Rees Morrison, Esq., is an expert consultant to general counsel on management issues. Visit his website, ReesMorrison.com, write Rees@ReesMorrison(dot)com, or call him at 973.568.9110.
Related Posts with Thumbnails

Past Posts by Category

  • Benchmarks
  • Clients
  • Knowledge Mgt.
  • Non-Law Firm Costs
  • Outside Counsel
  • Productivity
  • Showing Value
  • Structure
  • Talent
  • Technology
  • Thinking
  • This Blog
  • Thoughts/Observations
  • Tools

  • Past Posts by Month

  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
  • August 2006
  • July 2006
  • June 2006
  • May 2006
  • April 2006
  • March 2006
  • February 2006
  • January 2006
  • December 2005
  • November 2005
  • October 2005
  • September 2005
  • August 2005
  • July 2005
  • June 2005
  • May 2005
  • April 2005
  • March 2005
  • February 2005



































  • Technorati Profile Creative Commons License This blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

    « Legal Technology Blog of Dennis Kennedy | Main | Google Desktop Search and Its Searching Powers »

    Altruistic Information Sharing Doesn’t Happen: Intranets, Case Management Systems and Knowledge Management

    In-house lawyers are loathe to share information.  Just think about why it has proved so hard to keep intranet sites current, or why resistance develops to populating case management systems, why KM remains a chimera with little popular support.  The reason is that lawyers do not want to take the time to make what they know available to other lawyers.  Altruistic information sharing has too little payoff, it seems to most lawyers, even though the logic seems compelling for posting information: if everyone does it, the result is richer.  Blogs too suffer from the same reluctance of lawyers to offer their thoughts.  Many many more people read blogs than comment on them. (On the other hand, with millions of blogs gushing away, maybe my point fails.)

    Law departments struggle with these compilations of information because lawyers do not want to expose their ideas – lest they be criticized, perhaps; or they claim they do not have time, which really means that they do not see the payoff justifying their effort; or they are hobbled by technology, even down to the simple point of not being able to type proficiently.

    One way to circumvent this obstacle is to assign lawyers responsibility for developing content.  Don’t leave it voluntary.  Another is to acquire enough material from other sources so that when someone searches among the entries, they are rewarded with a needle – and that spurs them to contribute to the haystack.  A third technique is to let software comb through documents and emails and weave it into gold (love those metaphors).

    Posted on March 5, 2005 at 07:46 AM in Knowledge Mgt. | Permalink

    Comments

    Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

    In an age where downsizing is a constant threat, where law department managers complain about compression and the surplus of senior lawyers over positions to move them into, the probable payoff to experienced lawyers of sharing specialized experience is highly negative. What little job security one has is linked to being the "go to" person in an area; what sane person would sacrifice that?

    Posted by: Joseph Heyison | Mar 24, 2005 9:27:47 AM

    The comments to this entry are closed.