Information Management For You

 

Well, you might refer to them as a librarian, but these days the range of responsibilities goes way beyond the printed word.  You have got a library?

 

Well, let’s start with your last point.  Increasingly, any complex works do take looseleaf form, and the one thing that needs to be prompt and precise is the inserts.  Otherwise, your fee earners risk relying on out-of-date information, and you risk being sued as a consequence.  Likewise, with those works which have an annual cumulative supplement, or have had subsequent editions published, I’ll bet you have some of the old ones still hanging about, so they could still be picked up and used by mistake.  But it goes beyond that.  For instance, how do people know what resources you have?

 

How much valuable time do they lose searching for works, either because someone else has temporarily taken them out, or because they aren’t kept centrally at all, but spend most of their lives on one person’s shelves?  I’ll bet you don’t keep a record of what’s been taken, do you?

I thought so!  And, what’s more, I’d be fairly sure that you haven’t got all works catalogued anyway – that is to say all that the firm has, not just in the central library but throughout the building.  So if you’re looking for a numbered volume from a standard series you might be able to tell from the book that it’s gone; but if you’re hunting for something on an unfamiliar topic you won’t even know what should be there in the first place.

 

 

But these days it’s not just books, is it?  You’ve got to think of all the electronic resources as well.  You’ll have some works on CD; some on the network; and some available through on-line subscriptions.  How do you control those?

 

 

That’s all very well if all partners are of one mind, but you know as well as I do that that isn’t often the case.  What a lot of firms end up with is some partners who are happy to do their drafting, say, from on-screen resources; and others who still have to have the book in front of them.  What you end up with there is both being bought, so you’re paying twice for the same basic resource.  And again, the problem is that people don’t know what you have got.  Your partner Tom told me the other day that he’d taken out a fairly expensive subscription to an excellent database, which he was using for one area of work.  When I asked him what he’d done to let everyone else know that there was now paid-for access to this, and that the database covered a lot of topics in addition to that which interested him, he confessed he’d never even though of doing so.

 

 

Well, for a start, you should find someone to look after all this who will actually understand what’s involved.  They really need to know what each book or other resource can do, and that means understanding what it means.  Increasingly, it is being recognised that an experienced person in this role soon becomes a vital part of the fee earner support team, and can save many hours of chargeable time.

 

 

The first thing you should be doing is to rationalise what you’ve got, and your ordering process.  That means that you should produce a complete catalogue of what you have got, or have got access to.  You’ve got to know where you’re starting from.  Then you have to make sure that only a very limited number of people can order new purchases, and that those orders then either go through the Information Manager, or that they are invariably told in advance about the order, so they can step in to prevent unnecessary duplication.  They also need to know about the later arrival of the work.  They can then up-date the catalogue.  They can also do some tidying up by getting rid of out-of-date works, and by correcting or replacing anything that has gone wrong, like the messed-up looseleafs you were talking about, so that you now you can rely on what’s in the catalogue.  Also, of course, they can keep an eye on the signing out of works, and note where they’re being taken, so that the catalogue always shows the correct location, e.g. in the library; temporarily borrowed by one fee earner, or kept on the shelf of another.

 

 

If you make it readily available to people, and they know they can rely on it, then it can be extremely useful.  Imagine the time you can save in not hunting round the office for a work.  If you put it on the firm’s intranet, or if you haven’t got one then just on the network as a read-only document, then everyone can have access to it without leaving their desk.

 

Same principle really.  If it’s something tangible like a CD, then it can be treated just like a book.  If it’s an on-line service, then details can be given as to its scope, how to access it, and any cost implications there may be.

 

 

I don’t think so.  We’ve only talked so far about what you might call the passive part of the job.  There’s a lot else to be done as well.

 

 

What you’ve got to remember is that the pace of development of the law is a lot faster than the speed of publication of any substantive works, even if they are on-line.  There can be an interval of at least months, and often years, between the passing of a new piece of legislation, or the delivery of a radical judgment, and anything appearing about it in the major or even specialist works.  So the Information Manager’s job is to help you keep on top of those developments in the interim, and ensure the right information gets to the right people, so you avoid any claims, or any defeats because the other side turns out to be more up-to-date than you.

 

Sure there is, but I’ll wager your next month’s drawings that if I were to go round every room in your office I’d find a lot where there is simply a pile of Gazettes in the corner, still in their plastic wrappers, which will build up until eventually everyone gets fed up with it and someone throws the lot out!  The problem doesn’t stop there, though.  Let’s say you personally take a specialist periodical for those in your work area, and also the New Law Journal for general interest.  What do you do if you spot something in the former that’s relevant for someone else in your department, or an item in the latter that may not be pertinent at all to you and your team, but could be very interesting to a partner in an entirely different discipline.  Do you religiously make sure you notify them of that?

 

That’s the point.  The Information Manager can fill that gap.  With general periodicals or newswires, which of course can include things like the daily bulletins on judgments and The Times Law Reports, they can go through them, extract what may be of interest to anyone in the firm, and do, say, a weekly list of points of interest tailored to each department.  They don’t have to try and replicate what’s come in: they just have to give sufficient of a flavour for the fee earner to know whether the piece is going to be of use to them or not, and a clear indication of where it can be found.  For the specialist input, they can try to ensure that everyone gets a sight of whatever periodicals, newswires etc may be of interest; and if there is anything in particular to be circulated as a result of your spotting it, you just have to tell them and ask them to deal with it.

 

 

I think that’s right.  It doesn’t have to be a qualified lawyer, of course, but it does need to be someone who knows their way round legal publications and resources of all sorts, and understands what may be of importance to the firm’s work.  That’s why, as I say, it is becoming recognised as a position of some importance and status.  And it can lead into other areas, such as training.

 

 

Well, the Information Manager will know what resources are being frequently accessed, and may be able to identify that some people have gaps in their information which could more efficiently be filled by a training method than by sporadic use of library resources.  They will also be able to spot where the firm is straying into uncharted waters, as specialisms develop, and if they have a good knowledge of what’s on the market, they may be able to suggest what could be acquired to support the new venture.  They can also help with the cataloguing, storage and dissemination of training materials.  I know you try to get those who have been on training course to do a presentation, or at least a note, of their new knowledge; but I also know it doesn’t always happen.  Let’s face it, you spend a lot on training, and the least you can do to maximise the benefit of that spend is to ensure that everyone knows who has been on what course etc., and where the necessary notes can be accessed.  Often, training materials are absolutely cutting edge stuff, and just as important as periodicals in making sure everyone’s bang up to date.

 

 

Certainly.  How about your internal documents?  For a start, I dread to think how much you pay various members of the Bar every year for their learned Opinions; but equally I’m sure that you haven’t yet established a central copy of all such Opinions, duly catalogued as to subject matter, so that anyone who has a problem can identify whether an Opinion has already been taken by a colleague, and find it even though the file has been put away, thus avoiding re-inventing the wheel.  And what about your standard precedent library?  I know you’ve tried to centralise that, but have had problems with getting standard versions agreed as people just haven’t had the time.  That’s just the sort of thing a good Information Manager can make happen for you.  They may even, depending on experience, be able to carry out some research for you.  I know it may appear to be an expense, but if you think of the savings in time, increases in efficiency, and reduction in claims risks, I think you may find a considerable net benefit.