An Introduction to Knowledge Management

for Law Firms

LawTech Camp 2012 May 12, 2012 Connie Crosby, Crosby Group Consulting Stephanie Barnes, Missing Puzzle Piece Consulting

Connie Crosby • Consultant in KM, IM, library management and social media

• Law Librarian with MLS from University of Toronto

• Information Management certificate from U of T

• 10 years as Library Manager & webmaster at prominent Toronto law firm

• Instructor at iSchool Institute, Faculty of Information, U of T

• Core contributor to Slaw.ca

• Accountant and IT Management by education

• KM consultant by choice

• Chief Chaos Organizer at Missing Puzzle Piece Consulting, Knoco franchisee

• 4 yrs KM at HP

• 8+ yrs as consultant to a variety of companies including BMO, HSFO, Kodak, HP, Zenon Environmental, OSC, CIBC, ENEC

• Based in Toronto

Stephanie Barnes

What is Knowledge Management?

Connecting people to the knowledge they need to do their jobs, whether that knowledge is tacit (in people’s heads) or explicit (documented).

Some Benefits of KM

• Better organization

Helping partners, associates and assistants get their hands on the right documents and information when they are needed.

Some Benefits of KM

• Better organization

• Better use of knowledge assets

Make better use of internally developed knowledge assets such as precedents, letters, research memoranda, and filings.

Some Benefits of KM

• Better organization

• Better use of knowledge assets

• Knowledge sharing

Be prepared for a partner or associate leaving the firm. Help lawyers share what will be needed to continue the firm’s business.

Some Benefits of KM

• Better organization

• Better use of knowledge assets

• Knowledge sharing

• Improved learning

Use “Lessons Learned” techniques as you work; make assessments and continually improve processes for better client service.

Explicit Knowledge (documented knowledge)

• Business plans • Client lists • Work product

(letters, factums, agreements)

• Forms and Precedents

• Meeting minutes • Blogs/wikis

Tacit Knowledge (knowledge in individuals’ heads)

• Social networks • In-house training • Mentoring • Communities of

Practice / Practice groups

• Matter summaries

Knowledge Flow

•Systematizing concepts, e.g. meta-

data, taxonomies

•Learning, e.g. on-the-job training, lessons learned, peer assists, searching

•Knowledge artefact creation, e.g.

documentation, lessons learned

•Sharing, e.g. Communities of Practice, mentoring, expertise location

Communicating Collecting

Organizing Accessing

People

Knowledge Repository

People Knowledge Repository to

from

Based on Nonaka and Takeuchi, “The Knowledge Creating Company,” p62

Approach

© Missing Puzzle Piece Consulting, 2012 12

People

Process Technology

Change Management (People)

• Communication Plan

• Training and Education Plan

• Stakeholder management

All three will need to be updated/evolved as the program progresses

© Missing Puzzle Piece Consulting, 2012 13

Business Intelligence/ Data Warehouse

Co

nte

xt

Organization/ Enterprise

Group/team

Individual

Scan, Map

Capture, Create

Package, Store

Share, Apply

Transform, Innovate

Learning Management/eLearning

ECM Component Content

Management Portal

Records Management

Document Capture

Communities of Practice, Expertise location

Social Media

Adapted from: Knowledge Managements by Despres and Chuvel, Journal of KM, vol 3, no. 2 1999, p119.

Collaboration

CRM, Contact Centre, Incident Management/Helpdesk

eDiscovery

Search

© Missing Puzzle Piece Consulting, 2012 14

Knowledge Management Technology

Knowledge Management Framework

Governance

Purpose, Vision, Goals, Objectives

Oversight

Policies and Procedures

Lifecycle Processes

Metadata and Taxonomies

Version Control

Privacy

Enabling Activities

Change Management

Staffing

Technology

Professional Development

Metrics and Measurement

Component Activities

Documented Knowledge

Document Handling

Sharing and Collaboration

Supporting Innovation

Framework - Component Activities

Documented Knowledge

• Portal/Intranet

• Document Management

• E-mail Management

• Enterprise Content Management (ECM)

