Law firm beefs up search power

European law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse (FFW) has improved access to its vast wealth of legal knowledge with an upgraded web-based search system.

The firm has been using Recommind's MindServer search platform since last October to help its global employees access and manage information both within and outside the organisation.

The search app has been incorporated into the firm's intranet-based KnowledgeSearch system and generates more detailed results than previously with an added depth and context.

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Speaking to silicon.com, Jane Bradbury, knowledge management director at FFW said: "We're in the business of handling information, knowledge, advising clients and I'm very much of the belief that when a client instructs us they're instructing not just one lawyer, but the combined know-how of the whole firm."

She explained that the recent influx of graduates was influential in bringing in the technology.

She said: "We spend years attracting some really high qualified graduate lawyers into our business and then I think we have to give them the tools or we have to replicate the sort of tools that they've been using not only at home but probably at college to do research work."

She added: "It's been not only those trainees but actually we've found people at all levels in the organisation have just said this is so intuitive."

As well as documents, the tech also allows staff to search for and locate experts in a particular legal field within the firm in order to access relevant experience.

The search ranks individuals according to experience based on documents they've written and cases they've worked on.

MindServer also searches the practice management system, stored emails, library catalogues along with external search engines and websites.

Benefits of the system include significant time savings when locating information. In the long run this could benefit clients through reduced billing time.

Bradbury said: "We've just got all of the information at our fingertips within seconds rather than getting people to research things for hours and hours."

She said the system has also been useful as the organisation grows. "In a growing organisation this is incredibly important to us because it's putting people in touch with people. It's the 'know who' not just 'know what'," she said.

FFW was also one of the first law firms to set up an office in the virtual world, Second Life.