LawPort is a Web-based knowledge management application and portal designed and built specifically for the legal industry. It represents a complete strategy, providing a unified approach to a firm's Intranet, secure client Extranets and the public Internet site. While LawPort is a web-based product that provides the foundation and features needed for the firm's Intranet, Extranets and the data repository and publishing tool for the firm external Web Site, it also provides a knowledge management framework, enabling lawyers to share experiences with their colleagues and to access the firm's intellectual capital. It has its own business logic, data warehouse, directory, publishing and display functions, and permits access to data held in other systems in the firm and when desirable, from third-party providers via the World Wide Web. LawPort was designed to allow bottleneck-free publishing to the three Web zones (Intranet, Extranet and Internet). This integrated strategy within a data-driven system avoids separated "islands of information" and permits a smooth and seamless Web strategy - reducing development, training, maintenance and frustration for the firm.
At the core of LawPort is its Legal Object Model, which provides the organizing glue between various data sources while also adding supplementary data as necessary to enrich the overall options for how information can be viewed and searched. The Legal Object Model is also accessible for firm customized applications, further extending the power of LawPort as an IT development platform for firms wishing to use their own staff for unique customizations.
Several essential objectives which address the unique requirements of law firms were key to its initial design of the product suite, and these objectives continue to guide our continuing development of LawPort.
LawPort is Structured to Mirror Law Firm Workflow and Procedures
Information is Provided in Context
Data Driven Strategy
Hassle-Free Publishing
Emphasize Ongoing, Transparent Data Collection
Integrated Web Strategy
Extensible System
LawPort is Structured to Mirror Law Firm Workflow and Procedures
Each practice group, administrative department, geographical office, client, matter and employee in the firm has its own view within LawPort. Information (and the way it is categorized) can be shared across views, because law firm practice groups and other departments are not autonomous business units. The legal foundation, the directory, the biography management system, legal experience, referrals and other LawPort features present information in a way that matches the way lawyers work and firms are governed. The LawPort taxonomy permits anyone to find the information they need by topic, industry, geographical area, document type, jurisdiction, or other customized categories.
Information is Provided in Context
Using LawPort, you can align your knowledge management strategy with your business goals. Empower your staff with knowledge that informs action. Management can leverage the “Firm View" of LawPort to emphasize firmwide practice and business goals. Each lawyer should have a "My View" area that can be customized with information of interest to that lawyer, with application launching capabilities. Each group of users (practice groups, administrative departments and offices) should have a view with information filtered for relevance to that group. Billing partners should have a view of data and documents organized by client and matter and that same data should be available when appropriate to clients or others via the Extranet if you decide to leverage that functionality.
Data Driven Strategy
A firm's Web strategy must be data driven, rather than consisting of a set of static web pages. This means that all metadata (descriptive information about content) must be structured within a database for easier management, searching and delivery. LawPort is data driven and dynamic: for example, as people come and go, as new client/matters are opened, as model documents are updated, appropriate data sources within the Intranet are automatically updated.
Hassle-Free Publishing
Content management should be simple and not require content managers to become web technicians. This means that your content owners will be able to add content without sending it back to your IT department, or otherwise depriving the system of valuable content because publishing is just too hard. LawPort accomplishes this goal with its Publishing Wizard, which steps the publisher through the creation, distribution and categorization of each item. Our Publishing Wizard helps you foster a culture of contribution, and is the antidote to “empty portal syndrome.”
Emphasize Ongoing, Transparent Data Collection
Your KM system should emphasize "hands-free" data collection. While LawPort does not eliminate the need for contribution by the lawyers and for view owners and content managers, we continue to extend the ways in which data from existing authority systems can be warehoused, categorized and presented within LawPort. Lawyers need information from the accounting, human resources, document management, contact management, litigation support, and third-party research systems, but do not have an easy way to access that information. LawPort aggregates information from diverse sources using the LawPort taxonomy. Lawyers access this information with minimal additional system logins, through the familiar point-and-click metaphor of the Web browser. Most of our clients have found little need for end-user training, because the system is so intuitive.
Integrated Web Strategy
The Intranet, secure client Extranets and the firm's public Internet site should not be separate systems, but instead should be one unified system, with rock-solid security and permissions management. A client, potential client or co-counsel with appropriate security rights should see the same data internal users see, not a copy of the data in an island of information outside the firm's firewall. You can avoid maintaining redundant and conflicting copies of the same documents and data, as part of a long-term web strategy rather than a short-term stopgap. The core LawPort architecture makes it easy to add Extranets that contain dynamic content, since content enrichment is part of the normal flow of information within the overall system. With this approach, adding external members and the client logo to an already existing Client/Matter View creates an Extranet without the burdens of separate development, training and support, an elminiated the risk that data will not be up-to-date or otherwise reliable. Similarly, the parts of the firm's public Internet site that change frequently should also be easily and automatically updated through the same tools and data sources within the system.
Extensible System
While it is powerful and comprehensive out-of-the-box, LawPort is delivered as a framework upon which custom applications can be built if desired. This enables firms with internal Web development resources to use them to build firm-specific applications, rather than focusing on building and maintaining the content management and data connectivity requirements common to most law firms. Firms with less aggressive goals can forego custom development entirely; those with more aggressive goals can have their developers focus on value-added applications and the customization of LawPort within the organization.