentiality obligations.’

Genuinely passionate about the development of knowledge capital, Southall this year saw his legacy Wragge & Co team ‘highly commended’ for Legal Business’ Legal Technology Team of the Year Award, after conducting a root-and-branch KM review.

Southall first kicked off the review three years ago, as a result of which all practice areas now have sector-focused knowledge hubs on the intranet, driven by information retrieval system Solcara, which draws together precedents, knowhow, RSS feeds and publishers’ products in one place.

Following the merger earlier this year between Lawrence Graham and Wragge & Co, the firm has focused much of its efforts on maximising its return on investment, both in terms of meeting fee-earners’ real needs and ensuring PSLs are trained to manage their own time. ‘There are a thousand things PSLs can spend their precious time on. We have taught them how to say “no” and justify what they are doing. We are saying to PSLs: “It’s not about what you do but what you will cause to happen. What work have you helped to win?”’, says Southall.

Other recent initiatives include working on the firm’s data strategy, with Wragge Lawrence Graham now using HP Autonomy’s next-generation business analytics platform, HP IDOL to search and analyse information across audio, video, social media, e-mail and web platforms.

Southall concludes: ‘If ever there was a time as a KM professional to make a difference to your business this is it. And if you’re not, you need to ask why.’ LB

mark.mcateer@legalease.co.uk