Law Firm Knowledge

2011 ◽  
pp. 288-318
Author(s):  
Petter Gottschalk
Keyword(s):  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
Law Firms ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Legal Knowledge ◽  
Law Firm ◽  
Social Community ◽  
Firm Knowledge ◽  
The Creation

A law firm can be understood as a social community specializing in the speed and efficiency in the creation and transfer of legal knowledge (Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998). Many law firms represent large corporate enterprises, organizations, or entrepreneurs with a need for continuous and specialized legal services that can only be supplied by a team of lawyers. The client is a customer of the firm, rather than a particular lawyer. According to Galanter and Palay (1991, p. 5), relationships with clients tend to be enduring: Firms represent large corporate enterprises, organizations, or entrepreneurs with a need for continuous (or recurrent) and specialized legal services that could be supplied only by a team of lawyers. The client ’belongs to’ the firm, not to a particular lawyer. Relations with clients tend to be enduring. Such repeat clients are able to reap benefits from the continuity and economies of scale and scope enjoyed by the firm.

Knowledge Management in Law Firms

2011 ◽  
pp. 1818-1840
Author(s):  
Petter Gottschalk
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Law Firms ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Legal Knowledge ◽  
Law Firm ◽  
Social Community ◽  
The Creation

Law enforcement is of concern to law firms. A law firm can be understood as a social community specializing in the speed and efficiency in the creation and transfer of legal knowledge (Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998). Many law firms represent large corporate enterprises, organizations, or entrepreneurs with a need for continuous and specialized legal services that can only be supplied by a team of lawyers. The client is a customer of the firm, rather than a particular lawyer. According to Galanter and Palay (1991, p. 5), relationships with clients tend to be enduring:

Knowledge Management in Law Firms

2007 ◽  
pp. 252-282
Author(s):  
Petter Gottschalk
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Law Firms ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Legal Knowledge ◽  
Law Firm ◽  
Social Community ◽  
The Creation

Law enforcement is of concern to law firms. A law firm can be understood as a social community specializing in the speed and efficiency in the creation and transfer of legal knowledge (Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998). Many law firms represent large corporate enterprises, organizations, or entrepreneurs with a need for continuous and specialized legal services that can only be supplied by a team of lawyers. The client is a customer of the firm, rather than a particular lawyer. According to Galanter and Palay (1991, p. 5), relationships with clients tend to be enduring:

scholarly journals AI-enabled business models in legal services: from traditional law firms to next-generation law companies?

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Armour ◽  
Mari Sako
Keyword(s):  
Business Model ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Legal Profession ◽  
Law Firms ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Law Firm ◽  
Corporate Form ◽  
New Business ◽  
Employee Incentives ◽  
New Business Models

Abstract What will happen to law firms and the legal profession when the use of artificial intelligence (AI) becomes prevalent in legal services? We address this question by considering three related levels of analysis: tasks, business models, and organizations. First, we review AI’s technical capabilities in relation to tasks, to identify contexts where it is likely to replace or augment humans. AI is capable of doing some, but not all, legal tasks better than lawyers and is augmented by multidisciplinary human inputs. Second, we identify new business models for creating value in legal services by applying AI. These differ from law firms’ traditional legal advisory business model, because they require technological (non-human) assets and multidisciplinary human inputs. Third, we analyze the organizational structure that complements the old and new business models: the professional partnership (P2) is well-adapted to delivering the legal advisory business model, but the centralized management, access to outside capital, and employee incentives offered by the corporate form appear better to complement the new AI-enabled business models. Some law firms are experimenting with pursuing new and old business models in parallel. However, differences in complements create conflicts when business models are combined. These conflicts are partially externalized via contracting and segregated and realigned via vertical integration. Our analysis suggests that law firm experimentation with aligning different business models to distinct organizational entities, along with ethical concerns, will affect the extent to which the legal profession will become ‘hybrid professionals’.

scholarly journals Disruptive Innovation Within the Legal Services Ecosystem

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald G. Billings ◽  
Douglas G. Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Systems Approach ◽  
Open Systems ◽  
Disruptive Innovation ◽  
Law Firms ◽  
Disruptive Technology ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Law Firm ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Multiple Case ◽  
Near Future

Many law firms have done little to address the opportunities and threats presented by potentially disruptive technology (DT), such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies that some law firm leaders use to address the potentially detrimental influences of DT on their organizations. The systems approach to management was employed as the conceptual framework. Data were collected from 6 participants at 2 international law firms with offices in California, using semi-structured interviews and organizational artifacts. Data were analyzed using inductive and deductive coding and thematic analysis, resulting in 4 themes: (1) recognizing the legal ecosystem and legal firms are open systems, but organizational subsystems often function as semi-closed systems; (2) acknowledging that while DT represents the most significant potential challenge in the near future, the immediate challenge is improving technology, which requires organizational adjustments; (3) recognizing the need for firms to invest more heavily in innovation generation activities; and (4) realizing the need for increased utilization of augmenting technologies, such as AI or ML, to streamline non-advisory outputs. The findings of this study suggest that, while DI may pose a moderate threat, there are also significant advantages to adopting DI as a formal aspect of organizational strategy. The results of this study may contribute to social change by outlining ways in which firms can lower costs to clients while increasing access to legal services for those in underserved communities.

