I have wondered why law departments do not share intranet material. [See my post on April 5, 2005 referring to law firms contributing material.] Hildebrandt research recently found no interest in that seeming no-brainer, swapping material for intranets.
There have been reported, however, some collaborative technology efforts between legal departments. In late 2002, Ford and British American Tobacco created a shared site, called Anaqua, for patent and trademark work. According to a piece by Chrissy Burns in November 2003, the site is “used by clients and firms to retrieve documents and send and receive email” as well as to provide an “asset management tool, conflict tool, knowledge management facility and facility for early dispute resolution.”
Burns adds that the law departments of nine investment banks in the UK formed a working group to define a set of shared requirements for certain software.