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WWW.ILTANET.ORG | ILTA WHITE PAPER
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Transforming Tacit Knowledge: Making the Most of What You Know
GINEVRA SAYLOR
Ginevra Saylor is National Director of
Knowledge Management at the global
law firm Dentons, where she develops the
Canada region's knowledge management
strategy and initiatives and leads the
practice support lawyers and business
intelligence, information services,
information resources, business process
and intranet teams. Ginevra designs new
projects and practice tools to leverage
and build the firm's knowledge base,
supervises and enhances established
knowledge management programs and
databases, and works with the firm's
practice groups and administrative
departments to enhance their business
processes, matter management and
overall efficiency and effectiveness.
She is a member of ILTA's Information
Management Content Coordinating Team,
editor of ILTA's KM Blog and coordinator
of ILTA's annual KM white paper. Contact
her at ginevra.saylor@dentons.com.
10 Questions for Teasing Out Tacit Knowledge
The key to a successful interview is good questions.
Here are some questions that could get people to reveal what they know:
What is the single most important thing another lawyer in your practice could learn from you?
If you could go back and handle one matter differently, which would it be and what would you change?
What has been your biggest success as a lawyer so far? What contributed most to that success?
What was the most unusual experience you have had handling a [specify type] matter? What happened,
and what did you do?
If you had the opportunity to talk to the best [specify type] lawyer in the world, what would you ask?
What has been the most skillful lawyering you have ever witnessed? What did you learn from your
observations, and how did you incorporate that into your practice?
How would you describe the process involved in handling a [specify type] matter? For each step, provide
one practical tip for getting that step right.
What is the most interesting (or most challenging) thing you worked on this month? How did you handle it?
[To existing lawyers] What one thing do you do at our firm that will not be done or be done in the same way
when you leave? [To lateral hires] What one thing is missing from your former firm since you left that is now
present at our firm with your arrival?
[Referring to a clause in a document you are annotating for use as a precedent] You indicated that you used
unusual language in this clause. Why did you use that language, and how did you arrive at it?
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