A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a topic dear to my heart - whether law firms are investing enough time and effort in precedents: http://blog.lawhawk.nz/blog/does-your-law-firm-use-precedents.

This week, in the 6th set of questions, I want to look at another core area where an established law firm should be able to provide additional value and benefits to their clients beyond what others can: the legal opinions that the firm's lawyers give on a daily basis. 

6   Can you show us your opinions database? How many opinions are in it? How is it managed and maintained?

Besides precedents, opinions were the other area I have really focussed on in my knowledge management efforts because I think it’s a massively untapped asset for many firms.

While the trends internationally still seem to be towards big firms consolidating to become even bigger firms, I generally believe that the advantages in the future will lie with smaller and more agile firms. Cloud technology is such a leveller – even a small firm will soon be able to access many of the same powerful systems that big firms can. As a result, some of the best lawyers in big firms will be tempted to leave and set up smaller, more focussed, firms. With a low cost structure, and a focus on particular areas of the market (less constrained by geography than before), I think these smaller firms can do very well.

If there is one key advantage that big firms could have, I think it should be in the existing IP that they have in the substantial amount of advice they have already given. These are often specific pieces of advice which are not just summaries of the law (or at least they shouldn’t be) but rather how it applies in a specific practical context.  I often found reading these types of opinions more valuable for learning than generic articles. 

Not only does this prior work help the law firm to better understand the material issues of you as a particular client, but it also helps them to understand the issues that could affect the industry. Instead of waiting for you to experience an issue and instruct them, they should be able to proactively approach you about risks and opportunities you have not even thought of yet.

When you want an update of earlier advice you have been given or to know if a firm can advise on a new issue, the ability to quickly draw on earlier opinions is valuable. A firm could hopefully give you a fixed quote, a guaranteed turnaround, and an assurance that the advice given would be high quality and consistent with other advice the firm had given. The firm’s insurers should love this too!

Yet I believe many firms do not have an effective opinions database, and many lawyers seem to be reluctant to contribute their advice into a system where others can more easily find it.

It’s relatively easy for you to ask:

• Do you have an opinions database?
• How do you ensure that when you are giving advice to us, you are building on any existing resources you have, so that you are not re-inventing the wheel or we are receiving different advice depending on which individuals are working on the file?
• How do you store and maintain our advice in particular, so that if we want you to find some earlier advice you have given us, you can do that quickly?

We will set out further questions clients can ask their lawyers over coming weeks.  If you would like access to all 13 questions now, please download this PDF ebook now.