Practical LawConferences

• Examining the changing UK and global KM landscape
• Recognising the need to align KM with supporting business objectives
• What does the future hold for KM professionals?
  • How are KM semantics evolving?
• What are the implications for professional services with regards to pricing, profitability and business models?

In the last five years the role of KM has gained increasing significance in law firms. Old demarcations have been broken down. In some firms knowledge has merged with Learning & Development, Risk, Marketing or IT. In other firms separate units have been set up to drive business improvement and innovation. Some firms have dedicated PSls others have fee earning knowledge champions. Some PSLs are a central resource, others report to their practice areas. This session will explore how different knowledge functions have addressed these challenges, shaped and aligned with their firm’s strategy and gained influence at Board level.

• Learn how other firms organise their knowledge management function
• Compare different approaches to shaping and aligning with business strategy
• Gaining influence at the Board
• Challenge your current organisational structure and reflect on relationship between knowledge, other functions and the Board

• Understand your identity and shared values
• Develop a shared vision and attitude to internal customers and clients which is aligned with organisational goals
• Develop an appropriate campaign of messaging and communications emphasising the strategic imperative
• Demonstrate the value and benefits through story telling to effect customer engagement tool and change
• Creating a culture of knowledge – and transforming how works get done

Understanding your clients’ needs will help your firm better understand where to spend your resources.

This session will offer delegates the opportunity to find out:

• Determining who are your clients
• Are KMs doing enough to satisfy and listen to client’s real needs?
• Gaining a better understanding of the drivers and motivations from in-house counsel. What do they need?
• What influences client buying decisions?
• Are KMs using their resources best and if not, what else can they do?

• What is the role of the Procurement Manager? Who has control?
• How does procurement see the future of KM?
• What does the future hold? What can Private Practice learn?
• What is the relationship between procurement and providers?

• Does the growth in service delivery centres and near-shoring affect the way firms are tackling KM?
• Do these centres have distinct requirements when it comes to their KM needs?

• Examining the rise of process and matter plans, as a means of enhanced KM
• What part should your client play in process mapping?
• Pulling it together and bringing it into the fold

• Understanding what it is all about and what is available
• Examining the extent to which Knowledge Managers are using Big data to predict outcomes
• Leveraging the internal and external benefits of artificial intelligence
• How you manage expectations of the future of knowledge culture?
• Determining the implications on privacy and intellectual property
• Lessons learnt and successes and failures

• How are KM teams looking to support the growing number of contract lawyer business attached to law firms that are cropping up?
• Aligning your new joiners with a different mind set
• How do you get people up to speed quickly and integrated with a firm’s way of working?
• How do you capture knowledge from these teams given the transient nature of their work?

Several studies have indicated that a large portion work written off is connected to the drafting process

• What techniques and tool kits are teams using to streamline this process?
• How are KM teams positioning themselves to be part of the solution?

This session will look at how firms are facing globalisation from a KM perspective with case studies of firms who have merged and / or moved into new territories or markets.

• M&A and overcoming HR issues for Knowledge Managers
• How do I find out about how to instruct a law firm in new countries?
• How can knowledge support lateral teams or lateral hires?
• How much centralisation is desirable versus local knowledge?

• Securing buy-in from the executive team
• Leveraging KM to partner with the vendor
• How do you engage with external agencies to build it?
• Developing relevant technologies for pricing, tracking and reporting
• Developing technology that can be resold to your practice area

• Understanding what motivates people
• How do you recruit with the evolving role of KM?
• Assessing levels of competencies and remaining gaps
• Salary differentials and how you maintain the motivation with t
• What is the difference between an effective manager and an effective leader?

Hear from Knowledge Managers and their biggest successes and challenges in their career. Find out in hindsight what they would have done differently.