Legal Knowledge Sharing

This week I found an article written by the librarian of a private law firm on the value of internal knowledge sharing to firms and how this can be achieved via an intranet. I liked this article for a couple of reasons. First, it emphasizes the value of knowledge sharing even in non-scientific environments. Second, it rags on the fad of naming things such-and-such-2.0, which I also happen to think is pretty stupid. But, I digress.

Eiseman's argument is based on two premises. First, that one cannot necessarily determine what knowledge will qualify as useful to share. The example he gives is that of employers not wanting comany wikis or other public fora because they fear an inundation of private knowledge such as restaurant recommendations. Eiseman points out, however, that many legitimate business functions occur in restaurants, so someone looking for a new place to take a client would benefit from that knowledge. Second, Eiseman argues that the entire organization can benefit by collectively sharing knowledge formerly possessed solely by specialists. His example for this is posting reference questions and their answers to a wiki instead of to a two person email. This is efficient, in that it (in theory) prevents repetition of the same questions. However, it also spreads general knowledge of specific legal situations throughout the entire firm, which will enable the various lawyers to better serve their clients rather than referring them to a second attorney.

Especially in a setting such as a law firm, user-generated content on the wikis (or other knowledge sharing apps... Eiseman discusses a couple) serves an essential role in knowledge sharing, as each firm partner, associate, and librarian will have an indvidualized body of expertise.

The one thing that I did wonder about from this article, is why limit knowledge sharing on the law to one's own firm. I suspect it is a mix of liability fears (only trust knowledge with a known provenance!) along with the competetive nature of the legal field. Although, an idealist might note that the more determinant a given legal situation is, the better off everyone operating within that field would be. (Obviously, I'd like to see a bit more legal knowledge sharing than via firm intranets...) All in all, though, I thought the article provided good perspective on the importance of knowledge sharing in non-scientific areas.