Jenni Tellyn
CONSULTANT

My 20+ years in law firms have seen me train and practise as a debt capital markets and structured finance lawyer with Magic Circle firms (including stints 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.

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.

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 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:

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• Designing and implementing a global knowledge strategy

• Crafting best practice guidance around the use of AI-enabled contract review tools

• Helping to embed document drafting automation and support adoption

• Implementing DocuSign and electronic signature guidance during the Covid19 pandemic

• 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

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

• 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

• 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

• Introducing performance metrics for KM services to highlight return on investment

• Reviving a stale knowledge system, implementing a move to the cloud and a new governance framework

• Recruiting some game-changing KM systems, information professionals and knowledge lawyers and introducing a new career development framework for knowledge lawyers to modernise the role

• Overhauling the budget process for a legal information services team

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