Periodic updates by lawyers prepared on a collective, online document

One general counsel I know asks the senior lawyers to contribute an update about their group’s activities from the previous two weeks to a document that is collectively available for editing by everyone.

A few precatory guidelines exist for how to contribute to the online collected document. Mostly, however, the style and depth of treatment is left up to the lawyers. It has evolved into a somewhat formulaic structure and format, but everyone can see what others have written and can contribute as they see fit. The technique resembles a wiki, because everyone can edit it (See my post of March 26, 2008: wiki for knowledge management at Cisco; Dec. 9, 2005: Cornell’s legal wiki; Feb. 12, 2006: predicts wikis between law departments; March 17, 2006: wikis generally; May 17, 2006: wiki-law.org; March 9, 2007: Legal OnRamp; and March 20, 2007 #1: Lucent’s law-department wiki; March 16, 2008: Web 2.0 and wikis.).

This creative use of technology for status reports allows for faster distribution and no collation and editing (See my post of Aug. 1, 2006: status reports and their drawbacks.). It also creates an electronic record of the law department’s accomplishments.