The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/96072
Ready to Retire Old Dogs and New Tricks At one end of the spectrum lies the compelling — and common — problem of succession planning. Everyone acknowledges that a firm's most valuable asset — the knowledge and experience inside its lawyers' minds— leaves the firm each night. While doing a fairly good job of capturing, categorizing and sharing the written or explicit knowledge found in their documents, most firms and other organizations still struggle with how to preserve their seasoned experts' wisdom and experience — that elusive and irreplaceable tacit knowledge — and make it accessible to others before they leave or retire. Many firms have serious concerns about gaping holes that senior lawyers will leave behind when they are gone. With a big chunk of the population due to retire over the next several years, the threat of a potential knowledge and experience drought looms large. Though many senior partners are willing to pass along what they know to their firm's up-and-coming associates, finding the time to do so while maintaining a thriving practice is no easy task. Is there an easy way to engage new associates with busy, experienced lawyers to augment succession planning? Ironically, the senior lawyers' expertise and insight lead directly to a second problem firms often confront: If new associates learn primarily from senior lawyers, how are new ideas and better ways of approaching legal matters ever going to be generated? And in today's belt-tightening times, how can firms continue building their knowledge-base without incurring substantial additional expenditures? KM in particular is not about reusing and repurposing information and processes; rather, it is about combining information to create new and better knowledge and exposing inefficiencies to create streamlined processes. Law firms rightly love their senior lawyers because they have gotten their practice down to a science. The downside is that mastery of their craft can blind them from seeing room for improvement and the virtue of trying something new. Simply put, experts are hard to teach and even harder to change. How might a firm get past the "if it's not broken, don't fix it" mind set and into the realm of innovation to gain a competitive advantage? INTRODUCING Professional-grade document collaboration software 50 Peer to Peer