TECH SUPPORT
The knowledge management
Smart search tools offer easier
and faster ways for finding that needle in the haystack.
BY GERRY BLACKWELL S
robot
oon after John Gillies began his tenure as director of practice support at Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP in 2007, he orga- nized a series of focus groups in which lawyers could vent
about obstacles preventing them doing their jobs "efficiently and effectively." "We heard about a range of things," Gillies says. "But at the
top of the list was the huge difficulty — if not impossibility — of finding documents in the document management system." It's a familiar enough complaint, especially in firms this size
and bigger. Cassels Brock has over 500 staff, just under 200 of them lawyers. The firm implemented Interwoven (now owned by Autonomy) as its document management system (DMS) five years ago. The main repository today holds over four million documents. "If you knew the document number, you'd be able to find it," Gillies says of searching in Interwoven using its built-in
www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com JUNE 2009 21
ENRICO VARRASSO
