Knowledge Tools inLegal Services Practice

Marc Lauritsen

NTAP Executive Leadership RoundtableJune 17, 2010

Topics

• What does it mean to "work smart"?

• How can we enlist ‘knowledge tools’ in the substance of legal work?

• Can they make us happier and more effective?

• Why don't we make more use of them?

Working dumb

• Needless repetition• Unnecessary reinvention• Forgetting to do things or making mistakes

because you don’t have a system• . . .

Working smart

• Using and re-using knowledge wisely

• Preserving new knowledge responsibly

• Time-shifting and person-shifting

• Life-long learning (sharpening your saw)

• Crafting and wielding power tools

Different kinds of technologies

• Generic vs. law specific• Periphery vs. core• Foundational/infrastructural vs. strategic• Sustaining vs. game-changing or disruptive

– Word processing– Email– Document management– Accounting– Telephony

– Case management– Legal document assembly– Evidence & argument analyzers– Decision support tools

Different kinds of technologies

What do legal professionals do?

interview investigate

research analyze

educate counsel

plan draft

negotiate advocate

Roles that IT can play

• Facilitating human communication(storing/distributing knowledge)

• Augmenting people(extending the human mind)

• Performing cognitive tasks (autonomous knowledge work)

1. Storage and transport

• The material world– boats, trains, planes– ice houses,

refrigeration– pickling, canning,

mummification– electric batteries– flywheels

• The information world– brief banks– document management– e-mail– video conferencing– hypertext, infobases– multimedia– the contemporary Web,

intranets, extranets– experience repositories

2. Extending human powers

• The material world– hammer, saw, chisel– plow– lever– telescope, microscope– power saw– X-rays

• The information world– text retrieval– spreadsheets– outliners– mind mapping– decision analysis– visualization– groupware

3. Performing independent work• The material world– clock– windmill– steam engine– internal combustion

engine– electric motor– industrial robots

• The information world– expert systems– document assembly– practice systems– rule-based calendaring– spiders and knowbots– data mining, rule

induction– auto categorization and

summarization

Legal aid examples

• 1 (storage/distribution)– Document management– Intranets, statewide websites

• 2 (mind extender)– Case mgt– Decision support

• 3 (autonomous knowledge work)– Document assembly– Benefit calculators

CaseMap

TIG 2010 16

Tool Knowledge example

Document assembly What words go where when

Decision support What considerations support which options

Case analysis What facts support which claims

Dynamic questionnaire What information needs to be known, based on what is already known

Intelligent checklist What tasks need to be done, based on what is known and has been done so far

Some management issues

• Economics of knowledge technology – balancing costs and benefits

• ‘Egonomics’ – what inhibits and motivates people?

• Change management• Build, buy, or borrow?

Closing Thoughts

• An effective way to get legal work done is to help clients do it some of it themselves

• Just thinking through how legal work could be improved with new tools often yields valuable insights

• Enlist staff in brainstorming about how their work could be improved with better systems