G. Practice Management

• Author: Ted Tjaden
• Profession: National Director of Knowledge Management McMillan LLP
• Pages: 313-315

Page 313

Many legal knowledge managers play some role in practice management for their firm or organization. Like knowledge management, however, "practice management" may mean different things to different people. In the context of legal knowledge work, practice management will often involve establishing professional standards or best practices that cover one or more of the following activities:

· establishing and maintaining document standards, such as creating standard word processing templates for the "look and feel" and formatting of the firm’s documentation, or establishing criteria that governs how the firm provides reasoned opinions to clients or transaction opinions to other parties;

· helping the firm manage its conflicts of interest procedures and the establishment of ethical walls; and

· supporting competitive intelligence on competitor law firms.

Knowledge managers’ support of practice management within the law firm will often involve leveraging a variety of technologies, including the document management system, the financial management system, and various legal research databases (for competitive intelligence, for example).

For the knowledge manager, any work in support of practice management provides the opportunity to work more closely with the firm’s top management, something which can help raise the profile of the knowledge management work being done. It is always important for

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anyone doing legal knowledge management to remember that it is not about implementing processes or projects for the sake of something to do - it is about clients and trying to ensure that any knowledge management initiatives are implemented with the bottom line - to increase revenues, decrease expenses, and promote lawyer and employee retention, all with the goal of improving client service, important things that are constantly in the minds of upper management. In the words of Matthew Parsons: "The point of a knowledge-based strategy is not to save the world; it’s to make money."⁴²Closely related to practice management are initiatives by the firm to attract and maintain clients through a variety of methods. For the knowledge manager, these methods can involve a wide range of activities, and will often involve working closely with the firm’s management and the marketing and finance departments:

· Business intelligence: Many firms track news stories on clients and on industry trends in an attempt to better know the client and anticipate...