Client-facing Knowledge Management

On re-reading my book review of Gretta Rusanow's Knowledge Management and the Smarter Lawyer I found myself wishing I'd had more space to praise her treatment of KM's potential for providing new services to clients.

(From the shameless plug department, my review was published in the May 2004 issue of Knowledge Management magazine and then reprinted in Managing Partner, where it's available in the online edition.)

In the review, I noted in passing Rusanow's advice urging lawyers to turn KM "from a cost-saving/efficiency strategy into a client-servicing profit centre." (Spelling: the magazines are published by Ark Group in London.) Little more could be said, given the focus of my review and space allotted. But this aspect of the book deserves full attention and careful study.

I applauded Rusanow's treatment of KM issues for solo practitioners and noted that her "[f]requent references to earlier chapters demonstrate how many of the large-firm KM goals, tools and techniques can be used by individual lawyers." Those references include her chapter on "Knowledge Management and Your Clients." She comes at this topic from two directions. One is stated as a challenge:

... for many law firms, demonstrating their knowledge management efforts to clients is a business imperative. Many clients already have their own sophisticated approach to knowledge management and expect their law firms to have a similarly sophisticated knowledge management environment.

The other focuses on the opportunity:

Clients face many of the same issues as you, so they will be very interested to learn how you have applied knowledge management principles to addressing those issues.

Your clients may not have the means to develop their own knowledge management solutions. As you develop knowledge management systems and processes to address your business and knowledge needs, you should continually look for opportunities to offer these knowledge management solutions as products and services to your clients.

She examines these challenges and opportunities from basic knowledge-sharing with clients through the development of new knowledge management-based products to full-blown e-business initiatives, including the risk analysis (risk of developing, as well as the risk of not developing new KM-based products and services).

By connecting the chapter on client-facing KM with the one on KM for solos, we can get a very broad insight into KM's potential for leveling the playing field and providing competitive advantage for law practices large and small.

The most crucial message? Your clients expect it, or soon will.