I came across this article on Monday about a model of KM competencies, which was developed as part of someone’s PhD.

It’s quite a nice summary of what corporate KMers can do (which can sometimes be hard to explain) and doesn’t focus too much on technology. It perhaps works best as a model of what a corporate KM team/department ought to be doing, rather than each individual KMer.

Although not all of these competencies apply to law firms and PSLs already have plenty of work to do as their team’s subject matter expert, I think this list gives a good outline of where KMers can add value to an organisation. In my view, PSLs who understand and work on these competencies as well as their own area of technical expertise, can help their firms in a strategically important way.

How many law firms (perhaps apart from the really large international ones) really understand the competencies of corporate KMers and how PSLs could be contributing to their organisations? How many PSLs in mid-sized firms have taken on a role from a previous PSL and have no theoretical KM knowledge and so no opportunity to contribute to their firm in this way? Are there plenty of law firms missing an opportunity?

What is your experience?