Collaboration is the key to success in nearly every case we work on. Capitalizing on expertise is something that is evolving every day.
Nicolle Stefanelli
Director of Knowledge Management
Breaking the silos
The sharing mindset is extremely important to large legal offices such as Lowenstein Sandler, says Kristin Taylor, Partner at the organization.‘We emphasize collaboration among our colleagues and with our clients. We always want to ensure that institutional knowledge isn’t trapped in the heads of a limited number of people or siloed within groups but instead shared in a broader community of colleagues and clients.’That knowledge was locked in Lowenstein Sandler’s database management software for years, but like so many law firms, it was searching for a needle in a haystack when someone needed a specific clause.‘I was often frustrated at the amount of time and effort that had to go into finding the correct precedent or clauses’, Taylor says.
Always up-to-date
Law firms like Lowenstein Sandler are always onboarding new associates, who are not familiar with the legal lingo used by senior colleagues. Nicole Stefanely, Director of Knowledge Management at the organization, focuses on information flows within the company. ‘Although we do have offices in five locations, we consider ourselves one firm. Collaboration is the key to success in nearly every case we work on. Capitalizing on expertise is something that is evolving every day. For many years we used traditional methods like meetings, conferences and email. But now there are many tools, like Henchman, that allow us to share this knowledge more broadly. It helps tremendously with training and the overall success of our business.’
While precedents and work products are crucial to a law firm’s intelligence, knowledge encompasses much more than just these aspects. Stefanely: ‘There’s of course the institutional knowledge that lawyers build over years and years of practice. That needs to be shared with the upcoming generations.’Thanks to Henchman, everyone at the firm – including junior lawyers – can be sure that the language they get from the database management software reflects current best practices and is not outdated. ‘Not only am I able to insert the right clause for a particular use case, but I can also build and manage a curated list of current best practice languages over time. I often find that there is a nuance that I didn’t necessarily think of when I was drafting a contract or clause. It adds a great deal to my knowledge base. You can create your own personal database that you can use to train new associates to the correct models from day one. It’s a steep learning curve that a lot of legal associates face’, says Taylor.
100% Henchman
Lowenstein Sandler has always relied on its well-defined core values to achieve client amazement. Now, they are looking at technology more closely in this ever-changing market. It is a must for the law firm that has had an office in Silicon Valley for nearly 20 years. ‘Our clients, many of whom are in the tech sector themselves, expect us to be at the forefront of technology. We want to ensure that they know that we are taking it very seriously and are well positioned, says Taylor. Clients view tools like Henchman not just as an add-on but as an essential component of the services delivered by law firms in the future. Rather than serving simply as lawyers, legal experts have to act as trusted advisors.The decision to adopt Henchman was a natural one, driven by its unique advantages. Stefanely explains, ‘We evaluated numerous solutions, but only a handful offered the convenience of eliminating manual document tagging. With our vast document management system housing tens of millions of documents, the seamless implementation by the Henchman team was a game-changer.‘Henchman’s integration with Microsoft was a key indicator to choosing the tool, she says. ‘We wanted something right there where our lawyers and clients do their drafting. At the end of the day, they are the ones who will be using the tool. Although I practised for many years at this firm, and I know what technology would be a great fit here, I’m not using it on a day-to-day basis, and their opinion matters the most.’
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