Midsize Firms

A New Model for Training

By Doug Caddell

SUPPORTING TECHNOLOGY in today's law office has changed dramatically from the support requirements of the early 1990s. The ubiquitous use of technology by attorneys and the advent of real-time national and global economies require firm managers to develop training and support strategies that go beyond physical law office boundaries and the way things have always been done.

Clients expect their lawyers to use technology, and use it effectively. Many companies now review the technology capabilities of prospective law firms -- rejecting lawyers and firms with poor or ineffective technical capabilities. Effective training and support of legal technology has become a critical necessity.

Just-In-Time

For the past few years, technology training at most law firms focused on classroom style training, to support the roll-out of Y2K-compliant word processors. The focus of this training was to advance firm-wide productivity. Instructor-lead classroom training is the most effective training method for most people, and it's an effective way to get the entire firm trained on a major computer investment.

But what if you are not doing a massive roll-out? How do you get attorneys to come to class? For the most part, you don't. Attorneys are protective of their billable time and resist sitting in a class and being taught all but what they actually need to get the job done. This resistance spills over to the secretarial ranks.

Learning becomes geared to individual need. Post roll-out learning is focused on advancing individual and practice group productivity. And it's ongoing, in contrast to time-specific roll-out training.

If attorneys will not go to class, how do we get the class to the attorneys? We need to deliver "Just-In-Time/Just-Enough-Training." We need to expand our education methods beyond the instructor-lead classroom and use new training delivery methods -- many available through new technologies.

Attorneys want to learn what to do when they have the need to do it, not a week or month before. New training methods allow you to deliver training when it's needed -- just-in-time -- not when it's scheduled. These methods also allow you to deliver training focused on the skills immediately needed by the attorney or staff member to get the job done, not what's listed on the curriculum sheet or covered in a thick manual -- just-enough training. Providing "Just-In-Time/Just-Enough" training gives attorneys and staff what they need, when they need it, allowing them to deliver quality legal service to time-sensitive and demanding clients.

The virtual classroom

During the last few years, there have been a number of advances that allow training to be moved from the classroom to where and when it is needed. Some methods, including "Computer-Based Training" (CBT), have existed in various formats. However, the CBT of today is not the CBT of five years ago. Think outside of your normal approach to law firm training and investigate technology-supported methods.

CD-ROM Programs

Multimedia presentations can be purchased or created in-house, and loaded on CD-ROM or directly on a laptop computer's hard-drive. This allows an attorney to learn when they need to, where they need to. We've used this method to present training on using scanners for litigation. A tutorial, located at the scanning station, offers instant training.

Custom CD-ROM training programs are not just in the realm of very large firms. Any talented trainer with knowledge of Microsoft's PowerPoint software can create computer-based training, quickly and cheaply. Duplicating a PowerPoint CBT presentation to CD-ROM is easy, and costs just a few hundred dollars to get started. CBT doesn't need to be duplicated to CD-ROM to be used -- PowerPoint or other training files can be loaded onto desktop or laptop computers through the network or via diskette, allowing mobile attorneys to take their training "on the road.".

Video Conferencing

If your firm has more than one office, video conferencing is another effective method to deliver training. The lack of expensive video conferencing systems need not be a barrier to using video conferencing for training. NetMeeting, a standard Microsoft product, or PC proxy software can allow an instructor and a student to share a PC as if they were sitting at the same keyboard. Videocassettes are another way to allow attorneys and staff to get training when they need it. There are many video titles available for both computer training and general legal skill training.

"Distance Learning" is another increasingly popular and cost-effective training method for those with multiple locations. Instructor-lead classes given over your firm's WAN or via the Internet can allow a single instructor to present a class to multiple people in different geographic locations with full instructor/student participation. This can help reduce the problem of scheduling a class where only a few students -- or none -- show up. This technique has proven popular in colleges and corporations, and can allow more timely offerings of low-demand courses.

The pace of providing legal services to increasingly demanding clients is moving faster than ever before, and firm managers are being asked to provide more effective and easy to use systems. A key part of a firm's success is to improve the skills of those using computer technology by providing training that works for the individual Just-In-Time/Just-Enough training. Classroom training is not dead, but it is not the answer to every training need. Bringing the "classroom" to the student is part of the mix of today's time-sensitive training strategy.

Doug Caddell is chief information officer of Foley & Lardner, and is based in the firm's Milwaukee office.