Book review

Thomas Collins, principal of Advocacy 2100, LLC, reviews Knowledge Management and the Smarter Lawyer by Gretta Rusanow

Gretta Rusanow’s treatment of knowledge management for lawyers begins with the need to connect KM to a law firm’s business objectives: “Since a law firm is a knowledge-based business, managing knowledge is about managing your business.”

This simple truth might easily get lost in the details, because Knowledge Management and the Smarter Lawyer covers the planning, design and implementation of KM in a variety of settings, from large firms to law departments and sole practitioners. But Rusanow reiterates the message that KM must be connected with business objectives at every stage.

Rusanow’s detailed coverage can be seen in separate chapters that are devoted to defining the scope of knowledge and knowledge management. The section defining knowledge covers general distinctions between knowledge, information and data; explicit versus tacit knowledge; and the knowledge needed for the practice versus the business of law. Rusanow demonstrates her understanding of how these concepts apply to law offices by breaking them down into ten knowledge categories, which include:

The law (cases, statutes, firm precedents or best practices);
The firm’s clients (knowledge-based client relationships, for example)
Methodologies and processes (such as the steps in managing a particular kind of transaction);
Third parties (opposing counsel, judges, expert witnesses).

Rusanow urges lawyers to expand their view of KM beyond the first category. The chapter closes with a checklist for firms to determine which categories they need to manage.

The knowledge-management chapter similarly expands on the concept beyond lawyers’ usual focus on technology for storing and retrieving legal information. Rusanow offers a useful model that helps readers analyse their knowledge to be managed, and how to apply specific KM tools and techniques for achieving business objectives.

Subsequent chapters cover implementation issues such as developing a KM team, overcoming law-firm cultural barriers, and employing technology where needed. From this foundation, Rusanow returns to the case for KM’s direct connection to business objectives and profitability, with chapters on valuing knowledge management and even turning it from a cost-saving/efficiency strategy into a client-servicing profit centre. She concludes the book with chapters on the unique needs of law departments and sole practitioners.

Analysis

Rusanow succeeds in providing a highly practical handbook for lawyers — and those who work with lawyers — to follow when introducing KM initiatives. A major strength lies in her ability to connect KM theory to the real-life problems lawyers face when doing legal work and running their offices. Each chapter begins with a scenario drawn from her experiences, which illustrate how the concepts about be discussed can benefit lawyers and their clients. Shorter scenarios appear within the discussions to highlight important concepts and techniques. Anyone who has worked in a law office will recognise the characters and situations she describes.

Planning tools – from simple business-case-analysis forms to detailed project-management diagrams – are introduced and applied to these legal scenarios. Each chapter ends with a useful checklist, questionnaire or exercise enabling lawyers to gain an immediate understanding of how that chapter’s KM concepts could benefit them.

Most interesting for me, however, is the last chapter, which applies KM to sole practitioners. Frequent references to earlier chapters demonstrate how many of the large-firm KM goals, tools and techniques can be used by individual lawyers. This is where this book may provide its most valuable glimpse into how we can improve the success rate of KM initiatives of every size.

If we were to read Rusanow’s final chapter first, thus starting with sole practitioners, then perhaps our KM initiatives could address how individual knowledge workers actually work and how different individuals might approach the same knowledge task. We might then apply teachings from fields such as cognitive and educational psychology to support diverse ways of gathering and processing information, and creating and sharing knowledge.

Readership

While especially valuable for lawyers and consultants to lawyers, a wider audience should find this book useful for two reasons. Lawyers and law offices exemplify the knowledge-based business. As many writers tell us, essentially all businesses are knowledge based. Therefore, understanding how to implement KM in a law office should offer insights for many other businesses.

Verdict

Knowledge Management and the Smarter Lawyer is a clearly written, well organised, step-by-step handbook for successful KM implementation in law offices. For lawyers with little background in KM theory, the numerous scenarios should ring true and make the concepts accessible. For practitioners, the theories behind the techniques will be apparent. It is a very useful addition to the existing library of KM literature.

Thomas G. Collins, JD, is principal of Advocacy 2100, LLC. He can be contacted at tcollins@advocacy2100.com.