Legal Knowledge Management

Abstract

Legal practice is primarily concerned with the transfer of legal knowledge from practitioners or clients. Whilst lawyers may draft contracts and make representations on behalf of their clients, their primary task is to advise their clients on appropriate remedies and courses of action. Rodríguez Morcón, Pérez García, and Sigüenza Pizarro Rodriguez (2002) claim that a lawyer sells what he knows, often in the form of a document (a contract, an opinion, a report) and much more often in a trial before a court or in a negotiation with a counterpart. Khandelwal and Gottschalk (2003) claim that lawyers can be defined as knowledge workers. They are professionals who have gained knowledge through formal education (explicit) and through learning on the job (tacit).