Practice Innovation & Knowledge Associate… at Crowell &… · London

Job Summary

The Practice Innovation and Knowledge Associate (non-practising) applies their substantive knowledge and experience in specified area(s) of legal practice to strategically advise and execute on practice innovation and knowledge management initiatives within the applicable area(s) of law. The Practice Innovation and Knowledge Associate acts as a liaison between the Practice Innovation team and assigned Department(s) and/or Practice Group(s), and manages Department and Practice Group-specific innovation and knowledge management initiatives, including identifying and curating key practice content, breaking down lawyer and paralegal workflows, leveraging intellectual capital to achieve business objectives of the Firm, identifying opportunities for innovation in legal practice that promote client value, and implementing change management strategies to drive adoption of innovative solutions.

For the avoidance of any doubt, this is a non-practising role.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Collaborates with the Firm's lawyers and operations professionals to assess relevant practice area innovation and knowledge needs, and conceptualizes how to achieve stated business objectives in order to deliver exceptional client service centered on value, cost-effectiveness, efficiency, transparency, and predictability;
• Works with the Practice Innovation team to initiate, scope, and manage practice innovation and knowledge projects, and help develop and implement modern knowledge delivery systems in the assigned practice areas, including systems driven by artificial intelligence and systems accessible by clients;
• Builds relationships with the leaders of the assigned Department(s) and/or Practice Group(s) to create alignment between their strategic objectives and innovation initiatives supporting those practices;
• Works with practicing lawyers and support professionals to implement innovative solutions in ways that reflect change management best practices and promote adoption;
• Works with Practice Management department to curate, manage, and make easily accessible “best of” work product precedents and other knowledge for relevant practice areas;
• Provides direct support to individual practitioners to assist them with overcoming barriers to implementing innovative solutions, including locating practice-related internal and external knowledge across innovation resources, developing effective prompting strategies to achieve desired AI outputs, and/or addressing client requirements with respect to the use of artificial intelligence;
• Monitors recent, relevant legal developments and current market practice developments and trends for the relevant practice, including with respect to the use of artificial intelligence, and keeps Associates and clients (via Firm platforms) informed of notable developments;
• Connects the dots across one-off emails in search of information to build out experience management resources and direct lawyers to such resources in a “just in time” manner;
• Identifies opportunities and recommend strategies to collect and leverage structured data from unstructured repositories and databases;
• Works with the Pricing and Legal Project Management team to collect data about matters and to train lawyers to use new technologies and workflows to actively manage their matters, document clearly-defined scopes and assumptions, and capture matter metadata in knowledge management systems;
• Works with external technology and service providers to scope and coordinate the automation of document-heavy processes;
• Works with early adopters and champions to implement innovative solutions more broadly in ways that reflect change management best practices and promote adoption;
• Scopes, tests, and recommends solutions to practice pain-points, including working with external technology providers to develop success criteria and set guidelines and commitments for Proof of Concept trials of innovative initiatives;
• Monitors the legal innovation landscape, to gain an understanding of how specific people, processes, and technology can solve legal practice challenges, and to bolster the business case for innovation initiatives; consistently and timely shares strategic insights; serves as a reliable source of legal, market and practical expertise, including in the areas of artificial intelligence and legal innovation more broadly as applied to law firms and the practice of law;
• Performs other duties as assigned or required to meet Firm goals and objectives;
• The Practice Innovation and Knowledge Associate will not perform client legal work.

Competencies/Skills

• Expert substantive legal knowledge and practice skills in the practice of law.
• Familiarity with the legal innovation and legal technology ecosystem preferred.
• An interest in artificial intelligence and its potential use cases in the legal profession.
• Advanced proficiency in researching and drafting legal documents and content relevant to assigned practice area.
• Advanced proficiency in legal research techniques and tools, including online legal research and analytics databases.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite applications.
• Expert knowledge of the workflows and the core needs of lawyers in the assigned practice areas.
• Knowledge of taxonomies, content management, database structure and theory.
• Knowledge of change management theory preferred.
• Familiarity with the business of law and relevant practices.
• Ability to work effectively, both independently and with others, in a cooperative, enthusiastic, and friendly manner to accomplish position functions and participate in team efforts.
• Strong business analysis skills, the demonstrated ability to exceed client expectations, and strategic thinking acumen; willing to ask questions where appropriate and guide others when required.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing, with lawyers and other professionals across the firm, clients, and service providers.
• Strong organizational and time management skills, priority setting, and problem solving, especially when responding to unanticipated business requirements.
• Demonstrated ability to organize and prioritize work to meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to provide quality client service to both internal and external contacts; requires sound judgment with respect to confidential and sensitive information.
• Proficiency with learning and adapting to new technologies.
• Strong working knowledge of Excel preferred.

Education

The position requires a Bachelor’s Degree and having held a practicing certificate within the jurisdiction for which they are applying for 3 years.

Experience

The position requires a minimum of three (3) years PQE, with increasingly responsible, practitioner experience in the practice of law, including client-facing work. Experience with knowledge management and / or legal innovation practices preferred. Experience with antitrust, government contracts, healthcare or other regulatory areas of law preferred. Experience as a practictioner working at a firm listed in The Lawyer top 100 strongly preferred.