Digital White Papers

44 WWW.ILTANET.ORG | ILTA WHITE PAPER KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT What Legal KM Professionals Can Learn from KM in the Big Four credential. The KM department gathered experience and owned the credentials system, which was used in answer files and RFP wizards. KM's work benefited both advisors pitching for new work and proposal writers in the marketing and business development department. Perhaps the most impactful reason for capturing experience is to capture learning on how to manage the next project more effectively. The Big Four have a strong process orientation that is not yet embedded in the culture at most law firms. Aer a consulting team completes a complex and repeatable project they have not done before, they create a methodology and playbook that includes lessons learned to benefit the next team. Methodologies are created by experienced advisors who join the KM team as an alternative to the partner track. Like professional support lawyers, these resources require an investment from the firm but provide a unique set of capabilities. In the long term, their work helps future teams be more efficient and every engagement more profitable. Playbooks were stored in a methodology bank on the intranet and are drivers not just of beer quality but of beer margins. Summary: The Strengths of the Big Four The Big Four can quickly stand up new practices by capitalizing on relevant experience and client knowledge captured over the years. They have perfected the art of improving margins and growing business in an increasingly competitive and demanding marketplace. Both these capabilities are scaled by strategic application of KM in the firm. KM helps them build methodologies and toolkits based on successful engagements, capturing aer-action reviews of large engagements and looking ahead through research and trend spoing. Among the lessons for law firms from KM in the Big Four is the importance of having the right people resources to research, capture, and codify knowledge gained when pursuing or performing client work. There is no substitute for good internal marketing, ubiquitous communications, and creative training approaches to increase awareness and adoption of new technologies. To cultivate a culture of knowledge sharing, connect people through social tools. Finally, investments in understanding firm experience and the learnings gathered from it will pay many dividends both in efficiency and profitability. ILTA VISHAL AGNIHOTRI Vishal Agnihotri has held operational, consulting and leadership roles for over 20 years in enterprise Knowledge Management spanning business research, knowledge technology implementation, training and adoption, knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) and social learning. Vishal has spent her career in professional services firms, leading Knowledge Management groups at two law firms and two Big 4 firms. She currently leads the Knowledge Management and Research Services group at Hinshaw & Culbertson. Prior to Hinshaw, Vishal was Akerman LLP's first Chief Knowledge Officer and steered the development and implementation of processes and systems to help her rapidly growing firm to sustain a competitive edge and serve its clients well.

• Cover