Matter centricity & KMMatter Lifecycle Management

KM for the Modern Law Firm – New York, February 2006

Jeffrey S. RovnerOz BenamramMatt J. Todd

Introductions

Oz BenamramPractice Resources AttorneyMorrison & Foerster, LLPobenamram@mofo.com

Jeffrey S. RovnerDirector of Knowledge ManagementClifford Chance US, LLP

Matt J. ToddVP Knowledge & TechnologySV Technology, Inc.www.svtechnology.com

Topics for discussion

What’s worth collectingHow do we present what we’ve collectedDiscussion

Matter-Centric Information

Matter metadata Client/matter number, status, practice group, legal topics, industry,

jurisdiction (etc), court/judge links, description Post completion information, challenges, transaction valueMatter work product Documents, files, e-mails, link to online records, link to discovery

databases, docket, project plan, events and tasksNews About the legal topics, about the industry, about the clientPeople & Entities Responsible partner, other timekeepers on matter, outside parties,

experts, information & linksReference material Client-specific forms, links to relevant legal topic pages, links to matter-

centric pages for similar matters, client bindersFinancial Unbilled time and expenses, accounts receivable, billings vs. budget,

special billing instructions, links to bills sent on the matterTasks Create a letter, document, email, raise invoice, Hot Docs in context

Matter-Centric Information Client, Matter, Document metadata

Matter metadata Client/matter number, status, practice group, legal topics, industry,

jurisdiction (etc), court/judge links, description Post completion information, challenges, transaction valueMatter work product Documents, files, e-mails, link to online records, link to discovery

databases, docket, project plan, events and tasksNews About the legal topics, about the industry, about the clientPeople & Entities Responsible partner, other timekeepers on matter, outside parties,

experts, information & linksReference material Client-specific forms, links to relevant legal topic pages, links to matter-

centric pages for similar matters, client bindersFinancial Unbilled time and expenses, accounts receivable, billings vs. budget,

special billing instructions, links to bills sent on the matterTasks in context Create a letter, document, email, send invoice, Hot Docs

Talking points

Is matter the right thing to be “centric” about ?Will people want to work there ?What does it realistically give them ?Is this just a nice idea ?

How do we present what we’ve captured ?

Traditional Matter PortalAnswer BaseEcco ProInformation Bridge

Traditional matter portalLawPort

Dynamic views for each client & matterApplication of firm wide taxonomy allow: “Pull” of relevant information to those views without specific

distribution Rotation of information to see different facets Easy access to “know who” and “know how”

Information viewed in the contexts of: Client Practice Group/Team Matter Firm Area of law/subject People Document

Filtered to cut through to focus on interests / location

It’s All About ContextMatters are the Glue, not the Goal

Oz BenamramFebruary 22, 2006

Answer Base

Let’s Talk About…

Capturing Knowledge

Finding Information

Rethinking Matter-Centricity

Capturing Knowledge

Goal: Provide users with answers

(actionable information in context)

Requirements: Capture information for reuse Capture its context for meaning Without creating additional work

What Should Be Captured?

WhatWho Why WhereWhen

Who

What

Why

What Should Be Captured?

WhereWhen

Who

What

Why

External

Internal

People &Entities

Clients &Matters

Documents

What Should Be Captured?

• Outlook • DMS• RMS• Docket• Server

• Conflicts• Accounting• Docket• Marketing• RMS

• Outlook• CRM• Conflicts• Docket• Accounting

• DealRoom• Portal• Wikis • Extranet• Website

Finding Information – Seeking Answers

Many systems Centralized access – enterprise search

(efficiency)

Many results Ability to zoom-in – multi-faceted search

(findability)

Lack of Context Know more about each result, once found

(usability)

Contextualizing Information

Manually Profiling Forget about it – 24 Hours; No immediate

incentive

Auto-Profiling Profile documents by mining their text

e.g. entity extraction; auto categorization

Meta-meta-data Connect related information across systems

Is Matter-Centricity It? (no)

Matters are not the goal The goal is finding answers (mostly, documents

and people)

Matters are the glue Matters contain the relationships among

documents, people, entities, jurisdiction… i.e. their context

Matters are the key ingredient, but not the objective, of providing users with answers (actionable information in context)

Documents

MattersPeople

Rethinking Matter-Centricity

People

DocumentsMatters

Rethinking Matter-Centricity

Answer Base Demo

Presenting Information in Context

One SimpleSearch Box

222764 Documents

Narrow Search by Filtering

Filter by Client Industry

SearchResults

e.g. Financial In

stitutio

ns

Full Text

Doc ProfileRelated Information

Document Page

Select One

SearchResults

Actions

Related People

Select a MatterRelated Matters

Related Docs

Contact Info

Bio

Info

Person Page

Actions

Related People

Related Docs

Matter Page

Ecco Pro (R.I.P. 1997)

The power of contextualized views

Why add to the number of applications?The Information Bridge

The portal concept sprang from the over abundance of silo applicationsBut added one moreMatter-centricity doesn’t mean the traditional portalWe know that the work is done by many in Outlook or WordPlace the information thereLeveraging context

Talking points

Is it working ?Why not ?What actually is the problem - real or perceived problem ?Brent’s point – is matter the right thing to be ‘centric’ about ?Too impersonal, where’s my stuff: emails, tasks, calendar, documents, research, notesInformation with Interest Do I get out of this thing more than I put in ?How do lawyers actually work?Impediments to acceptance Institutional Technology to bring about changeExperience of other industriesFirm v. LawyerTrust Provenance

Thank You