Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section

EXCESS, SURPLUS LINES AND REINSURANCE
(ESLR)

Click Here To Subscribe to the ESLR Committee List Service

 

Nothing But Net -- Fall 2001



By: Larry P. Schiffer, LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae, L.L.P.
    lschiffe@llgm.com

  Knowledge management is the latest buzzword in law firm document management. What is knowledge management? It is a system for identifying, indexing, storing, and retrieving work product that allows an organization to leverage its collective expertise for its own advantage and for the advantage of its clients. How is this relevant to members of this Committee? Whether you are inhouse or outside counsel, you should be interested in ways to leverage your expertise and work product to better serve your clients.

  Knowledge management is more than document management. Most law firms have document management systems that assign document numbers to documents created and allow users to search the database of created documents. The problem with relying on document management programs is that ALL documents created on the system are stored and searchable. This means that draft documents, documents created by attorneys that perhaps do not have the necessary expertise, documents that did not prove successful in court and all matter of notes and fragments of documents may be retrieved. Document management systems do not do a good job of finding and retrieving only the relevant and useful documents on a particular subject.

  Knowledge management systems, however, help retrieve only those documents that have been selected by a screening system for re-use in the future. In other words, a knowledge management system will locate only valuable and re-usable documents and information instead of pears mixed in a pile of junk. Think of a knowledge management system as an Internet search engine that retrieves only relevant Internet sites.

  Sounds good, but there are no off-the-shelf packages that are intelligent enough to know which of the documents you have created are qualified for a knowledge management database. This means that individuals have to identify the documents that qualify for the system and make sure that only quality documents go into the system in the future. This is a laborintensive job and requires ongoing maintenance and support. A good knowledge management system requires internal re-engineering of how documents are created and stored so that only the quality documents are captured and entered into the knowledge management system for easy retrieval based on an indexing system that is intuitive and functional.

  Knowledge management is simply taking your personal form and precedent files and combining them with similar files in a system that allows for simple and efficient retrieval for everyone in your organization. Add to it links to relevant Internet sites, CD collections, news, and other resources, and you are on your way to providing your client with the kinds of resources they expect from experts like the members of this Committee.



Back To ESLR Committee Home Page

For enrollment in a committee of the Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section, simply fill out the on-line committee application form.

Please note:  If you are already a Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section member, you may join up to three (3) committees at no additional cost. However, if you are not a Section member, you must join the Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section first.

If you have any questions regarding participation in TIPS Committees, please contact Sonia Schroeder, our Committees Administrator at schroeders@staff.abanet.org or by phone at 312/988-6229.

TIPS LEGAL DISCLAIMER --
The materials at this site, including the links to other Web sites, have been provided by the Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section of the American Bar Association for informational purposes only and do not constitute legal advice, the practice of law, or the endorsement of the content provided by any linked site. Use of this site does not create or constitute, in any way, an attorney-client relationship between the ABA, TIPS, their entities, or any individual members and the viewer of this site. Neither does the ABA, TIPS, their entities, nor any of their members assume any responsibility for any misinterpretation or misapplication of the information contained on this site by the viewer, or of the content of any Web sites linked to this site. Points of view or opinions at this site do not necessarily represent the official policies or positions of the ABA, TIPS, or any of its entities or members. Users of this site should not act upon any information received without seeking the advice of professional legal counsel