If you fear the retirement of very knowledgeable senior lawyers, consider software to siphon off some of their expertise

The imminent departure, by retirement or illness, of a seasoned lawyer worries many general counsel. If they leave, so does their knowledge of the law, the realpolitik of practice, and the company. One way to lessen the loss might be to capture situation-specific advice on complex decision-making tasks.

An ad by Exsys, Inc. www.exsys.com offers software that lets you “Capture and deliver the knowledge of your top experts in online interactive sessions.” I have not looked into the offering but the ad suggests a way to relatively easily extract from senior lawyers some of their tacit knowledge in a format that can advise others. The software claims to incorporate expert system capabilities to enhance decision making (See my post of April 21, 2010: AI and legal applications with 9 references and 2 metaposts.). Perhaps technology can preserve some wisdom and help staunch the loss of experiential knowledge.