Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/87421
XXXX paradigm, IT professionals, KM professionals and legal information professionals will need to learn to work together to create the perfect intersection of cultures to help our law firms and lawyers deliver excellent client service more efficiently and cost-effectively. As clients demand more efficiencies, law firms must operate more leanly. As a result, the billable hour model is under attack and alternative fee arrangements are becoming more common. As firms reduce lawyer headcounts, routine tasks are being assigned to nonlawyers. Legal information professionals can be an invaluable asset to support many knowledge management initiatives that directly impact not only the practice of law, but the business of law as well. The Role of the Legal Information Professional Has Changed The current economic downturn is challenging law firms in unprecedented ways. Knowledge management can offer firms a competitive advantage during these tough times. Law librarians have been moving away from their traditional roles of providing research to support strategic knowledge management services by applying their expertise to support a new leaner and more strategic model of law firm practice. Librarians have been at the forefront of cost-cutting measures since the recession started in 2008. They have been forced to rethink the basic assumptions about what products/services the law library delivers and reexamine the library's value proposition given the new digital world and the "new normal" business climate. AALL/ILTA White Paper 35