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A s an attorney working in Knowledge Management, I have sometimes joked with others that we work "backstage" at law firms. Like a stagehand, the KM role is often about support: making sure that my colleagues, including the practicing attorneys and their staff, have what they need, whether that's helping find previous work product, pointing them to relevant research, or recommending a new time-saving innovation. One consequence of being "backstage," however, is that the bulk of our requests for help may be coming from our co-workers at our firm. When you are finding an answer for someone down the hall—literally, or perhaps more often metaphorically, these days—it can be too easy to forget that behind our colleagues' questions are the firm clients relying on us: a shareholder looking for an example of an unfamiliar motion may be filing that same motion type for a client; an associate needing help with caselaw research may be writing a client memo; a paralegal asking about a new legal tool may be trying to find more an efficient use of their billable time. For those of us in "backstage" roles at law firms, it can help to keep in mind that ultimately, we are here to serve the firm's clients. Whether we're answering questions or beta-testing the latest legal innovations, what we do to help our colleagues needs to help them help the clients. This article offers five ways KM departments can encourage a client-focused mindset among team members when it comes to collaborating and assisting our firm colleagues. Understanding the firm's technological tools It can be easy to slip into a habit of thinking only of the resources you use to get your own job done. As KM professionals, however, we should be ready to advise our colleagues on more than just the tools with which we are most familiar. We are not doing our best job if we recommend a hammer when the client needs a screwdriver, and we're certainly not doing our best job if we don't know the breadth of tools the firm has to get the client's work done. Law firms, for example, have differing agreements with their legal research vendors. Understanding your firm's agreements can help KM professionals do their job cost-effectively as well as help you advise other attorneys and staff how to do their jobs in ways that keep the client in mind. Understand where being penny-wise can be pound- foolish; advising an attorney to hunt down a free version of a document isn't de facto cost-effective when an attorney is billing a client for their time, but likewise downloading unnecessary materials at an expensive per-chapter cost isn't fair to a client either. Understanding the firm's technological tools means knowing the resources in your firm's toolbox, and making sure we understand what they do, how to use them, what they cost, and more. None of us can be experts in everything, but we can familiarize ourselves with our resources, spotlight technologies at department meetings, and learn from each other's expertise. How does your department raise awareness among team members of the breadth of legal technology you already have available? Understanding the firm's human talent Do you know the attorneys and staff at your firm who have experience with certain clients? What about certain judges, or opposing counsel, or expert witnesses? Do you know who has filed in certain court systems or handled certain legal issues? In larger firms especially, you probably won't have these names at the tip of your tongue—but you should have an easy way to find them. At many firms, a common 43 I L T A N E T . O R G

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