Law firms are at a new frontier: Replacing hunches with metrics and know-how

At its most basic level, knowledge management is about connecting people, functions, and systems while collecting critical knowledge artefacts, experience, and know-how for reuse or optimisation.

Law firm KM succeeds when lawyers use it frequently throughout their matters, and when knowledge collection requires minimal extra work. Matters, however, are not static – they evolve through time. Hence, it is necessary to focus on the entire matter lifecycle to actually understand and make improvements to the underlying ‘assembly line’ of processes and tasks.
The matter lifecycle was a key theme covered at ARK Group’s 11th annual ‘Knowledge Management in the Legal Profession’ conference. This year’s conference resumed a highly-interactive discussion that began more than a decade ago. While we are no longer (at least openly) debating what exactly KM means within a law firm environment, this year’s speaking faculty (with ample input from the audience) made a clear case for KM’s evolution in step with demands that are reshaping the business of law.

Illustrative of a broader evolution in practice innovation, this year’s conference was anchored by a focus on matter and client profiling and, more specifically, the ‘Matter Lifecycle Model’. Beginning with pre-engagement knowledge processes (CRM, pitches, etc.), and then moving through the matter lifecycle – from business intake through the engagement to the post-mortem or after-action review – the focus of the conference was on the various matter and client profiling that should occur each step of the way to help support the collection of knowledge and data that can be mined for more effective search and analytics.

Data at the client and matter level must be collected from the time of inception through to the end of the engagement. Experience capture, financial data, and other knowledge artefacts are critical to the success of any LPM, process, or pricing initiative, and can involve disparate teams throughout the matter lifecycle.

Attendees at this year’s conference heard unique perspectives from the heads of various law firm functions concerning how and why client and matter profiling is critical – and how each function can benefit from a matter lifecycle focus – and had the opportunity to compare and contrast how firms of various shapes and sizes effectively connect their lawyers with knowledge resources.

This year’s conference also debated KM’s role in leading innovation and managing change, with a particular focus on how KM is supporting adoption and adapting best practices to the firm’s needs and culture. Clearly, KM has not been left behind or subsumed into other support functions. The growing volume of data that firms handle, and the complexity of the systems used to manage it, will no doubt continue to produce new and exciting opportunities for the knowledge-sharing process.

KM has truly become a dynamic, multi-disciplinary part of the organisation with practitioners serving as librarians, business analysts, practice support lawyers, project managers, and technologists – all coming together in support of explicit business goals. There were many new faces at this year’s conference – collectively exploring new tools in practice and sharing viewpoints and methodologies that suggest law firms are indeed at a new frontier: replacing hunches with metrics and know-how that inform the strategic direction of the firm.