Overview

As Littler's Senior Director of Research Services, Cynthia Brown leads a team of research librarians, assistant librarians and interns to provide the firm’s lawyers and clients with the research resources they need to succeed.

Cynthia is part of the firm’s knowledge management leadership team and is involved daily in the Knowledge Management Department’s efforts to develop innovative systems, procedures and work flows. She reports directly to the firm’s Chief Knowledge Officer.

She manages and creates roadmaps for the collection of critical data, sifting of data for relevance and preparing that data to be pushed out to the right people at the right time. She also oversees all of the firm’s research-vendor relationships, utilizes analytics to determine which tools are needed to maintain the relationships and gathers important data for negotiations. In addition, Cynthia investigates new research and technology tools to ensure that the firm has cutting-edge resources.

Cynthia started Littler’s legislative tracking team in 2010. The team feeds Littler GPS, the firm’s client-based flagship service. Thousands of bills are reviewed daily via a custom built system to provide Littler’s attorneys and clients with insights about pending and enacted labor and employment legislations on federal, state and local levels.

Cynthia leads the team that created the KnowledgeDesk, a resource that enables Littler’s attorneys to connect to subject matter experts and a vast collection of databases, print materials, practice group information, internal work product and proprietary data collections. The KnowledgeDesk team efficiently searches to locate the exact nugget of knowledge that attorneys need.

Via the KnowledgeDesk, attorneys are connected to law firm librarians who are perfectly suited to liaise between attorneys and a legal KM department. With adept archival, research, organization, analysis and synthesis skills, Cynthia’s team takes the guesswork out of determining who to contact, where information resides and determining which external or internal resource best addresses an attorney’s need. During its first year the KnowledgeDesk proved to be extraordinarily successful taking in over 18,000 requests, with 26,000 requests expected in its second year.

Prior to joining Littler, Cynthia served as head librarian at a full-service regional law firm and as general counsel at a privately held company.

*Not licensed to practice law in California.

Professional & Community Affiliations

Member

Utah State Bar

Member

American Association of Law Librarians

Member

Mid-American Association of Law Libraries

Member

Kansas City Association of Law Libraries and Private Law Librarians and Information Professionals

Recognition

Recipient, Fastcase 50 Award

2020

News, Analysis & Press

Supporting Firm Resources Through COVID

AALL Spectrum

September/October 2020

Talking Tech: Task Automation in the Law Library

AALL Spectrum

July/August 2020

Leadership in the Time of COVID

MAALL Markings Vol 29, Issue 3

June 2020

Just Write it! Why You Should Care About Writing and Publishing

MAALL Markings Volume 29, Issue 1

December 2019

AFFIRMATIONS: Bringing Legal Tech Home

MAALL Markings Vol 27, Issue 3

June 2018

Innovations in Legal KM, Chapter 4, Our "Small" Project with a Big Impact: Littler's Knowledge Desk, a Case Study

ARK Wilmington plc

December 2017

Developing the Law Firm Library Professional

Mid-America Association of Law Libraries (MAALL) Markings, Vol 26, Issue 3

September 2017

What is Knowledge Management?

MAALL Markings, Vol 26, Issue 2

March 2017

Old Skills, New Tricks: Opportunities for Law Librarians

Law360

September 6, 2016

A Law Librarian’s Journey from San Francisco to Kansas City, and What I Learned along the Way

Thomson Reuters Legal-Solutions Blog

April 2016

What is a Librarian?

Thomson Reuters Legal-Solutions Blog

March 2016

Books & Book Chapters

  • Chapter 8: How strong relationships and expertise aid business development with clients – a case study, The Evolution of the Law Firm Library Function, Wilmington plc, June 2018

Speaking Engagements

Law Firm Librarians Respond to COVID-19

Northern California Association of Law Libraries

November 19, 2020

Case Study: How a Dynamic KM Infrastructure will Help Future-Proof Your Firm (even in the event of a pandemic)

Ark Group’s 16th Annual Knowledge Management in the Legal Profession

October 19, 2020

Panelist, Benchmarking the Library - Through a New Lens

ARK Group. Law Firm Libraries 2020

June 17, 2020

Panelist, Effective Leadership with Virtual Teams: To Infinity and Beyond

AALL Webinar

April 23, 2020

Panelist, Law Librarian Leadership Opportunities in the Wake of COVID-19

AALL Webinar

March 27, 2020

Legalweek 2020: Robotic Process Automation – The Next Step in Legal Automation

Legal Talk Network, On the Road Podcast

February 17, 2020

AALL 2019: Makers in Law Libraries

Legal Talk Network, On the Road Podcast

July 22, 2019

Legalweek 2019: Conversation to Conversion

Legal Talk Network, On the Road Podcast

February 8, 2019

Panelist, LegalWeek Robotic Process Automation: The Next Step in Legal Automation

ALM Legal Week

February 6, 2019

Panelist, From Conversation to Conversion: Getting Lawyers to Use New Tools

LegalWeek

January 31, 2019

Panelist, Traditional Librarianship Transitioning into Other Management

ARK Conference, Best Practices & Management Strategies for Law Firm Library, Research & Information Services

February 23, 2017

Panelist, Traditional Librarianship Transitioning into Other Management

ARK Best Practices and Management Strategies Conference for Law-Firm Library, Research and Information Services

February 2017

Service-Delivery Transformation: Are Firms Having Success On-Shoring Back-Office Operations?

ARK Best Practices Conference for Law Libraries and Legal-Information Centers

February 2016

Littler’s Collaboration with Courtroom Insight

PLL-Summit Innovation Showcase

July 2015

Education

  • J.D., J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University, 1995
  • B.A., Brigham Young University, 1992

Bar Admission

Utah