Knowledge management has moved from the margins to the center of law firm strategy. Once seen as a support function, it now underpins efficiency, client service, and innovation. As firms experiment with AI and even market themselves as legal tech consultancies, the role of KM has never been more visible or more business-critical.
KM tools are emerging and evolving faster than ever. If professionals across your firm do not engage, review, and contribute, any tech investment risks being wasted. Put simply: end-user engagement directly affects the bottom line. Firms that harness KM effectively across the business gain a competitive edge.
That is where the LEXICON framework for legal KM engagement comes in.
The Seven Principles of LEXICON
The LEXICON framework breaks knowledge management engagement into seven practical principles. Together, they outline how law firms can increase KM adoption, integrate tools more effectively, and turn knowledge into measurable business value.
L: Link KM to Daily Workflows
Time pressure is the biggest barrier to KM adoption. KM cannot be an extra step; it must be embedded into any workflow. Automating information capture, embedding precedents in templates, and surfacing know-how directly in drafting tools makes knowledge easy to reuse and ensures that it supports billable activity rather than competing with it.
E: Empower KM Champions
Champions are respected colleagues, such as practice heads, PSLs, senior lawyers, or other relevant people. They model behaviors that encourage adoption and act as a bridge, bringing user feedback to the KM team while carrying program goals back to their peers. Their credibility and influence are essential to shifting firm-wide habits.
eX: eXplain the Value
KM only sticks when the benefits are visible. Share knowledge-related wins such as hours saved on pitches, reduced duplication of research, or faster client responses. Link outcomes directly to profitability, risk reduction, and service quality so that knowledge management is recognized as central to business strategy, not peripheral to it.
I: Integrate with Existing Systems
Multiple logins kill adoption. KM works best when integrated with the tools legal professionals already use, such as document management, business information systems, or external research platforms. A knowledge management system enabling single sign-on and unified search reduces friction, while integration demonstrates that KM is a connective layer rather than a competing application.
C: Cultivate a Knowledge-Sharing Culture
Incentives to hoard personal knowledge exist in every role. KM professionals must reframe knowledge as an organizational asset, not an individual one. Reward contributions and recognize peer support, and above all, dismantle silos that slow down collaboration.
O: Optimize for Ease of Use
If tools are clunky and hard to use, people will disengage. AI-generated document summaries, intuitive search and navigation, and bite-sized content formats make KM tools approachable. Branding the platform also builds trust and a sense of ownership.
N: Nurture Feedback Loops
KM is a continuous process. Use librarians’ reference interview skills to uncover needs. Capture ongoing feedback and act on it. Quick, visible fixes reinforce trust and show that KM best practice evolves alongside its users.
Why the LEXICON Framework Matters for Law Firms
Law firms are knowledge-driven enterprises that rely on legal experts, consultants, technologists, and business services professionals working together.
The investment figures prove it. A recent report found that Australian firms increased their spend on technology, with general expenditure up 4.2% per lawyer and KM technology up 3.9%. Combined, that’s an 8.6% jump in a single year. This is not just about efficiency, it’s about exploring—and opening—entirely new lines of business alongside their traditional legal practice.
The LEXICON framework provides a strategy to embed KM into this exciting new world. It supports client-facing innovation as well as internal efficiency. Using it, librarians, information specialists, and knowledge managers move beyond maintaining systems. They become facilitators and curators of collective commercial and legal intelligence. They ensure knowledge flows and break down silos. Ultimately, they turn KM investment into a competitive advantage.
What’s Next?
This overview introduces the seven principles, but each deserves a closer look. In the next few posts, we will explore each of them in detail. Stay tuned as we move from framework to action. The LEXICON series will show how your firm can not only adopt KM tools but also unlock their full business value.
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