One of a corporate lawyer’s top jobs is to help their clients navigate the complexity of law in order to obtain the best possible outcome for their business. In doing so, the goal is to exceed client expectations by achieving knowledge management efficiencies that allow you to share that same legal experience internally and with your clients. The most successful of these firms are reaching a point of collaboration that arms colleagues with the ability to share their experience across teams to enhance value throughout their practice.
As a result, a gap is forming between these knowledge management industry leaders and those firms that have yet to crack the code on realizing efficiency in capturing and centralizing this critically important information. At the same time, these trailing firms remain challenged by many of the same things that knowledge management can solve. For instance, according to the Thomson Reuters 2019 State of U.S. Small Firms Report, “a large percentage, if not a majority of respondents in each firm-size classification expressed at least moderate concern about spending too much time on administrative tasks, controlling costs, keeping abreast of new tech, a lack of internal efficiency, keeping up with the competition, getting paid by their clients,and clients demanding “more for less” or pushing back on firm rates.”
