Last week, we hosted a lively discussion about Knowledge Management and its role in driving efficiency across legal teams. The discussion was filled with valuable insights, actionable tips, and personal experiences. In addition to the live conversation, there was a highly engaging discussion unfolding in the chat, which we all agreed needed to be properly maintained and shared. In honor of knowledge management, here are some of the most frequently asked questions from the webinar:

What are the main differences between Knowledge Management approaches in the US and the rest of the world?

Greg Lambert: "In the US, KM is seen as a technology. In the rest of the world, it's more of a people process. (Enrichment is a good term that Jack used)."

What tools does everyone like for KM, besides Guru (and shared drives, etc.)?

Greg Lambert: "A few obvious ones are: WestKM, Lexis Search Advantage, DMS like iManage or NetDocs and one newer one that might be interesting is DeepJudge (search tool)."

What are the key elements of a successful knowledge audit?

Greg Lambert: "The key to a Knowledge Audit is to: Ask questions, shut up and listen, go up and down the list of attorneys and others, don't forget those who do the actual work, benchmark success or failure."

Anastashia Kamberidis: "Find the legal ops heroes! (Even if they don’t have the title — they often end up doing this work all along)."

Where does Legal design come in for your teams with KM? How do you upskill or outsource?

Yesenia Santiago Egner: "Legal design is the precursor. Start by identifying knowledge gaps. Perhaps begin with assessing where the greatest need is and determine impact. Then include the people and process portions."

Do you have any specific tips on how to structure KM, especially concerning legal monitoring across different countries?

Yesenia Santiago Egner: "Understand country restrictions on information/data sharing first. There are international standards (ISO) and also institutions you can rely on such as National libraries."

Greg Lambert: "Currently, this is a compliance issue that needs to be reviewed by people (KM Lawyers, GC guidance, etc.). Creating solid rules to follow is the key point to start with. AI might help at some point, but not right now."

How do we measure if KM is working - what KPIs are we looking at?

Greg Lambert: "Remember, KPIs have to be measurable. Not just a gut feeling that it is working. Some important things to look at: Usage stats, contribution (how many are contributing), profitability, satisfaction of users."

Jack Shepherd: “A few things to pay attention to: Existence of a dedicated place for knowledge content rather than things stored in random places or on people’s desktops, how well that dedicated place is organized (folders, metadata etc.), incentives for people to share knowledge with each other, proper partnership of people process and tech (not just throwing tech at the problem), data initiatives and data hygiene within the firm."

Is there a need for KM governance to check for adherence to the KM plan?

Greg Lambert: "KM governance is a great idea. But, be careful that it is set up more as a carrot and less as a stick."

Yesenia Santiago Egner: "Agreed on incentivizing, and also KM governance helps spread the weight of maintenance & support. It gives expression to the passion that may exist on your teams."

Thank you for reading this blog and attending our webinar. We will be back with part two, so stay tuned. In the meantime, you can watch the full recording of the webinar here. And follow our Knowledge Management experts to learn more: Yesenia Santiago Egner, Jack Shepherd, Greg Lambert.