Experiences in creating an internal information service for lawyers

"I wanted to set up a meeting with a partner a few days ago but, for some reason, her assistant wasn't listed on our intranet. I couldn't figure out where else to get her information. Finally, a colleague told me, 'Oh, just email the Information Service. They'll find it for you.'"

Like many law firms, our intranet provides extensive resources to staff members looking for information - from the lunch menu through to details about travel to other offices, to locating lawyer expertise. But, because of the firm's scope and complexity, it's not always practical for busy lawyers to access relevant information themselves. In addition, as the firm becomes more global, many support functions have become increasingly centralised, leaving fewer local 'go-to' people on the ground, creating a need for a different process for finding information.

The result is the Information Service - a single email address, info@whitecase.com - created as a 'one-stop information shop' to link users with the information they need. Because our lawyers already use email extensively, a dedicated email service is a simple, seamless pathway. Employees can now send query requests, continuing their own work without interruption, while the staff of the Information Service find the answer.

We trained a small team of expert intranet users in Manila to research and respond quickly and accurately to queries sent to the service. Info@whitecase.com is covered 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by our Manila team who answer questions directly when possible, or refer them onward to the right expert within the field in the firm, when appropriate.

A cornerstone of the process has been extensive training to ensure the info team has a deep knowledge of the firm and its knowledge resources. Though all queries are asked and answered in English, one challenge we've encountered has been that the info team has had to learn to interpret queries within the context of the various cultures they come from, for example, needing to know the difference between a car service, a taxi and a car rental.

We launched the initial pilot with a select user group who we had try out the service. The info team prepared an answer for each question that came in during the pilot, then sent it to a committee made up of senior members of the knowledge team for review. This increased the response time during the pilot, of course, but it ensured high quality answers for the user and an additional training loop for the team.

The service was rolled out globally in phases. Because smaller White & Case offices have fewer local support staff members and thus were more likely to benefit from the new service, the rollout was aimed at these first. Info@whitecase.com has been live for over a year now, a perfect point for us to take stock of what's working and what's not. We've analysed individual feedback from data collected from our biannual survey and examined usage statistics.

We've found user satisfaction to be extraordinarily high. The data have been positive, showing time savings for our lawyers and other personnel, plus we've gained valuable insight into the kinds of information that are most sought after and which are hardest to find. This feedback has helped to guide our intranet team in the improvement and redesign of our intranet to more effectively meet user needs.

The service has been a winner for the knowledge department and the firm. It's simply easier and faster to have someone else find you the information you need, and it's our job to make that as easy and as fast as possible to do.