At some point in the past five years, most law firms have tried some form of knowledge management (KM). Whether it was a ‘brief bank’ stored on a network drive, or a full-blown KM collection and retrieval tool, law firms have been using a variety of mediums to capture and store knowledge. Some firms have tested the waters with tools that automatically classify and code work product, hoping to eliminate the need for people to actively contribute to a KM system. However, most firms that are using these advanced classification tools still have a knowledge repository, which requires someone to actively contribute.
To be effective, the repository for knowledge must be easy to use and readily accessible by all. This has led firms towards one of two approaches: 1. Using Microsoft Outlook as the repository; 2. Deploying an intranet or portal – perhaps Law-Port or SharePoint.
