Jenni
Tellyn
CONSULTANT

My nearly 30 years in law firms have seen me train and practise as a debt capital markets and structured finance lawyer with Magic Circle firms (including spells at one of their “best friends” and an investment bank client) before spending 12 years as a knowledge lawyer and then in an innovation role at a large US headquartered global firm. Capital Markets is a discipline as much about market practice and managing deals over the line as about the law itself, so I’ve always been a practical problem-solving type of lawyer, focused on efficiency and relationships. 

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Prior to joining 3Kites, I led the knowledge management team at a top 30 international firm where I executed a wide range of knowledge management projects including overhauling the knowledge system, implementing a new enterprise search system and helping to embed document automation at the firm. 

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I’m passionate about trying to ensure that knowledge management isn’t just a “set and forget” item on firms’ agendas and that the products firms buy are not “solutions in search of a problem” but are adopted and really improve client service delivery. I’m particularly interested in how the role of Knowledge Lawyers and wider KM teams are evolving in the era of generative AI-assisted tools and how they knit their KM ecosytems together to signpost the right resource for the right task for lawyers.  I also focus on how KM teams can help firms advance their belonging, diversity, and inclusion agendas as a key part of the drive towards environmental, social and governance goals. 

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Examples of where I’ve made a difference include:

• Designing and implementing a global knowledge strategy and assisting firms with reviewing and communicating new knowledge strategies 

• Reviving a stale knowledge system, implementing a move to the cloud and a new governance framework. Working with firms to review their knowledge ambitions in the light of their knowledge systems and making recommendations for reform 

• Working with firms to develop and energise their knowledge teams and training up new team members, including introducing a new career development framework for PSLs/knowledge lawyers to modernise the role 

• Crafting best practice guidance around the use of AI-enabled tools and reviewing the best tools to solve particular problems (including considering use cases for generative AI and large language model tools) 

• Creating intuitive matter and task maps to connect junior lawyers to the right information from among the myriad knowledge resources at each stage of their legal work from fee quote and matter inception to post-closing activities – including signposting where AI-assisted tools are the right tool for the task 

• Helping to embed document drafting automation and support the perennial adoption challenges 

• Working with firms to review the purpose of their intranet and review and overhaul the navigation, look and feel, governance frameworks and taxonomy/ontology for their new intranet or digital workplace platforms 

• Advising an in-house legal team on streamlining their working processes, establishing a “front door” to the legal team for the business, and reviewing the company secretarial and board management market for suitable new tools 

• Introducing “legal project management-lite” initiatives to help lawyers practice profitable and client-friendly law through drafting toolkits/pathways/checklists and training, coaching and mentoring lawyers to see real behavioural change in the way matters are managed and commensurate impact on profitability 

• Working on initiatives to address stages in the employee/knowledge lifecycle from effective global onboarding (so knowledge assets are not secret), to building a knowledge sharing culture and helping to retain and welcome staff back from extended leave by “re-induction” and trying to harvest knowledge “pretirement” or through matter debriefs and KM exit interviews to prevent knowledge loss 

• Managing smooth transitions to upgraded information services platforms and multiple e-service resource comparisons (such as news aggregators) 

• Selecting and implementing an enterprise search system crawling multiple cloud and on prem data sources to reconnect lawyers with each other and surface the firm’s key knowledge sources in a one stop shop 

• Introducing performance metrics for KM services to highlight return on investment and the value the KM team bring to the firm 

• Overhauling the budget process for a legal information services team and L&D/training team 

• Reviewing and making recommendations to overhaul the legal training strategy of a firm 

• Launching revamped KNOWALL Matrix library management system, international lawyers database (including governance framework), memberships and languages databases to better connect lawyers with each other and with information 

• databases to better connect lawyers with information