Knowledge Management Director

New York, NY

Summary

The Knowledge Management Director (KMD) oversees efforts to develop and promote solutions to share and retain institutional knowledge, providing added value to the firm and its clients. The KMD assesses firm systems, corresponding processes and new technologies to develop a strategic approach that promotes knowledge retention, a collaborative work environment and the efficient practice of law.

Responsibilities

• Oversee the KM lawyers in their collection and management of firm matter data, the collection of exemplars, and the development of governance procedures and quality controls in connection with the maintenance of KM systems and repositories.
• Manage and provide strategic direction to KM lawyers and staff in connection with large scale implementations of knowledge solutions and the migration and mapping of data and documents from historical legacy systems into centralized, user friendly and data driven successor platforms.
• Direct the KM lawyers and training staff in the refinement of associate curriculum and best practices for knowledge sharing.
• Under the direction of and with input from practice group leadership, defines, delivers and supports strategic plans that accelerate the capture and sharing of knowledge to improve attorney productivity and provide the client with a stellar customer experience.
• Partner with subject matter experts across practice groups and other key stakeholders who have distinct knowledge to create, classify and refine the firm’s knowledge management tools, processes and resources.
• Track the development of new enterprise search tools and evaluate the ability of these products to structure data and extract insights in determination of “What’s Market”.
• Collaborate with Practice & Client Solutions team in order to integrate applications and technology solutions into practice group workflows.
• Build rapport with operations teams to assist with departmental initiatives that could benefit from Knowledge Management support and collaboration.
• Gather, track and evaluate usage statistics to better understand adoption of new knowledge solutions and develop targeted outreach and training strategies.
• Champion idea/knowledge sharing, collaboration tools and effective use of technology as well as the successes of the Knowledge Management team to motivate partners, associates and staff members with a compelling vision.
• Develop strong vendor relationships that provide an ongoing information exchange and ability to shape the future of their products to align with firm needs.

 Requirements

• A minimum of 10 years relevant experience in the legal industry as well as 5 years’ experience working in a knowledge manager role in a professional services firm.
• Strong ability to solicit pertinent information, analyze issues and implement action plans and projects.
• Upper margin leadership and interpersonal skills necessary to manage, motivate and develop staff.
• Strong understanding of knowledge management principles, systems, processes, technology and best practices.
• Working experience with document management solutions.
• Highly developed verbal, presentation and written communication skills including the ability to communicate effectively with lawyers, firm personnel at all levels as well as the facility to cultivate strong working relationships with key stakeholders and strategic vendors.
• Exceptional planning, problem solving, organizational and time management skills to effectively implement multiple initiatives simultaneously.
• Acute attention to detail and impeccable follow through.