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"Knowledge differentiates a law firm from its competitors," according to Gretta Rusanow of Curve Consulting, an attorney and knowledge management expert.

Knowledge Management specialists within firms work hard to set up and maintain KM technology, but without grassroots adoption, many KM initiatives languish from lack of use.  Placing the emphasis on technology, rather than user behavior, tends to distract from the real barrier to adoption: Attorneys and staff simply don't see enough individual value to take time away from urgent (and billable) day-to-day activities to complete additional tasks required by a separate knowledge management tool.

"Too often KM becomes a conversation about technology . . . if you want to converse with lawyers about value, talk about value instead of technology," said Toby Brown of Fulbright & Jaworski. "This focuses the dialogue on the benefits to the lawyers and not on the cost of any technology involved. Solve the problem, instead of offering technology."

Last year only 9 percent of respondents said their budgets had shrunk. This year it was a whopping 46 percent. Staff reductions have also become the norm, with 57 percent of firms paring their library payroll, up from 18 percent in 2008.

are being asked to become detectives of a sort, tracking, graphing, and reporting on their firm's use of every research tool.

Perhaps it's no wonder, then, that we noticed an uptick in librarian dissatisfaction.

Lee Rosen, the president of Rosen Law Firm, took a few minutes to talk with me about his firm's experience with wikis.Rosen is replacing his Lotus Notes platform with an externally hosted wiki from PBWiki. You may have read about the cash prize contest he ran for his employees in a story on CNN.com: Boosting Teamwork with Wikis.

Lee was drawn to the concept of using a wiki because of its purported simplicity. He found it much easier to develop and add content.

The firm started with the free version of PBWiki and had their wiki up and running in minutes. Some of his administrators worked with the wiki for a few months to see its functionality and how it might work within the firm. Then others in the firm started asking to join and it took off.

Like many organisations, law firms have an odd relationship with information.

And because they know it's important they are loathe to delete anything (just in case)...

Multiple repositories and systems, multiple offices and locations, multiple content processes and procedures leads to an excess of information and knowledge - all of it potentially valuable, but much of it virtually impossible to actually find at the time a lawyer or information professional needs it.

This article will explore ways in which Microsoft SharePoint wikis can provide the control and structure that legal professionals require, along with the benefits of open collaboration that wikis afford.

use SharePoint's built-in security to control who may create, edit and view wiki pages

Another built-in SharePoint feature is content approval. You can use this feature to have SharePoint notify an approver when new or edited content is submitted and require an approval prior to making the content generally available.

Recommind, a leading provider of enterprise search, automatic categorization and eDiscovery systems for enterprises and law firms, today announced that Shook, Hardy & Bacon, a top international law firm, has chosen Recommind's MindServer(TM) Legal platform to power its internal information retrieval system. The MindServer Legal platform enables Shook, Hardy & Bacon's partners, associates, analysts, and paralegals in nine offices around the world to more effectively search, access and manage information to support client objectives in a cost-effective manner.

"We selected Recommind's MindServer Legal platform because our lawyers, analysts, and legal staff found it intuitive to use, identifying not only relevant documents and files, but also the on-point expertise of individual lawyers and analysts in the firm," said John Anderson, CIO at Shook, Hardy & Bacon. "In comparison with other platforms, Recommind's platform was more effective and will take employees less time in the searching process, leaving more time for clients."

Shook, Hardy & Bacon has chosen to deploy the following MindServer Legal components: -- Enterprise Search, which utilizes powerful, concept-based search capabilities to connect relevant information in document management, records management, portal and e-mail systems and myriad other applications and databases with the attorneys that need it. -- Matters & Expertise which provides a comprehensive, firm-wide view of matters, deals, cases, and the vast array of expertise contained within a firm by tapping into a variety of information sources such as time and billing systems, CRM applications, intranets, internal firm databases and other information repositories.

Using a wiki platform, the international law firm made it easy to create and maintain "subwebs".

Using a wiki platform, the international law firm made it easy to create and maintain "subwebs". Subwebs are microsites on the firm's intranet, devoted to a specific subject such as a specialty within a practice or key client information. Headshift helped the firm explore how to broaden the participation in providing subweb content and how to move away from a process that required pages to be prepared individually in FrontPage, a web page design tool.

Headshift recommended an enterprise wiki platform, customised to feature dynamic navigation and designed to match the intranet look-and-feel.

following session about wikis use in law firms, primarily for knowledge management. It was led by two experienced knowledge management professionals with major firms. They shared their experiences within their firms.

The first example was a Canadian law firm with 100 lawyers and 100 support staff. Prior to the wiki, documents were stored individually in folders on a shared drive with no consistency.

They were already using Domino so they choose the Domino wiki for their initial effort.

The next session at the Ark KM Conference saw Mark Young, Managing Partner, and John S. Gillies, Director of Practice Support, at Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP address development of a KM strategy.

He indicated that he often hears partners claim they could get more work in the door if they had more time; KM offered them more time, and hence more opportunity for more business.

He also feels that KM provides an opportunity to demonstrate greater value to clients.