Use Knowledge Maps to visualize and grow legal practice area expertise

New legal matters cross lawyers’ desks regularly. Businesses and clients keep evolving and need their legal teams to protect them from all kinds of risks. Lawyers face two questions when addressing new matters: 

1. Where do I start? 
2. When am I done?

Knowing where to begin is fundamental when taking on a new type of matter. For lawyers entering the profession — or seasoned lawyers taking on a new area — knowing where to start can focus efforts, save time, and avoid rabbit holes. After starting, the next concern is determining when you’ve reviewed all relevant issues and resources needed to provide wise counsel. The Knowledge Maps feature in Practical Law Preferred Canada with CoCounsel helps answer both questions. 

Overview of Knowledge Maps

A Knowledge Map is an alternative way to search Practical Law Canada content. This tool is a clear, easy-to-read graphical view of multiple facets of a matter. A Knowledge Map is a visual and interactive display that organizes resources by content type. You can use it to navigate through Practical Law’s collection, with a focus on the specific type of matter you are working on. Practical Law’s expertise, drawn from more than 650 attorney-editors, is embedded throughout the experience.  

Our Knowledge Maps plot your chosen resource at the center of a map, with rings for each level of related content and segments for different content types. Their key functions include:

• Preview pane. Quickly decide if a selected resource is relevant.
• Instant refresh. Expand the map to include the next level of related content after selecting a resource. 
• Map segments. Identify content by type, such as practice notes, checklists, sample documents, and clauses.
• Zoom and pan controls. Shift the focus of your research with ease.
• Resources previewed. Keep track of the documents you've selected so you can choose which to save to a research folder, email, print, or download.
• Search bar. Find content to start a new Knowledge Map and change the direction of your research.

As you start researching a new or unfamiliar topic, you can quickly uncover the full scope of the matter. Navigate further into a Knowledge Map and you’ll see additional related resources appear, giving insight into issues and concerns you might not have previously considered. 

Consider this scenario. A client is creating a social media influencer program as part of a strategy to build their 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 client has influencers ready to go, so they need the letter soon. 

This situation might be straightforward if you’ve written many such agreements, but most attorneys would need to explore the legal area and business factors before writing with confidence. 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, including social media, advertising and marketing, and consumers  
• Practice notes, including native advertising, online advertising and marketing, social media risks and rewards, and advertising claims fundamentals
• Toolkits, including a social media usage toolkit and an advertising and marketing toolkit 
• Standard documents, including celebrity endorsements, testimonial release, social media endorsement policy, and presentation materials for working with influencers  

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

Reduce your blind spots

Legal professionals use Knowledge Maps to accelerate their thinking process 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 or advising clients and business partners.  

According to a legal expert on the Practical Law team, “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. I love that you can skim through an entire resource without losing your place on Knowledge Maps.” 

Enable better communication and planning

Rather than trying to find and organize documents and resources for yourself, use Knowledge Maps to get a full view of the legal issues and considerations around a matter. Quickly get up to speed, decide how to approach the matter, and feel confident you’ve thought through the issues before you start drafting documents or providing advice. 

Ready to take a visual approach to learning about new matters? Find out more about Knowledge Maps on Practical Law. You can explore the features, watch demonstrations, and consider how these tools can benefit your practice.