Documented Handling

• Document Assembly

• Component Content Management

• Records Management

Sharing and Collaboration

• Lessons Learned

• Communities of Practice / Practice groups

• Social Media

• Collaboration

• Expertise Location

Supporting

• IT Management

• Workflow

• Search

Innovation

• Idea Management

• Business Intelligence

Documented Knowledge Lifecycle Process

•Collaboration

•Workflow

•Authentication/Approval

Create/Capture

•Location

•Filing

•taxonomy

•metadata

•Access control

Storage •Distribution

•Collaboration

•Retrieval

•Re-use

Use/Retrieve

•Review

•Report

Manage •Removing documents and

related metadata from the active repository

•Stored in a separate area in a future readable format

Archive/Delete

Collect:

•Business Processes

•Information Flows

•Organization Strategy and Plan

•IT Strategy and Plan

•Change Mgmt

Analyze:

•Human, Social, and Intellectual Capital Best Practices

•Change Mgmt

Resolve:

•Policies

•Knowledge & process flows

•Metrics

•Strategic Goals

•Governance

•Change Mgmt

Select technology

•Change Mgmt

Design/ Develop/ Test

•Change Mgmt

Implement

•Change Mgmt

•Processes

•Metrics

Use

•Change Mgmt

Evolve

•Change Mgmt

Knowledge Management Roadmap

© Missing Puzzle Piece Consulting, 2012 23

Case Study: Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt

© Missing Puzzle Piece Consulting, 2012 24

KM Technology KM

Implementation

Results, if known

Portal Successful User acceptance of the platform because they were

involved at each step of the process and a technology was

selected that met their requirements.

Description:

Focused on choosing the right knowledge management technology platform, which included

gathering the right people to build, promote and champion the platform. The team had to be

familiar with the iterative nature of the implementation and most importantly they had to

support and believe in the vision for the new Intranet and be in a position to evangelize it to their

peers.

Since the launch of Oslernet, a number of these key groups were included on a steering

committee to continuously advise on the ongoing evaluation and evolution of the Intranet. The

Intranet team created a detailed Help Protocol to identify and redirect any issues that users were

having to the appropriate experts for quick resolution regardless of the channel through which

the request came. Substantive legal questions, for example, may come into the IS Service Desk

but are re-directed to the appropriate knowledge management lawyer.

Case Study: Hicks Morley

25

KM Technology KM

Implementation

Results, if known

Wiki-based

CMS

ThoughtFarmer

Successful User acceptance of the platform because they ran a pilot

with a simple wiki in a small early adopter group to gather

requirements, and had a senior partner champion.

Description:

Under-utlized HTML-based intranet was replaced with a wiki-based content management system.

A pilot with some inexpensive wiki software with a small practice group produced good early

results and allowed for requirements gathering. ThoughtFarmer met the requirements. New

Intranet was launched firm-wide within 6 months from start of pilot to full implementation.

Since the launch of ThoughtFarmer, a social enterprise layer including profiles and tagging has

been implemented. Early success came in the form of a senior partner who, previously sceptical,

found immediate value in the new system and went on to promote use of the new platform

within the firm. Documents and content are being added by members of the firm from all levels.

The Knowledge Management team review content to ensure metadata is correctly in place. New

features are being added as more needs are being identified.

Learn more

Aligning People, Process and Technology in Knowledge Management

By Stephanie Barnes

Ark Group report, 2011

(coupon!)

Learn more

Knowledge Workers Toronto

1. - Methods:

http://toronto.methods.knowledgeworkers.org/

(next meeting: May 22nd!)

2. - Technology:

http://toronto.technology.knowledgeworkers.org/

Learn More

• Ted Tjaden - http://www.slaw.ca/author/tjaden/

• Heather Colman- http://www.llrx.com/authors/1155

• Patrick DiDomenico - http://lawyerkm.com/

• Mary Abraham - http://aboveandbeyondkm.com/

• Tom Baldwin - http://kmpipeline.blogspot.ca/

• David Hobbie - http://caselines.blogspot.ca/

• Nick Milton (Knoco) - http://www.nickmilton.com/

• ILTA KM - http://km.iltanet.org/

• 3 Geeks and a Law Blog - http://www.geeklawblog.com/search/label/KM

Law Firm KM

LawFirmKM.com

Connie Crosby

connie@lawfirmkm.com

416-919-6719

Stephanie Barnes

stephanie@lawfirmkm.com

416-522-5126

Thank you