This post is the second in my continuing series “Knowledge Management for Lawyers”
Part 1: 7 Expensive Ways Lawyers Fail at Knowledge Management
Part 2: Track Your Results!
Part 3: Establish a Routine
The Knowledge Management Wheel
My first attempts to create what I now know as a Knowledge Management database of my practice of law were a failure. Not because I didn’t have some idea what I wanted to analyze. In fact, I knew exactly what I wanted to analyze – mediations. I had been in practice for about two years, working at firm in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, practicing primarily insurance defense.
I knew what metrics I wanted. I wanted to find out the tendencies of attorneys, mediators, and adjusters. I even knew how to do it. I’m no expert, but I’m pretty good with Microsoft Excel, and what I didn’t know could usually be found online. Or by calling my friend Neal Robbins, a man smarter than I am when it comes to Excel (among other things).
What I didn’t have was data. And it wasn’t because I hadn’t had enough mediations, it was because I hadn’t gotten in the habit of writing the information down. (more…)