Knowledge Management for Solos and Small Firms

McGowan, Hood & Felder, LLC has handled numerous actions involving complex legal matters in South Carolina and outside the state. Attorneys with McGowan, Hood and Felder, LLC have represented clients involving construction litigation, catastrophic injury, business litigation, class action and multi district litigation.

What if you could spend a few moments thinking about drafting a complaint, and then, with a couple of keystrokes, find exactly the go-by you needed? What if your staff had time to “tag” every work product document with keywords? What if your computer silently, constantly, indexed your document files by keyword and by full text? And what if finding that elusive complaint were as easy as using Google? Chances are, you would be working for a large firm with unlimited resources.

What if you feel like you do not have the time to learn about expensive programs and acronyms like DM, KM, and CRM. So what if you can’t remember the file your law partner had that was just like the trip and fall you got in yesterday?

There is no reason why small law firms can’t enjoy the same organization and recall for their work product as the big firms. Whether you start using the tools you already own in a different way, install free or low-cost solutions, or invest in a dedicated program, you can retrieve exactly the information you need, quickly and efficiently. So what are you waiting for?
Face it. All we have to sell is time and knowledge. In theory, at least, the more knowledge we have the less time it should take us to get work done for our clients. Knowledge management, or KM, includes document management but it is more. Most law firms have some system for finding documents that are capable of repetition. Some attorneys file copies in a drawer and others have a “Forms” folder on their computer. Some forms folders are broken down by document type, or by subject matter. Filing in a drawer means walking to the file cabinet and thumbing through all the complaints until you find the one you’re looking for. Saving files to a computer file cabinet isn’t much different, except you get to stay in the chair. E-mailing to your partners, or posting to a listserv, is really convenient only for you.

Managing documents is important. But documents don’t capture knowledge, except in the limited sense of our work product. We need to save and retrieve what we know about other lawyers and expert witnesses. Which lawyer habitually hands up a memorandum when the motion hearing begins? How do we recall circuit judges’ preferences, like district judges’ that are posted on the Internet? Likewise, we need to remember techniques for trial and deposition. The stab in the dark on the defense engineer’s qualifications that hit the mark? It might keep him out altogether the next time around. The damages argument I read about, or saw in a CLE, or watched another lawyer make to the jury? How can I make sure to remember it for the next trial?

Finally, our most important asset is our goodwill with clients. We can take care of the little things, like spelling their names right and sending their mail to a new address right after we learn about it. What about other things? Who goes ballistic when we send lawsuit-related papers to the house where his ex-wife lives? Who was so grateful for the Christmas card that she wrote us a thank-you note? Managing our relationships with our clients is a very different subset of knowledge management, but it’s no less important than managing documents or judges’ preferences.
I’ll explore ways we can collect and retrieve—and share with our law partners and associates—all this information in future newsletters. Next time, we’ll look at a few simple ways to find that Word or Acrobat document from the case we tried four years ago.

Dixon Robertson works for homeowners whose homes don’t work the way they should. From shoddy construction to defective building materials, he has represented hundreds of individuals and a class of 8000 homeowners to resolve their claims and win them relief for their building problems. He practiced solo for nearly thirteen years before joining McGowan, Hood & Felder last year. When he isn’t working for clients, he studies the management side of a law practice, particularly how computers can make life easier for solo firms and small firms. You can reach Dixon in our Columbia office at (Toll free 1-877-644-6400).

The attorneys at our firm work closely with referring attorneys to bring a case to successful resolution. The attorneys in our firm who litigate complex cases are constantly updating their education and ability to litigate these types of cases. Dixon Robertson of McGowan, Hood & Felder has helped to litigate many cases that involve construction litigation. Dixon Robertson is available for consultation by email at DRobertson@mcgowanhood.com or telephone (Toll free 1-877-644-6400).

Please visit our website at mcgowanhood.com for comprehensive information on construction defect litigation.

Very truly yours,

McGowan, Hood & Felder, LLC

W. Dixon Robertson, 1517 Hampton Street, Columbia, SC 29201