If you haven't heard of knowledge management, chances are you've had your nose in your BlackBerry too long. Better known as KM , knowledge management has quickly become the biggest buzzword in corporate America. Although most are familiar with the term, many couldn't even begin to tell you what it means. After all, KM sounds like just more business jargon, words attached to a concept with no real meaning.

Truthfully, KM doesn't have one meaning. Everyone defines it differently. But all the varied opinions seem to agree on one thing–KM is capturing what everyone in your department knows. And capturing what ever yone in a legal department knows can make the dif ference between winning and losing a case, or at the very least between spending thousands of dollars and spending millions.

What KM boils down to is finding ways to minimize redundancy, in turn saving time and cutting costs. How a legal department decides to follow through with this initiative depends on a number of factors. But there are some clear steps you must execute well to build a successful process.