Two years ago, McCarthy Tétrault, Canada's largest law firm, embarked on an ambitious knowledge management (KM) initiative. Prior to this time, the firm had not focused much attention on KM. Like many large U.S. firms, they found that enlisting the participation of the lawyers who would create and validate knowledge content was a daunting challenge.

To ensure the success of KM, McCarthy's management realized that they needed not only the right system and the right set of practices, but also the right participants. An exhaustive evaluation of off-the-shelf KM software convinced the firm that none of the existing products had the combination of components they needed to address the reality of the firm’s needs, culture and way of practicing law.

Instead, McCarthy and their technology partner, ii3, decided to design, develop and deploy a customized KM system for the firm's 800 lawyers. This was the only way to match their unique vision of KM with the realities of the firm and the specific functionality needed. To turn their unique vision of KM in the practice of law into reality, senior partners George Takach and Gary Girvan hired two lawyers with a passion for KM. John Gillies and Joshua Fireman (McCarthy's Knowledge Directors), were charged with specifying the software's functional requirements and developing a plan that would ensure KM was successfully deployed throughout the entire firm.

Two years after beginning the deployment, McCarthy is approaching full adoption of their KM system across all seven practice groups and nine geographic locations. With 61% of associates and 28% of partners actively using KM as their knowledge source, McCarthy has created a definitive knowledge and know-how framework that is the envy of its competitors.

The McCarthy experience is a lesson in how KM initiatives can be aligned with a firm's business goals, how it can leverage partner priorities, and how it can work with a firm's practice structure. Especially important to the success of the initiative is a best practice example of how to overcome the frequently expressed perception that KM delivers few results and takes an excessive amount of lawyers time. The McCarthy team successfully established an approach that combines easy-to-use software with a process of educating and persuading lawyers and management that relatively small investments of time can have a positive and profitable pay-off efficient and effective access to the firm's collective experiences and know-how.

At this webinar you will hear Joshua Fireman tell the story of his team's journey to leverage McCarthy's belief in excellence and success. Joshua will share how and why a large law firm was able to overcome its resistance to the effective management of its knowledge assets. The initial resistance has disappeared, and KM is now an effective tool for the firm, like many other technology-based activities – using email, managing documents, or surfing the Web – it's the way the firm does business.

Presenter: Joshua Fireman | Knowledge Director, McCarthy Tétrault Moderator: Shy Alter | President and CEO, ii3 inc.

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Developed by ii3, AdvanceKnowledge solves the problem of capturing, easily accessing and effectively applying the firm’s best know-how. AdvanceKnowledge can seamlessly “plug” into your firm’s portal or Intranet.