Conferences, Communication and BIALL: a Whistle-Stop Tour of the 90s

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (02) ◽  
pp. 104-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Maher
Keyword(s):  
World Wide Web ◽  
World Wide ◽  
Text Message ◽  
Law Firms ◽  
Law Firm ◽  
Profound Impact ◽  
Working Practices ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Set Up

This was the decade of the IT office revolution which would have a profound impact on working practices within law firms, including the library. The first, and arguably biggest, change was the creation of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee in 1991. The first law firm website was set up in 1994, and by the end of the decade virtually all law firms were using this as the key way to present their offerings. The first text message was sent in 1992. In 1994 Amazon was founded, as a source for buying books! By 1996 we were able to organize our contacts and diaries on a PalmPilot. Google was founded in 1998.

Professional Innovation: Corporate Lawyers and Private Lawmaking

1993 ◽  
Vol 18 (03) ◽  
pp. 423-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Powell
Keyword(s):  
Law Firms ◽  
Shareholder Rights ◽  
Legal Knowledge ◽  
Study Case ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Established Firms ◽  
Corporate Lawyers ◽  
And Diffusion ◽  
General Service

Through an intensive examination of the development and diffusion of a new legal device—the shareholder rights' plan or poison pill—this article demonstrates the entrepreneurial, lawmaking role of corporate lawyers. This study case suggests that corporate lawyers may act as legal entrepreneurs, developing and promoting new legal devices and strategies on behalf of actual and potential clients. If affirmed by the courts, these devices or techniques are rapidly diffused thereby contributing to the creation of new legal knowledge. The creation and successful defense of the shareholder rights' plan led to both new caselaw and statute law. In this way, corporate practitioners contribute to the creation of new legal knowledge, suggesting a bottom-up approach to knowledge creation rather than the conventional top-down view. It is suggested that legal innovations like the shareholder rights' plan are more likely to be developed in newer firms than in established firms and in specialized firms than general service law firms.

Practice and Privilege: Social Change and the Structure of Large Law Firms

1981 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Organizational Structure ◽  
Firm Growth ◽  
Law Firms ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Law Firm ◽  
Theory Of Law ◽  
The Relationship

Despite dramatic changes in size and specialization, large law firms have remained remarkably unchanged in other respects. Introducing research on major Chicago law firms, this article examines how large law firms have changed so much by changing so little. It proposes a theory of law firm growth emphasizing the relationship between changes in the market for sophisticated legal services and changes in the approach law firms have taken to organizing their practices. The author discusses the organizational structure of large law firms, giving particular attention to the various roles that lawyers play in such firms. After speculating on trends affecting large law firms, he points to implications of these trends for law and social change.

Negotiating Status: Pro Bono Partners and Counsels in Large Law Firms

2022 ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Atinuke O. Adediran
Keyword(s):  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Vulnerable Populations ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Interview Data ◽  
Law Firms ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Law Firm ◽  
The Status ◽  
Pro Bono

Law firm pro bono work provides access to justice to low-income people and other vulnerable populations. The professionals that manage pro bono programs are at the forefront of that process. The limited available research on these professionals do not often distinguish lawyers from other managers or theorize about their status vis-à-vis other law firm lawyers. Yet the status of lawyers who are also managers of pro bono programs influences both their identities and the management and provision of legal services and advocacy. Drawing on original demographic and interview data, this article shows how law firm pro bono partners and counsels navigate their ambiguous roles and negotiate their status as lawyers and managers. I find that pro bono partners and counsels navigate their ambiguous roles by striving to be perceived as “real” lawyers, reframe their roles as business generators, conform to the billing culture, and establish a common identity. They also negotiate their titles and office spaces to raise their profiles. Gender inequality influences the negotiation of office spaces and the approval of pro bono matters. These findings have implications for lawyers who manage pro bono programs and the legitimacy of pro bono work.

Leveraging Human Assets in Law Firms: Human Capital Structures and Organizational Capabilities

ILR Review ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 671-691 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter D. Sherer
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Capital Structure ◽  
Business Strategy ◽  
Organizational Capabilities ◽  
Financial Capital ◽  
Residual Income ◽  
Law Firms ◽  
Law Firm ◽  
Leverage Ratio ◽  
Firm Knowledge

Partners in a law firm are the source of firm knowledge and hold claims to the firm's residual income; associates work for partners, acquire knowledge, and receive a fixed level of compensation. The author uses the ratio of associates to partners to measure the leveraging of human assets in law firms, which he likens to the leveraging of financial capital in other firms. Analyzing data on 312 large offices of law firms in 1991, he finds that this leverage ratio was related to business strategy, human resource management, and organizational structure. As an index of law firms' human capital structures, it also had important implications for organizational capabilities and firm competitiveness. For example, offices characterized by a rare and tightly controlled human capital structure had the highest billing rates, reflecting their capability of providing clients with services that deeply embody the knowledge of partners.

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