Freshfields has long been regarded as a leader among law firms in knowledge management. A recent review of the role of professional support lawyers (PSLs) highlighted the amount of time spent by them on current awareness, in particular, producing legal updates for circulation within the firm. Freshfields decided to look for an external publisher to meet some of the current awareness needs of the corporate department in London.
Increased focus on proprietary and client-specific know-how
A large part of any internal current awareness service covers generic developments in law, regulation and practice that are not specific to one particular firm or its clients. Many firms carry out similar updating services using their own resources. However, these generic updates do not contribute to the unique reason why a client may choose one firm over another and could equally well be bought in from an appropriate external publisher.
The benefits of an external current awareness service should be that:
PSL and paralegal time spent in producing generic legal updates can be saved;
PSLs are able to focus on firm and client-specific know-how, and finding innovative solutions to new transaction problems, instead of routine information gathering and dissemination. Proprietary know-how makes a firm unique and is often hidden in people’s heads or on deal files; and
More PSL attention can be given to using know-how for marketing purposes and to making the practice more competitive.
Duplication
If an external current awareness service is delivered successfully, duplication in the following areas should be reduced significantly:
Duplication of effort where a number of people in a particular firm monitor the same outside sources;
Duplication of results - PSLs in different areas may report on the same update item, leading to duplication on the firm’s IT systems; and
Duplication of third-party providers, many covering the same ground with variable quality.
What is necessary for project success?
Underpinning the Freshfields project has been the need for a reliable and comprehensive service, covering substantially all aspects of current awareness that might be required by Freshfields’ London corporate lawyers. Project success is ultimately dependent on establishing a system that:
Identifies and prioritises all relevant source material, summarising all developments relevant to the corporate practice and providing practical comment;
Effectively eliminates the time that Freshfields PSLs spend on basic review of source materials (scanning journals, checking websites and reviewing newsfeeds) and producing and distributing basic level summaries of new developments;
Provides a direct feed of information from the supplier to fee earners without the need for editing, publishing or formatting by Freshfields staff; and
Is in a form that can be reviewed quickly by PSLs (and other lawyers) to establish whether further detailed work is required to analyse the impact of a development on the department’s practice and clients.
Why PLC?
Freshfields chose PLC because:
PLC has an established track record in providing good quality corporate updates;
PLC is committed to the outsourced professional support model and intends to work in partnership with law firms in developing their know-how needs;
PLC has a team of experienced PSLs who are able to filter raw information and provide practical comment; and
PLC has developed sophisticated technology and is continuing to make a significant investment in this area.
Scoping exercise
Having won the tender, PLC has worked (and continues to work) closely with Freshfields to refine the scope of its service, including:
Corporate know-how topics to be covered;
Non-corporate areas that would need to be covered in so far as they could impact on the work of a corporate lawyer;
Sources to be reviewed on a daily basis;
The detail of coverage;
Types of development to be covered; and
The test for inclusion of a particular e-mail item.
Service obligations
PLC maintains an ongoing dialogue with Freshfields to ensure that the service meets its needs. For an initial period, there are daily consultations on the items to be reported in the e-mail. There are also weekly conference calls and quarterly relationship meetings.
Financial Services e-mail
The scoping exercise established that financial services practitioners require greater financial services coverage than is currently provided by the PLC Corporate e-mail. PLC has therefore established a separate Financial Services e-mail covering an extensive range of financial services developments (see www.practicallaw.com/A38125). Practitioners at Freshfields can choose to receive the PLC Corporate e-mail only (which covers financial services developments in so far as they are relevant to a corporate lawyer), or the more detailed financial services e-mail, or both.
Information delivery
The service is delivered via an e-mail that fee earners can choose to receive daily, weekly or monthly. The information is aimed at legally-qualified staff and is prefaced by a summary and then a detailed section. The detailed section includes background to the development, more detail on the changes, practical comment and hypertext links to sources and other helpful material.
Expected improvements and efficiencies
According to Julian Long, Partner:
“We have been working closely with PLC for some time to establish a current awareness product that meets the needs of our corporate fee-earners and does not compromise on quality. PLC is well qualified to help us achieve this end. We are confident this is the most efficient approach to current awareness, releasing experienced PSLs to focus more closely on the implications of legal developments for our practice and our clients.”
Client aspects
One of Freshfields’ requirements in relation to current awareness information supplied by PLC was that it could be included in its own current awareness programme for clients. PLC has agreed to this.
PLC has:
An established, good quality UK corporate current awareness service covering public and private mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, private equity and management buyouts, securities issues, markets and regulation, financial services, general company matters, commercial contracts, financial reporting, core contractual and legal concepts, corporate crime and fraud and developments in tax, competition, property, employment and intellectual property in so far as they are relevant to a corporate lawyer;
A large team of experienced and independent PSLs who are able to filter raw information and provide practical comment;
A large and expanding know-how bank of practice notes, standard documents, drafting notes and checklists that are updated on a daily basis by PLC editors to reflect changes in law, regulation and practice; and
Sophisticated technology that allows integration with a firm’s existing know-how systems. This includes the ability to download standard documents from our site directly into your house style (see www.practicallaw.com/a30700).
We can:
Review your firm’s current awareness requirements;
Propose improvements to your existing current awareness system and use the PLC service to meet your needs;
Work with your firm to ensure the service continues to meet your needs; and
Reduce the cost and improve the value of your professional support function.
If you are interested in discussing what PLC can do to improve your firm’s professional support, contact Guy Baring on 0207 202 1239 or by e-mail at Guy.Baring@practicallaw.com.