E. Professional Development and Training

• Author: Ted Tjaden
• Profession: National Director of Knowledge Management McMillan LLP
• Pages: 311-312

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To the extent that legal knowledge management is to "promote legal information literacy" and "establish best practices and standards for legal services," most knowledge management departments in law firms are involved (either formally or informally) in professional development and training. This training will often involve a combination of staff from the the library and the knowledge management, professional development, and IT departments, along with practising lawyers who are the experts within the firm. As mentioned earlier, the transfer of tacit knowledge - the information and experiences of a seasoned lawyer - can often be more valuable than the explicit knowledge contained in precedents and research memos. Unfortunately, until the Vulcan mind meld is perfected, one of the more effective ways of capturing tacit legal knowledge is through training and mentoring. However, technology is increasingly providing solutions to improve training of lawyers through the use of audio, video, and other online tools.

A positive side effect of in-house training - in addition to having lawyers develop their knowledge of substantive law and best practices in practicing law - is the atmosphere created in letting lawyers know that learning and sharing their knowledge is important.

In addition to in-house training, many lawyers will attend external continuing legal education (CLE) seminars, another excellent source of practical legal information and best practices. Most seminars provide

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binders that are then kept in the firm’s law library collection. Increasingly, CLE seminars are making their materials available online.³⁴As discussed in Chapter 2, Section C, the Canadian Legal Symposia Index on LEXISNEXIS Quicklaw is the best way to search for CLE papers (this database indexes CLE papers from 1986 to current). In the United States, the Practicing Law...