Top tips on setting up a knowledge network from scratch

Dee Tamlin and Helga Butcher helped create a support network of project professionals in the legal sector. Here, they give their advice on how to set up your own if you find yourself in an industry new to the project profession.

Legal project management is coming of age, but the discipline is still in its early stages. In recent years, a cohort of professional legal project managers has started to emerge, but practitioners around the world are still grappling with what best practice looks like, how to measure success and how to demonstrate value to clients of law firms and the business associated with in‑house legal teams.

But first, it might be helpful to clarify what legal project management is. While many people think it is managing projects in a law firm to keep the law firm working (e.g. software upgrades, new office openings), legal project management actually deals with the judicial process in relation to client instructions to solve business challenges. For in‑house legal and legal operations teams, it means solving legal challenges for the business.

The Legal Project Management Network has been set up through the collaboration of a group of law firms, including Ashurst, Baker McKenzie, Clifford Chance, Pinsent Masons and White & Case, and Barclays. We are both part of the steering group. With this experience under our belts, our advice in relation to setting up a network starts with treating the set‑up like you would any project. As the saying goes, failing to plan is planning to fail, so if you want to deliver something by a certain date, wrap it up in a project.

1. Get senior management buy‑in

Academic research is abundant on the importance of getting sponsorship and buy‑in from the most senior people in your organisation. You will need to have a business case demonstrating how your project aligns with organisational strategy. A business case doesn’t always need to be a lengthy written document; it may just be clarity on what the business drivers are to support your venture.

2. Get collaboration approvals

If you are collaborating with other organisations in your sector or cross‑sector, determine whether people require approval from their organisation to be involved, as this can be time‑consuming to obtain.

3. Clarify roles and responsibilities

Ensure a project manager is appointed and clarify the roles of all people on the steering group and wider project team. Typically, when setting up a knowledge network, people on the project team will be doing this off the side of their desks. The workload therefore needs to be shared and people must not be overloaded. It’s advisable and sometimes necessary to rotate roles, like the project manager, from time to time. Be prepared to be flexible and plan ahead for these changes.

4. Have clarity of goals

Ensure everyone on the project team understands the goals. Have a mission statement, understand the purpose of your network and detail the high‑level deliverables early on.

5. Forget commerciality

One of the key principles underpinning a successful network launch is to keep it strictly non‑commercial, not for profit. Clearly state these goals as part of your mission statement and in your communications. Discourage organisations or individuals with commercial interests from diluting your network’s mission.

6. Create a high‑level timeline

It is useful to consider what your timeline to launch may look like. While there will be a lot of early engagement and excitement in setting up the network, it is important to understand how you are going to harness that enthusiasm over a long period of time. Small incremental gains are a useful way to progress.

7. Establish a meeting cadence

People are busy so ensure you are organised when steering group meetings and other project meetings are going to take place, and get them diarised. This is especially important when collaborating with people from different organisations.

8. Agree communication planning and marketing

Communication planning for the project team is essential, but agreeing how you are going to market your network, whom you are going to market it to, and when, is key. To engage with people, little and often has proven successful.

9. Track actions

So often, we attend project meetings and they end up being a talking shop. The project manager should make a note of all actions and these should be shared with the project team, either through a collaboration portal or simply by email. Actions should contain the task, who is responsible and when it should be completed.

10. Nail down technology

If tech is going to be used, identify what tech, the cost of licences and who has the skills to own it. Also, if there is a change of people in the project team, understand what the tech contingency may be.

11. Create a handbook

Draft a handbook containing key information about the network, such as its purpose, goals, who is on the steering group and other roles, e.g. champions.

12. Give everyone a voice

Seek advice, guidance and ideas from lots of people in different roles and at different stages of their careers. Diversity of thought brings better solutions. Consider involving a professional body or education provider.

13. Share knowledge

Capture the knowledge you want to make available to your network. You can do this on a collaboration platform or in the form of documents which can then be shared with the wider network, e.g. via social media posts. Factor in discussion and review time of the content before it’s ready for sharing.

14. Make knowledge accessible

Consider offering interactive versions of your content and knowledge. We used the Bryter platform to create an online version of the Legal Project Management competency framework. Events are a great platform for launching and discussing content.

15. Secure resources and budgets

You’ll need to rely on your steering committee members’ organisations to support the network launch by providing specialist resources, e.g. designers, email marketing, venues.

16. Have fun

Creating a knowledge network in your chosen field can be great fun and can lead to excellent knowledge exchange, learning and sharing best practice. The network may want to meet for a breakfast or lunch meeting. Ensure variety in your network activities, e.g. written material, the opportunity to network in person, hybrid events, panel events, etc. Remember to celebrate milestones and successes!

Listen to Dee and Helga on the APM Podcast

Dee Tamlin is Director of Legal Project Management at White & Case and Helga Butcher is Head of Client Solutions at Ashurst Advance.