Law.com Subscribers SAVE 30%

Call 855-808-4530 or email [email protected] to receive your discount on a new subscription.

KickerFeaturesSectionsNewsLJN Newsletters

New Frontiers for Baker Donelson's KM

By John D. Green
May 31, 2005

So much has been written about knowledge management in the past 10 years and so many products purporting to enable knowledge management have been pushed on the legal community, that I am not sure that the term is relevant anymore. However, I have always thought some of the main tenets of KM make a lot of sense:

  • Leverage existing knowledge by sharing best work product.
  • Enable sharing with technology that is easy to use and familiar.
  • Don't “reinvent the wheel”. Take advantage of technology and processes already in place rather than forcing new product and processes on the end users, minimizing the need for training.

An exciting project that we are rolling out at Baker Donelson starting this month conforms to those main tenets of KM. It is the integration of our core systems, including Thompson Elite's West KM product with Microsoft's Information Bridge Framework (IBF) technology that comes with the Office 2003 suite. The integration is enabled and accelerated by Handshake Software.

Attorneys at Baker Donelson (and from my experience, all other firms) live in two primary applications: Microsoft Word and Microsoft Outlook. The IBF solution will give Baker attorneys power to access and display information from any enterprise application right through those primary Microsoft applications. In essence, it delivers the power of a portal through Word, Outlook or Excel.

Read These Next
The DOJ's Corporate Enforcement Policy: One Year Later Image

The DOJ's Criminal Division issued three declinations since the issuance of the revised CEP a year ago. Review of these cases gives insight into DOJ's implementation of the new policy in practice.

The DOJ's New Parameters for Evaluating Corporate Compliance Programs Image

The parameters set forth in the DOJ's memorandum have implications not only for the government's evaluation of compliance programs in the context of criminal charging decisions, but also for how defense counsel structure their conference-room advocacy seeking declinations or lesser sanctions in both criminal and civil investigations.

Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar Investigations Image

This article discusses the practical and policy reasons for the use of DPAs and NPAs in white-collar criminal investigations, and considers the NDAA's new reporting provision and its relationship with other efforts to enhance transparency in DOJ decision-making.

Bankruptcy Sales: Finding a Diamond In the Rough Image

There is no efficient market for the sale of bankruptcy assets. Inefficient markets yield a transactional drag, potentially dampening the ability of debtors and trustees to maximize value for creditors. This article identifies ways in which investors may more easily discover bankruptcy asset sales.

A Lawyer's System for Active Reading Image

Active reading comprises many daily tasks lawyers engage in, including highlighting, annotating, note taking, comparing and searching texts. It demands more than flipping or turning pages.