Both Steve Lastres, director of Library and Knowledge Management at Debevoise & Plimpton, LLP, and Austin Doherty, chief knowledge officer of Hogan & Hartson LLP, have for many years been respected members of the law librarian community. They have not just been contributors, but early "thought leaders" on the best practices of the legal resources profession. They have taken time to share some of their ideas regarding the issues driving today's legal information environment.
Managing Legal Resources
These are not just changing times but perhaps the most challenging times the legal industry has ever experienced. The practice of law has evolved into the business of law, and legal professionals have adapted in order to better serve their clients. Can you discuss how the state of managing legal resources has changed since you first entered the profession?
Austin: Cost has scaled up significantly in the transitioning economy of print and electronic resources. That has called forth critical judgment on real needs, hard decisions about the mix of materials, and vigilance in tracking utilization. Assuring copyright and license limitations are serious obligations. On the fun side, however, opportunities for truly interactive and creative engagement with high-value tools like West km® for Transactions have enabled us to make important contributions to our firms' capabilities.
Steve: Information assets are no longer just externally produced print and electronic subscriptions. Instead, those assets can include internal documents (precedents, models, and best-practice guides), value-added annotations to existing resources, RSS feeds, and a host of other assets far afield from the print collection that was previously the librarian's major focus.
Knowledge management as an evolution of traditional librarianship today means identifying business opportunities within a law firm; those opportunities result in helping lawyers practice more efficiently and effectively and providing superb client service. Library managers need to understand how lawyers work, not just anticipate their information needs. As director of the Library and Knowledge Management department, I oversee an evolving system that not only delivers traditional library services to our lawyers, but also embraces tools that can help our lawyers get more done in a day. Library managers must be alert to the organization's business as well as its information needs, and then figure out the best way to address them.
Establishing Guidelines for a Firm's Legal Resources
The economic reality of these times has senior management extracting large budget cuts from all firm resources. Librarians struggle daily with trying to retain scholarship while adhering to a firm's dictated parameter of cost. How do we establish the correct proportional guidelines regarding a firm's legal resources? Is it possible to establish a return on investment?
Austin: Three-plus decades of profound changes in information media have been challenging, to say the least. New forms of knowledge technology have presented the opportunity to reimagine and interpret our mission but, also, to measure it. If it is possible to derive ROI on an integrated set of print and digital resources, determining utilization is the first step. In that regard, we are fortunate to have tools at our disposal like SydneyPLUS and OneLog.
Steve: The availability of new tools to deliver and manage electronic content, Web 2.0 applications such as wikis and blogs, and knowledge applications such as work product retrieval, enable library managers to proactively manage projects, measure ROI, and easily report on their successes.
Handling Billable vs. Non-Billable Time
As firm leaders strive to manage and increase profits, they continue to look for new sources of revenue. Valuable firm time that is not spent being billed is questioned. With this in mind, could you comment on library staff billable vs. non-billable administrative time?
Austin: The facts must speak for themselves on this. Seventy of the 100 people in my department are timekeepers, functioning in the areas of research, legislation, intellectual property, practice support, and litigation support. As a group, their collections are a very handsome multiple of their compensation, but that doesn't render the remaining 30 persons marginal. Everyone is involved in providing critical support for the various modes of information-seeking behavior that characterizes the firm's practice areas. In our research and legislative units, carefully monitored internal data discloses a daily average of 75 transactions, many of which are billable, and many of which are satisfied in varying increments of non-billable time. All significant service activities are documented categorically as client-billable, pro bono, business development, reference, and administrative.
Steve: There has already been a seismic change in law librarianship. Librarians are becoming innovators and technologists, as well as content managers. Most librarians bring considerable technical savvy to their professional work. Librarians possess the skills and know-how to select the information resources that best fit with the practices they support, and are also managing and maintaining the best delivery platforms. At Debevoise, the library and knowledge management staff were merged to provide one point of access for all internal and external research needs and to improve practice support. As a result, we have a broader array of professional talent that possesses the following degrees: M.I.S., M.L.S., M.B.A., and J.D.
These professionals are expected to record and bill their time as they work on projects that contribute to the success of the firm. In addition to billable research, the staff supports the information, knowledge management, and research needs of our 32 practice groups and our firm committees (Diversity, Ethics, Hiring, Management, Pro Bono, and Summer Associate), as well as our administrative departments (Conflicts, Finance, Marketing, IS, Litigation Support, Office Management, Professional Development, and Recruiting).
In order to secure the necessary talent in the future, I am collaborating currently in the creation of a Knowledge Management certification program within the M.L.S. graduate program at St. John's University in New York. The mission is to equip M.L.S. students with the necessary skills to succeed in this complex information world.
Increasing the Librarian's Value
As stated before, in the past librarians have adapted to law firm changes, even reinventing themselves to better serve a firm's needs and goals. Are there other places in the firm besides competitive intelligence and knowledge management to prove our value?
Austin: I think that the educational choices of my two deputies may answer this question quite aptly. One's undergraduate degree is a B.S. in computer science and, during her tenure with our firm, she has added a master's degree in computer systems management with an emphasis on information resource management. The other has her master's degree in library and information science and is currently pursuing an additional master's degree in law firm management. I have no difficulty whatsoever envisioning one on a trajectory toward chief information officer/chief technology officer (CIO/CTO) status and the other toward the chief executive officer level.
Steve: Yes, there a number of other areas in which library managers might contribute. Besides roles as CIO, chief knowledge officer, or office administrator, I believe librarians possess the expertise to expand into the risk management and loss prevention arena. This emerging role encompasses developing and managing work processes and technology based on best practices in the areas of records management, conflicts of interest, and new business processing and risk management.
The World in 2020
Finally, you both bring many years of seasoned experience to our community. Can you share with us your vision of what our world will be like in 2020?
Austin: I really believe that application of the skills and values rooted in the librarianship tradition enhance the success quotient of technology innovations in the law firm environment. In an important sense, we represent the most fundamental form of knowledge methodology in the law: the mapping and utilization of authoritative resources. That approach to organizing experience, explicit or tacit in form, primary or secondary in nature, whether for purposes of trial or transaction, is something for which our aptitude and training prepare us and can be a powerful contribution to ordered and profitable efficiency.
Steve: Knowledge management will become more ingrained in standard legal practice. Librarians will be transformed into knowledge managers who will need to become experts in three specialized fields: librarianship, legal technology, and business management. Librarians will need to understand the technical possibilities, not just the nuts and bolts of the software, but also the business and research needs of the lawyers they support.
The changing environment is propelling librarians forward into a world in which they must adapt to new ways of thinking about the information over which they are stewards. This changing world means new opportunities for librarians as they redefine themselves as KM managers who create value for the firm by effectively managing the information for which they are professionally responsible.
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