- Date
- 18 January 2023
Business of Law Firms
Law Firms and Knowledge Management
Business of Law Firms
Law Firms and Knowledge Management
Law Firms and Knowledge Management
By Jake Rickman |
What do you need to know this week?
In this week’s article in the series on the Business of Law Firms, we will look at the concept of knowledge management and its function within a law firm.
What is “knowledge management”?
One of the leading business economists, Robert Grant, defines knowledge management as a twofold concept:
At first glance, “knowledge management” as a concept may seem rather academic or MBA-ish. However, appreciating its purpose and developing your knowledge management capabilities is a vital skill you will hone as a lawyer, be it in-house, in private practice, or in the business world more generally.
After all, law firms are in the business of the knowledge economy: the money generated in client fees is a direct product of the combined application of the legal and commercial knowledge of all the fee-earners staffed on a given matter. Effective knowledge management means leveraging the knowledge that fee-earners bring to bear on client matters in such a way that is cost-effective and efficient when compared to competitors.
As proof that this is more than business school sophistry, insiders on the partner path at Kirkland & Ellis — which boasts some of the highest rates of equity compensation in the world — cite knowledge management as one of the skills senior members assess when ranking the performance of its partner-tracked associates to determine which ones ultimately make the cut.
Why is this important for your interviews?
As far as interviews are concerned, appreciating the importance of knowledge management can give you a useful way to approach topics like legal tech, which can often be more of a distraction than an aid.
Under the effective knowledge management paradigms used by law firms, legal tech is only as important as it is relevant to either:
- Information gathering and disseminating (“knowing about”); or
- Organisational learning and processes (“knowing how”)
If you intend to discuss AI in one of your applications, try and think concretely about how AI legal tech would fit into the law firm’s existing knowledge management processes. Doesn’t the value of integrating it justify the cost, or is the current hype just noise?
Good answers tend to consider the question contextually, such as we have done here, by researching what the firm’s existing knowledge management systems look like.
How is this topic relevant to law firms?
As further evidence that the senior leadership in the world’s top commercial firms recognise the importance and value of competent knowledge management processes and expect their lawyers to use and enhance them. This is why many law firms have a dedicated Knowledge Management division or subdivision sitting within an information management and/or technology division.
