publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/550988
ILTA WHITE PAPER: JULY 2015 WWW.ILTANET.ORG 12 Roles: What roles will the KM team perform? To succeed, the required skills must match the expected roles. For instance, a KM mandate that includes drafting precedents, disseminating current awareness and supporting or mentoring juniors will require people with substantive legal knowledge. Because the firm's practicing lawyers often cannot devote significant time to these activities, the KM team should include KM lawyers. On the other hand, projects like developing an intranet might require KM team members with technology and design skills. If content and data management are critical to the KM program, skilled administrative people will be needed. Location and Physical Space: Physical design can significantly affect how the KM team interacts with each other and the firm's practicing lawyers. Consider whether KM professionals should be located together or dispersed among their respective practice groups or business units. Both approaches have their benefits and drawbacks. While KM professionals embedded within practice groups tend to be more accessible to (and, in turn, valued by) other lawyers in their group, they might also spend more time helping with billable matter work, rather than working on KM projects. Decide which approach best matches your organization and your KM vision and mandate. BUDGET AND RESOURCES To some degree, KM priorities and projects will be determined by the size of your available budget and resources. KM budgets vary from one organization to the next, typically depending on the number of lawyers, practice areas and business units, and the business model. KM might have its own budget or be a component of another department's budget. Either way, cost will be a major factor in your ability to execute. For example, if one of your foundational projects is to introduce document assembly, you will need to consider the cost of purchasing software, whether your IT department has cycles available to implement the solution and whether extra help from external consultants will be needed. Include a range of solutions with varied price points to address different aspects of a particular problem. You may want to implement an enterprise search engine, but doing so might not be feasible in the current budget year because of IT resource constraints. In that case, explore other lower-tech KM solutions — like developing a simple foldering system to organize heavily used and valued resources — that might be more realistic and nearly as useful in the interim. PROMOTE CHANGE AND COMMUNICATE BENEFITS Change management will be crucial to any KM program, project or initiative. Lawyers can be a skeptical and risk-averse bunch. When implementing anything new — whether your firm's first KM department or a new strategy or direction for your current department — significant time and effort must be invested in investigating and developing communication and change management plans. A RECIPE FOR SUCCESS: COOKING UP KM FROM SCRATCH When implementing anything new — whether your firm's first KM department or a new strategy or direction for your current department — significant time and effort must be invested in investigating and developing communication and change management plans.