Legal KM

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.

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.

For a time, Autonomy’s closest search rival was Verity, until Autonomy bought the company for $500m in November 2005. After that, it was the Norwegian company, Fast Search and Transfer (FAST) that seemed to be the nearest rival.

in January this year FAST was bought by Microsoft for $1.2bn, though it is being operated as a subsidiary, of which Lervik is still CEO.

But even at its peak, FAST was not making anything like Autonomy’s revenue. In the last quarter as an independent entity before it was acquired – the third quarter of 2007 – FAST announced sales of $35.6m, up just 4%. In the same quarter of that year, Autonomy announced its sales rose 49% to $89.6m.

Connectors, in my experience, are one of the surprises that often bedevil licensees. These code chunks make it possible for the licensee to index information that reside in systems or files within an organization. A vendor who does not provide connectors leaves the customer with some stark options; for example, don’t index the content or pay for a new connector. If Mr. Stamper is correct, Autonomy’s connectors are a definite plus for the IDOL system.

why law firms need to invest more time in developing a sound information infrastructure before adding the latest and greatest technology.

Innerhalb von nur 3 Monaten wurde MindServer Legal bei Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP als kanzleiweites Knowledge Management- und Retrieval-System eingeführt. Die Lösung greift unter dem internen Namen "KnowledgeSearch" auf sämtliche Datenbestände der Kanzlei zu und verbindet so die allgemeine Dokumentenverwaltung, eine KM-Bibliothek, ein Managementsystem, das gesamte Intranet sowie externe Quellen wie z.B. Rechtsdatenbanken.

"Im Legal-Bereich verfügen wir über eine einzigartige Expertise und die Auszeichnung belegt, das wir wissen, was unsere Kunden wollen und dies auch konsequent umsetzen."

Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP hat darüberhinaus noch den Preis als "Best Knowledge Management und Information Team of the Year" - auch für den Einsatz von MindServer Legal.

With the high levels of innovation and complexity in banking products, our client wanted to ensure that people involved in the negotiation and implementation of associated transactions could stay abreast of change and be better connected with relevant expertise and information.  In that context, we have been working in a consultancy capacity with members of pilot groups from distinct operational areas and communities, to identify key processes/business needs to be supported by well-positioned social tools.

Implementing social tools that fit the use cases

Our recommended solution combined, amongst other things, a wiki, shared blogs, book-marking, tagging and personalised pages.

Headshift designed a collaboration and knowledge-sharing application for the international law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP. We integrated social media tools such as blogs, wikis, social bookmarking and RSS feeds to improve the general flow of information within the organisation - letting employees collaborate better and share their insights more easily.

The main issue: Individual actions should benefit the community

What constitutes a social media platform?