Knowledge sharing to benefit employees, clients at DC law firm

Prominent Washington D.C. law firm Dickstein Shapiro Morin & Oshinsky LLP is embarking on a knowledge-sharing initiative to empower employees and strengthen client relationships.

Dickstein Shapiro Morin & Oshinsky employs 230 attorneys, focusing on complex dispute resolution, corporate & finance, litigation, legislative & regulatory affairs and technology.

"We have many information sources we need to access, and the files are in several different formats," including Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange, information from Web sites and other file systems, according to Keith Berkland, the firm's applications development manager.

By summer's end the firm will have rolled out PC DOCS' DOCSFulcrum across its intranet, making accessible hundreds of thousands of litigation documents containing the collective knowledge of its attorneys, paralegals, partners, and administrators. Eventually the system will be extended to clients, helping the firm better serve and strengthen relationships with its customers, added Berkland.

This knowledge-sharing initiative is part of an evolving trend among law firms, from keeping knowledge in private folders to sharing knowledge for the benefit of the whole firm, noted Kim Sbarcea, knowledge manager at Australian law firm Phillips Fox