Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/87421
Sell a Solution to Their Problems: Training Today's Lawyers What would be your recipe for a great training program in a law environment? Elaine: Partner-backed, timely topics, brief and scenario-based training make for a successful program. When a program is partner-backed, it gives it significance; timely topics satisfy an immediate need; being brief is a way to ensure maximum attention, as most adult learners can only absorb about 20 minutes of information at a time; and scenario-based training ensures that users can transfer the learned skills into real-life situations. Don: Identify a problem or a pain-point for lawyers, and then offer a solution to that problem. I think it's best to think of training as a service that delivers on the implicit promise that I will make you a more skilled, a more efficient or a smarter lawyer if you come to the class. Rather than saying, "Come to knowledge mosaic training," I find it's better to say, "Learn to find what companies reveal in their SEC filings" or "Discover how to retrieve cases simply by typing citations into a search box." Sell a solution to a problem. Don't try to sell a boring tour of a website. Training should adhere to the principles of adult learning: Classes should be brief, they should offer concrete skills that are immediately applicable to the practice, and they should be convenient for the lawyers. The program should respect, and even flatter, the lawyers' intelligence and skill, and speak directly to their need to acquire new skills. And obviously, trainers should have some affinity for teaching. They should be good speakers, they should know the subject matter and be able to answer questions succinctly. (A sense of humor doesn't hurt.) As a nonlawyer, I'm not qualified to teach legal concepts or principles. But if I can show an attorney how to find something in five minutes that otherwise would have taken her an hour or more to locate, then the training program has done its job. If a tweet were to describe one of your success stories, what would it say? Don: Lawyer attends the library's WestCheck class and uses it to find a case that cites bad law in opponent's brief; wins dismissal of the case. Elaine: When will you offer that program again? AALL/ILTA White Paper 85