Page 114 - 2019 - Leaders in Legal Business (q)
P. 114
Opportunity Lost and Now Regained? Collaboration and Social Media
Knowledge management often includes efforts to improve collaboration within firms and
law departments and between clients and firms. Many lawyers and KM professionals initially
thought that the firms and departments could borrow from the advent of Web 2.0 and an array of
consumer social media services. Starting around 2010, many law firms experimented with internal
social media tools (e.g., Yammer), but few if any of these efforts succeeded. Early disappointment
led to several years of low interest in trying collaborative tools.
More recently, a new generation of legal-specific products has come to market holding new
promise. Examples include ThreadKM and Neudesic Pulse. These products tie either to the
document management system or sit inside of a law firm portal and offer the promise of success.
In addition to the goal of reducing the volume of email traffic and making email relate more clearly
to matters, information governance considerations also drive some of these efforts.
Information Governance, Records Management, Document Management, and KM
For several years, driven by eDiscovery and other legal requirements, lawyers focused on
records management. RM generally means classifying documents and email so that they can be
preserved or destroyed according to defined schedules. The RM concern has recently broadened
to Information Governance (or “IG”), which deals with security, acceptable uses, and retention.
For example, organizations may need to lock down documents with personally identifiable
information such as social security or credit card numbers.
Some of the goals of IG, for example, limiting document access to just the team working
on a matter, are at odds with the goals of KM. This trend is accelerating rapidly now with cyber
breaches occurring regularly. A common practice is to assume that hackers will breach a law firm
perimeter, often by phishing, which means gaining a specific user’s credentials. Once a hacker is
inside, locking documents to the team working on them minimizes the amount of information a
hacker can access.
These changes may end up rewriting the KM playbook. Part of the rewrite will be a fresh
look at document management systems (DMS) in law firms. Virtually every large firm has a DMS.
But in many if not most firms, roughly half of lawyers do not regularly use it. That creates
enormous security risks. Fortunately, a new generation of document management products is
coming to market that help the security issues, and via better tracking of document history and/or
artificial intelligence, provide strong pointers to lawyers who have knowledge of the matter, legal
issues, and documents involved.
Developing a KM Plan
So how should a law firm or department start with or integrate KM? The answer, of course,
depends on where that law firm is now, what competitive pressures it faces, and what resources it
has. What follows is a rough inventory and sequence that applies to many firms and departments.
Deploy Enterprise Search
o Make it easier for lawyers to find work product and colleagues with expertise.
99
Knowledge management often includes efforts to improve collaboration within firms and
law departments and between clients and firms. Many lawyers and KM professionals initially
thought that the firms and departments could borrow from the advent of Web 2.0 and an array of
consumer social media services. Starting around 2010, many law firms experimented with internal
social media tools (e.g., Yammer), but few if any of these efforts succeeded. Early disappointment
led to several years of low interest in trying collaborative tools.
More recently, a new generation of legal-specific products has come to market holding new
promise. Examples include ThreadKM and Neudesic Pulse. These products tie either to the
document management system or sit inside of a law firm portal and offer the promise of success.
In addition to the goal of reducing the volume of email traffic and making email relate more clearly
to matters, information governance considerations also drive some of these efforts.
Information Governance, Records Management, Document Management, and KM
For several years, driven by eDiscovery and other legal requirements, lawyers focused on
records management. RM generally means classifying documents and email so that they can be
preserved or destroyed according to defined schedules. The RM concern has recently broadened
to Information Governance (or “IG”), which deals with security, acceptable uses, and retention.
For example, organizations may need to lock down documents with personally identifiable
information such as social security or credit card numbers.
Some of the goals of IG, for example, limiting document access to just the team working
on a matter, are at odds with the goals of KM. This trend is accelerating rapidly now with cyber
breaches occurring regularly. A common practice is to assume that hackers will breach a law firm
perimeter, often by phishing, which means gaining a specific user’s credentials. Once a hacker is
inside, locking documents to the team working on them minimizes the amount of information a
hacker can access.
These changes may end up rewriting the KM playbook. Part of the rewrite will be a fresh
look at document management systems (DMS) in law firms. Virtually every large firm has a DMS.
But in many if not most firms, roughly half of lawyers do not regularly use it. That creates
enormous security risks. Fortunately, a new generation of document management products is
coming to market that help the security issues, and via better tracking of document history and/or
artificial intelligence, provide strong pointers to lawyers who have knowledge of the matter, legal
issues, and documents involved.
Developing a KM Plan
So how should a law firm or department start with or integrate KM? The answer, of course,
depends on where that law firm is now, what competitive pressures it faces, and what resources it
has. What follows is a rough inventory and sequence that applies to many firms and departments.
Deploy Enterprise Search
o Make it easier for lawyers to find work product and colleagues with expertise.
99
