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Artificial Intelligence

Using Knowledge Maps to visualize and grow legal practice area expertise

· 5 minute read

· 5 minute read

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New legal matters cross lawyers’ desks constantly. Businesses and clients keep evolving and need their legal teams to protect them from all kinds of new risks. New lawyers enter the profession and need to expand their skill sets. Knowing where to start is always a question for attorneys taking on a new type of matter. The next concern is determining when they’ve reviewed all relevant issues and looked at all the resources they need to provide wise counsel and turn out stellar work product. 

The Knowledge Maps feature in the Practical Law Dynamic Tool Set with CoCounsel is a visual and dynamic map, organizing resources content type. It helps legal professionals quickly find related resources they might not have known exist and quickly uncover legal issues.  

With Practical Law Dynamic Tool Set with CoCounsel you can draw from the proven expertise of more than 650 attorney editors while customizing the map to be sure that the approach reflects your preferred way of doing things. Practical Law Dynamic Tool Set with CoCounsel includes Knowledge Maps, as well as Quick Compare, Interactive Matter Maps, Dynamic Search, and Search & Summarize Practical Law.

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Overview of Knowledge Maps

Knowledge Maps reduce your blind spots

Enable better communication and planning

 

Motion graphic of TR website messaging on laptop screen— Transforming tomorrow's/today's work with AI

 

 

Overview of Knowledge Maps

A Knowledge Map is a new dynamic way to search. It organizes related resources in a graphical display. You can use it to visually navigate through Practical Law’s collection, with a focus on the specific matter type you are working on. Practical Law’s expertise is embedded throughout the experience.  

When researching a new or unfamiliar topic, quickly uncover the full scope of the matter. Knowledge Maps point you toward related topics, resources, and issues to consider so you can make quick informed decisions around the best course of action. As you navigate a Knowledge Map, you’ll see additional related resources appear, giving you insight into issues and concerns you might not have previously considered. You can also quickly understand the scope of those resources through a convenient preview feature, while never losing your place on the main map. 

Consider this scenario: Your client or business partner is creating a social media influencer program as part of a strategy to build the brand with a new demographic. This is a new channel for the organization, and you’ve been asked to develop a social media influencer agreement. The team already has a couple of influencers ready to go, so they’ll need that letter soon. 

This might be straightforward if you’ve written many such agreements, but most attorneys would need to explore the legal area and business factors before starting to write an agreement with confidence. You can use a Knowledge Map on this subject to get up to speed on the legal and business considerations and find sample language to get you started. In this case, the Knowledge Map would initially include resources like these: 

  • Topics
    – Social Media
    Advertising & Marketing
    Consumers 
  • Practice Notes
    Native Advertising
    Online Advertising and Marketing
    Social Media Risks and Rewards
    Advertising Claims Fundamentals 
  • Toolkits
    Social Media Usage Toolkit
    Advertising and Marketing Toolkit 
  • Standard Documents
    Celebrity Endorsements
    Testimonial Release
    Social Media Endorsement Policy
    Working with Influencers Presentation Materials 

 

Knowledge Maps provide a dynamic way to visually navigate through Practical Law’s resources, like Practice Notes, checklists, Sample Documents and Clauses and more.

 

Having these resources readily available reduces the time you spend deciding where to start and helps you reduce the risk of missing information. And as you navigate through a map, you can choose to move into related areas as you issue-spot or investigate further.  

Knowledge Maps reduce your blind spots

Legal professionals use Knowledge Maps to accelerate their process of thinking through a project or a legal issue. This gets them to the heart of the work faster and leaves more time for strategizing the matter and advising clients and business partners.  

It’s also a powerful training tool, allowing users to read or review entire resources directly from the map. “I wish I had had this as a junior associate to help with issue spotting and making sure I had covered all my bases in my research,” said Meggie Sramek, a legal expert on the Practical Law team. “I love that you can skim through an entire resource without losing your place on Knowledge Map.” 

Enable better communication and planning

Rather than trying to find and organize documents and resources for themselves, legal professionals can use Knowledge Maps to get a full view of the legal issues and considerations around a matter. They can quickly get up to speed and decide how to approach the matter and feel confident they’ve thought through the issues before they start drafting documents or providing advice. Taking this broad view of the matter reduces the risk of overlooking something important and improves outcomes for the client or business.  

 

Ready to take a visual approach to learning about new matters? Find out more about Knowledge Maps and the entire Dynamic Tool Set by visiting Discover the Dynamic Tool Set with CoCounsel in Practical Law. You can explore the features, watch additional demonstrations, and consider how these tools can benefit their practice. 

 

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