Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Key definition

Knowledge definition

What does Knowledge mean? In legal practice, knowledge describes a person’s actual awareness that a fact or circumstance exists, going beyond mere suspicion. It is addressed in both legislation and case law and its use is broadly consistent across England & Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland. In criminal law, knowledge forms part of the mens rea for offences requiring that the defendant knows a relevant fact (for example, that property is stolen), and can include wilful blindness (deliberately avoiding confirming what is obvious). In civil law, knowledge allocates risk and affects time limits: limitation rules refer to the date of knowledge (actual or constructive)...

Developing Future Law Firm Leaders: Balanced Scorecard, GROW Coaching, PDPs, Delegation and Succession Planning towards Partnership

Published by a LexisNexis Practice Management expert

Practice notes

This Practice Note sets out how cultivating and advancing home-grown talent benefits a firm, preserving critical skills and Knowledge in-house while serving as a strong incentive for ambitious, capable individuals. Recruitment is both expensive and protracted, especially for senior appointments—growing leaders internally can be markedly more time- and cost-efficient. This Practice Note covers:

how to spot potential
coaching and development for leaders
personal development Plans for future leaders
delegation
Succession planning

How to spot potential

The key question to pose is: which leadership capabilities do we need now, and which will we require in future? Be crystal clear about the qualities you seek before you begin to look for them. Key skills required of leaders include the ability to:

drive and manage change
spot and nurture emerging talent
encourage creativity and innovation
coach and develop colleagues
deliver the organisation’s strategy
build customer satisfaction and loyalty
raise employee engagement
take tough decisions
be technologically informed and capable

Each firm will have its own specific requirements...

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Beth Pipe , FCIPD

OnLive Learning

Beth is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (FCIPD) and has spent over 25 years specialising in Learning and Development. During that time she has worked across a broad variety of different industries and has, for the past 15 years, worked closely with a number of well known law firms; this has involved putting in to place systems and structures to encourage, enable and track the effectiveness of learning activities. Adept at face to face course delivery, and always enjoying excellent feedback, Beth is also accomplished at online delivery and created OnLive Learning in response to the challenges presented by the 2020 Covid-19 restrictions.Beth has written extensively for LexisNexis on subjects such as Performance Management, Managing Change and Stress Management. Away from her training delivery she is a published author writing about local history, hiking, wildlife and the outdoors and is...

Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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