Knowledge sharing between lawyers : perceptions on knowledge sharing and reuse.

• Main Author: Norainni Abdul Rahman.
• Other Authors: Lee Chu Keong
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: DRNTU::Library and information science::Knowledge management
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/50493
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The legal industry is a knowledge intensive industry. In September 2007, the Ministry of Law issued the “Report of the Committee to Develop the Singapore Legal Sector”. Apart from making recommendations to make Singapore a regional centre for legal education, the Report also set out the legal practice andscape at that time. Some of the recommendations include allowing foreign law firms to practice Singapore law in Singapore, thus making the competition landscape more challenging for local law firms. In the past few years, larger local law firms have been making a tremendous amount of investment in expensive document management systems with the objective of making knowledge sharing more prevalent and de rigueur in their business processes. Nevertheless, knowledge managers are still dissatisfied with the lack of support they receive from their colleagues, practicing lawyers, in contributing into these document management systems. This study is to learn about the reasons for this perceived lack of interest; and the questions the study hoped to resolve are: the perceptions of lawyers with regard to knowledge sharing; the factors that shape those perceptions and the encouragement that will increase the amount of knowledge sharing in the law firms. Utilising one-to-one in-depth interviews of seven research participants who are working within the legal industry and supported by a literature review of knowledge sharing within other industries, this study captured some candid responses from the participants; and the solution to enhancing knowledge sharing may not be in “hardware” but in software, mainly social capital and personal human interaction.