In a recent post, I said individual lawyers have little incentive to contribute to KM efforts. Now, experienced law department consultant Rees Morrison confirms that in-house lawyers resist KM for this reason.
In Altruistic Information Sharing Doesn’t Happen: Intranets, Case Management Systems and Knowledge Management, Morrison writes that in-house lawyers “do not want to take the time to make what they know available to other lawyers.” He enumerates reasons why individual lawyers do not contribute and suggests that to do KM requires dedicated staff or an automated approach.
Motivating lawyers to do KM is what caused me to write several recent posts about clients paying for KM. If the economics and culture of doing KM fail in law departments as Morrison suggests, then it is not clear why they should succeed in a law firm. Food for thought.