The Knowledge Harvest station is about ensuring that valuable legal insight generated through day-to-day work is captured, structured, and made available back to the business.

Every legal matter produces knowledge — about risk, process, negotiation dynamics, regulatory interpretation, and how the business actually operates. 

In most organisations, that knowledge disappears when the matter closes and this station on the Internal Client Line is about ensuring that experience derived value is not lost.

Knowledge Harvest ensures that legal does not repeatedly solve the same problems in isolation. Instead, it converts experience into reusable assets that improve future outcomes for both legal and internal clients.

This station is where legal work compounds in value through a focussed an intentional initiative on the part of the legal team to identify, capture and “put to work” useful knowledge.

The Knowledge Harvest station should enable legal to:

◼️ Capture Lessons Learned: Extract insights from completed matters and projects.

◼️ Identify Repeatable Patterns: Recognise issues that recur across the business.

◼️ Create Reusable Assets: Convert experience into guidance and tools.

◼️ Update Existing Materials: Refresh playbooks, templates, and FAQs.

◼️ Support Business Enablement: Make legal insight accessible to non-lawyers.

◼️ Feed Training Content: Inform internal audience and legal training.

◼️ Reduce Repeat Errors: Prevent the same issues arising again.

◼️ Support Faster Decision-Making: Provide precedent and clarity.

◼️ Improve Risk Management: Surface known risk themes early.

◼️ Close the Learning Loop: Ensure insight feeds back into operations.

The Knowledge Harvest station is considered Repeater and a Specialist resource within the GLS Legal Operations model.

A Foundational Resource: Is responsible for determining the overall performance capabilities of a “critical” legal function. If it is not optimised, the function can never be optimised. 

A Repeater Resource: Supports the performance of multiple "critical" legal functions and as such represents a "ripple effect" productivity intervention point. 

A Specialist Resource: Is responsible for driving the performance of a very specific part of an individual legal function. Its productivity contribution is limited to that single legal function. 

The best practice features of effective Knowledge Harvest include:

◼️ Deliberate Capture: Knowledge extraction is intentional, not accidental.

◼️ Clear Ownership: Responsibility for harvesting and curating insight is defined.

◼️ Practical Focus: Outputs are usable by the business.

◼️ Standard Formats: Insights are captured consistently.

◼️ Integration with Workflow: Harvesting occurs as part of matter closure.

◼️ Prioritisation: Not all insight is captured — only what adds value.

◼️ Accessibility: Assets are easy to find and use.

◼️ Lifecycle Management: Content is reviewed and refreshed.

◼️ Feedback-Informed: Usage informs future development.

◼️ Leadership Support: Knowledge reuse is actively encouraged.

Effective Knowledge Harvest delivers business value by:

◼️ Reducing Repeat Issues: Known problems are addressed earlier.

◼️ Improving Speed: Business teams act with better information.

◼️ Lowering Risk Exposure: Known risks are surfaced proactively.

◼️ Enhancing Consistency: Similar issues are handled in similar ways.

◼️ Empowering the Business: Clients can self-serve safely.

◼️ Supporting Better Decisions: Legal insight informs action.

◼️ Improving Project Outcomes: Lessons inform future initiatives.

◼️ Reducing Dependency: Legal is engaged where it adds most value.

◼️ Supporting Growth: Knowledge scales with the organisation.

◼️ Strengthening Governance: Risk themes are visible.

For the legal department, Knowledge Harvest provides:

◼️ Compounding Value: Each matter improves the next.

◼️ Reduced Rework: Fewer repeated explanations and fixes.

◼️ Better Use of Time: Legal focuses on new problems.

◼️ Stronger Consistency: Advice aligns across lawyers.

◼️ Improved Training Materials: Real-world insight feeds learning.

◼️ Stronger Internal Profile: Legal seen as proactive.

◼️ Foundation for Self-Help: Supports tools and playbooks.

◼️ Data for Improvement: Insight into recurring risk.

◼️ Better Onboarding: New lawyers ramp faster.

◼️ Transformation Enablement: Knowledge reuse underpins scale.

Knowledge Harvest is essential for:

◼️ Business Unit Leaders

◼️ Commercial & Sales Teams

◼️ Project & Transformation Teams

◼️ Risk & Compliance Functions

◼️ Legal Operations Teams

◼️ In-House Legal Teams

◼️ Senior Executives

◼️ Training & Enablement Teams

◼️ New Joiners

◼️ External Counsel (indirectly)

Where Knowledge Harvest is weak or absent, organisations experience:

◼️ Repeat Mistakes: The same issues recur.

◼️ Lost Insight: Valuable learning disappears.

◼️ Slower Delivery: Legal re-solves known problems.

◼️ Inconsistent Advice: Outcomes vary unnecessarily.

◼️ Higher Risk: Known issues re-emerge.

◼️ Poor Enablement: Business remains dependent.

◼️ Wasted Effort: No return on experience.

◼️ Training Gaps: Learning lacks real-world grounding.

◼️ Scaling Failure: Growth multiplies problems.

◼️ Stalled Maturity: Legal stays reactive.

Supporting Knowledge Harvest requires:

◼️ Knowledge Repositories: Central, searchable platforms.

◼️ Workflow Integration: Capture linked to matter closure.

◼️ Tagging & Taxonomy: Insight categorised meaningfully.

◼️ Version Control: Content remains current.

◼️ Access Controls: Right content to the right audience.

◼️ Usage Analytics: Visibility into what is used.

◼️ Integration with Training Tools: Knowledge feeds learning.

◼️ Scalability: Works across teams and regions.

◼️ Search & Retrieval: Fast access matters.

◼️ Change Enablement: Easy refinement over time.