Law Department Management Blog
An article in the Harv. Bus. Rev., Vol. 85, March 2007 at 115, lays out a framework for human capital management (See my posts of May 11, 2007 with the first 9 practices and May 28, 2007 with the final 14; as well as June 10, 2007 on Leadership; and June 11, 2007 on Employee Engagement.). Here are my references and comments on the practices under category three, “Knowledge Accessibility”:
1. Availability: “Job-related information and training are readily available.” (See my posts of Jan. 20, 2006 on mandatory CLE; May 10, 2005 on reimbursement of CLE expenses; May 1, 2005 on the obligation to disseminate CLE training; July 14, 2005 on a spectrum of training methods; April 13, 2006 on antitrust training at Philips; April 15, 2006 on role play as a method to train; May 7, 2006 about financial literacy training; March 9, 2007 on how to evaluate training; March 24, 2007 regarding paralegal training; and May 24, 2007 as to outside counsel who provide CLE training.).
2. Collaboration: “Teamwork is encouraged and enabled” (See my posts of Nov. 8, 2005 on HR and teamwork; and Dec. 18, 2006 on assessment of teamwork.).
3. Information sharing: “Best practices are shared and improved.”
4. Systems: “Collection systems make information easily available” (See my Category, “Knowledge Management.”).
All of the actions are internal, so there is no recognition of how to learn from law firms (See my post of June 28, 2006 on this and other contributions; and Feb. 25, 2007 about law firm training of in-house counsel.). Too, the emphasis in No. 4 is on collection, whereas there are also knowledge distribution systems, such as document assembly software and intranets.