Since the beginning of the year I’ve been working on digital workplace strategy for major global law firm and it certainly ranks among the most interesting projects I have been involved with. Law firms are facing a significant change in business model as clients are beginning to engage firms on something close to a fixed price basis, rather than on what can be a rather open-ended time-and-materials basis. Clients also want to work more closely with their legal advisors and have greater transparency on the progress of the matter under consideration. Legal Project Management is one of the new areas of interest for law firms of all sizes. All this comes at a time when there is little real growth in the corporate legal services market. A few months ago my long-time business associate Paul Corney and I met up for our regular state-of-the-market lunch. Paul and I have worked on projects in Cyprus and Barbados as well as the UK. Paul shared with me some of the work he had been doing recently in the law sector. As we compared notes we became aware that some of the knowledge management, information management and project management approaches that we had been using for many years might be unfamiliar to law firms. We decided to validate our conclusions by talking to some of our contacts in law firms and among the comments we noted were

“We are great at capturing, not so great at sharing, especially when it comes to knowledge about clients”

“Too many people think that writing a project plan is all that is needed to make a success of Legal Project Management”

We have decided  to set up a meeting at which we could share some of our experience with senior knowledge and information managers working in law firms. Our Breakfast Breakout will take place in the Benjamin Franklin room at the Royal Society of Arts on 9 December. Starting at 9.00am (but with breakfast at 8.30am) we will be covering (amongst other topics)

• Knowledge Loss & Knowledge Gain,
• Legal Project Management,
• Getting the best from firm/client virtual teams
• Stakeholder Engagement and Management

We will be talking about Knowledge Chameleons, the “Balloon on a Phone” and WTGTGQ – When They Go They Go Quickly. There will also be a chance to benchmark your own situation, though the Chatham House Rule will apply throughout the meeting. With just ten working days to Christmas we’ll provide a relaxed setting, no PowerPoint presentations, a good breakfast and an opportunity to support the PlanZheros charity instead of paying for a ticket. You will be able to be back at your desks by 11.00. The room will be set out cabaret-style and we’ll be moving everyone around after the mid-way break to foster networking.

If you are interested in attending keep a track through either @intranetfocus or @PaulJCorney for further information on the event.

Martin White