Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/12204
In a fixed fee matter, the client pays a set amount for a matter, regardless of the amount of time or effort the law firm expends. Project work is a variation of that approach, but encompasses only part of a larger matter. A firm might charge a set amount for a set number of depositions, or for drafting a particular document or set of documents in a deal, and handle other aspects of the work under the billable model or perhaps under another type of fee arrangement. Under many AFAs, such as risk collars, project work and especially fixed fee work, a law firm bears some or all of the risk of going over budget, but the firm can also benefit from these arrangements. On a fixed fee matter, for instance, cost decreases go directly to the bottom line (translating to increased profit or, at worst, a reduced loss). With significantly lower costs of producing the legal work, a firm can also charge less even under traditional approaches and still make a profit. Knowledge management may be most valuable for those matters that are most similar to fixed fees. TARGETED KM Knowledge management tools focused on a particular type of work can bring great rewards but also significant costs and risks. Such targeted efforts should be made strategically, supporting the engagements and the discrete components of engagements where increased efficiency will bring the greatest rewards. It may be that a firm will have a firmwide strategy for addressing AFAs. Targeted knowledge management efforts should align with those strategies as they do with other firmwide strategies. KNOWLEDGE COLLECTIONS One core knowledge management function has been to develop sets of checklists, forms, models, exemplars, 34 Knowledge Management ILTA White Paper samples and links to key external resources that relate to a particular legal topic. Such knowledge collections are more useful if they are detailed and granular, but more detail adds to the creation and maintenance challenges. Knowledge management workers can assist with such collections directly (the “practice support lawyer” model). Knowledge management workers also can serve as “gate-keepers” to proposed additions to the knowledge collections. A third role is creating and maintaining the structures and business processes for other lawyers to contribute to the same. Knowledge collections enable attorneys to work faster and more efficiently by showing how others have previously done similar work and by creating a standard approach or approaches to particular challenges. Forms and checklists, properly used, also serve as a quality control, ensuring that at least the common challenges for a particular type of agreement or civil procedure are addressed regardless of the level of experience of the person using that tool. If sufficiently detailed and thoughtful, knowledge collections enable firms to push the work down to a more junior, and hence lower-cost, provider, while maintaining the low risk and high quality of a more senior attorney. The previous work of the more senior attorneys can be leveraged multiple times. Risks of such collections include: not obtaining and maintaining consistent contributions; not ensuring that the resource is actually used when called for; and not tying the evaluation or compensation of the attorneys to their efforts in creating the valuable resource. DOCUMENT ASSEMBLY Document assembly is another tool that can let more junior attorneys leverage the know-how of more senior attorneys. Document assembly applications allow