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KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
One Size Does Not Fit All: Practice Group KM
The ongoing cost-
benefit tension around
precedent initiatives
means they are a
perennial topic for KM
practitioners.
the ABA. According to an April 2016 article in the American Bar
Association's "Business Law Today," the task force is "developing
a variety of checklists, guides and templates that transactional
lawyers can readily use to manage M&A transactions." In the
coming years, this kind of content is likely to increase in popularity
and importance.
» Search: The ability to search for and find precedents, other KM
content and work product typically is a must-have for transactional
practices. The search experience can be delivered several ways,
whether through enterprise search (as done at Stikeman), an
intranet or a DMS.
TOP TOOLS
Whichever approach you choose, findability is paramount.
We have focused on findability by creating buckets of content for
searching and having a narrow set of filters that apply to each
bucket. Precedents are separated from research, transaction type
is a filter for a precedent search and legal topic is a filter for a
research content search. The focus is on the users' experience and
finding what they need.
» Browse: Browsing is back. Actually, it never le, but it is back
in a new form. Years ago, a browse tree was the primary way we
presented content to lawyers. Search technologies were inadequate,
and first-generation intranets were oen simple web versions of
paper content lists. Over time, search technologies improved and
appeared to be the all-in-one solution for delivering KM content to
lawyers.
While search was a huge improvement over browse-only
options, it was not a silver bullet. Lawyers still ask for lists of their
precedents, so we need to satisfy all types of users. The benefit of
search is it gives all users access to content. It also means browse
trees can be structured as saved searches, eliminating the need for
manual updates. With the baseline level covered, KM resources can
focus on curating more sophisticated browse pages.
» Third-Party Publishers: Precedents remain the top content
requested by transactional lawyers, and a KM content strategy
for these practices should consider third-party products from
publishers such as PLC, Lexis Practice Advisor and others and
how that content will (or will not) be incorporated into the
