Why Atlas is a powerful KM platform for Legal KM teams

In an era where legal work is increasingly distributed and AI-enabled, firms need a legal Knowledge Management (KM) platform that does more than surface documents from a repository. They need a platform that unifies knowledge, collaboration, governance and AI readiness across the entire firm.

AI has shifted the expectations placed on knowledge functions. Firm leadership now expects knowledge to be structured, governed, and instantly accessible. A modern legal KM platform is required to unify knowledge across systems, support the flow of work, and ensure that people and AI operate from the same authoritative foundation.

Many firms rely on document management systems (DMS) such as iManage that store documents effectively, but constrain search and knowledge to what resides within the DMS itself.

Why Atlas is a powerful legal KM platform

Today, knowledge lives everywhere: Microsoft 365, Teams, intranet content, email, portals, practice sites, workflows and client collaboration hubs. Research across intranet and collaboration maturity shows firms need unified, integrated, and governed environments that bring these elements together.

This is where Atlas stands apart. It is a firm-wide, enterprise-grade legal KM platform designed for scale, consistency and AI-ready knowledge governance.

If content for AI and search are fundamentally limited to the content stored in your DMS, that means:

• Knowledge reuse is only as good as what has been stored and curated in your DMS. If knowledge lives outside (SharePoint, Teams, emails and other business systems), it will not be covered.
• Collaboration, intranet content, matter-workspace content, project-spaces, client portals are often outside of the DMS and remain outside the search/knowledge layer. They often contain more contextual insights that the DMS itself.
• Governance, taxonomy and metadata are managed within the DMS context; multi-geo provisions, cross-workspace consistency, firm-wide structure, Microsoft 365 native integration are not within its core design.
• AI tools like Copilot require consistent metadata, validated sources, provenance, governance and transparency across all content, not just documents.
  

Atlas is the legal KM platform built for the modern firm

1. Unified knowledge fabric across the firm

Atlas treats the firm’s entire digital workplace, not just the DMS, as its knowledge domain. That means a law firm can standardize taxonomy, metadata, and governance across SharePoint intranet, Teams collaboration workspaces, matter sites, practice hubs, and knowledge libraries. The result is a single knowledge ecosystem rather than a fragmented set of repositories and tools.

2. Hybrid and cross-system search, including external sources

Atlas can reach beyond: SharePoint, Teams, older legacy systems, external knowledge sources, intranet articles, clients’ portals, research databases, and more. Combined with AI-assisted search, this gives users a more holistic picture.

3. Contextual knowledge delivery, in the flow of work

iManage Insight+ requires users to search inside the DMS. With Atlas, knowledge can be surfaced contextually: directly in Teams chat, Outlook, project spaces, intranet hubs, or matter workspace dashboards. This ensures that knowledge is available where and when people need it, rather than requiring them to remember to search.

4. Enterprise-scale governance, structure and compliance for global firms

For international or multi-office law firms, Atlas is designed to manage multi-geo deployment, region-specific taxonomy and content delivery, secure classification, and consistent governance across offices and practices. Insight+, being DMS-centric, does not inherently provide that scale or flexibility.

5. AI readiness with provenance, lineage and compliance built-in

Because Atlas treats all firm content, including document from iManage, as part of its knowledge layer. It can govern what content feeds AI assistants, manage metadata and classification systematically, and maintain provenance for compliance, audit and explainability. That makes it better suited for firms serious about deploying AI thoughtfully and responsibly.

Atlas delivers 3 unique capabilities for KM teams

1. Knowledge Assistant

Whether your firm has a dedicated KM team or none at all, Atlas acts as an intelligent extension of KM capacity by offering:

• frictionless knowledge capture in the flow of work

• automatic metadata and classification

• contextual surfacing of knowledge inside Teams, Outlook, matter sites and intranet hubs

• intuitive experience aligned with modern intranet expectations for personalization, integration and ease of use

The result is a repeatable, scalable KM function that doesn’t rely on manual curation or heroic effort from subject matter experts.

2. Knowledge Lake

Atlas creates a single pane of knowledge for matters, clients, insights, people and work product, mirroring what modern intranets and client collaboration platforms aim to achieve for operational efficiency and user experience.

• brings together content from M365, Teams, iManage, email, CRM, and more
• governance-ready with automated metadata and classification

• multi-geo compliant with region-aware provisioning

• AI-optimized, feeding AI tools with authoritative, structured content

This alone elevates Atlas beyond any tool confined to a single repository.

3. Knowledge Collections

Atlas assembles context-rich, governed collections of knowledge that:

• improve AI precision 

• ensure responses are grounded in verifiable content

• maintain lineage, provenance and audit trails

• support defensible, compliant, explainable AI

This aligns with what client collaboration research identifies as critical: reliable, cross-system knowledge flows that support transparency, efficiency and strategic decision-making across internal and client-facing contexts

Summary: why firms choose Atlas as their legal KM platform

Firms select Atlas when they need a platform that delivers more than document search. They need a system that governs knowledge at scale, supports hybrid search, strengthens client collaboration and prepares the firm for sustained AI adoption.

Atlas delivers:

• a single pane of knowledge across systems

• deep Microsoft 365 integration

• enterprise-scale governance and lifecycle management

• faster matter delivery and reduced rework

• better client experience and transparency

• protection of institutional knowledge as experts retire

• de-risked AI adoption through governance and provenance

FAQs

What makes Atlas different from other legal KM platforms?

Atlas is designed to unify knowledge across the entire Microsoft 365 ecosystem as well as other tools and not just the DMS. It delivers governance, consistency, hybrid search and AI readiness at an enterprise level.

Does Atlas replace iManage?

No. Atlas complements iManage. While Insight+ enhances search within iManage, Atlas provides the firm-wide layer for knowledge, search, collaboration and AI governance.

Can Atlas support global, multi-region deployment?

Yes. Atlas is built for multi-geo environments, with region-specific taxonomy, provisioning and compliance support.

How does Atlas support AI initiatives in law firms?

Atlas provides authoritative source governance, metadata uniformity, content provenance and knowledge orchestration, improving the accuracy and defensibility of AI outputs across tools like Copilot.