Training delivery: Which route to choose?

Examining the many training and development strategies that law firms can from including internal versus external delivery, online learning and multimedia options.

By Joanna Goodman.

Appropriate delivery is a critical success factor for devising and implementing a professional development programme that is genuinely responsive to the needs of the business and the professionals working within it. Effective training that is delivered in an engaging way supports a culture of creating and sharing the knowledge, experience and expertise that law firms trade on.

There is general agreement among learning and development professionals that blended learning – a combination of different methodologies depending on the subject being covered, the number of participants and how personalised the learning intervention needs to be – is the most effective way of delivering a strategic training programme.

Learning and development interventions can be divided into three main categories:

Generic – this includes general legal, business and management training and know-how;
Tailored – this relates to specialisms or is relevant to specific projects, roles and functions;
Bespoke – this is delivered in response to individual requirements or requests.

Generic training in legal, technical or business skills might be delivered face-to-face via a lecture or presentation followed by a question and answer session, as well as by practical workshops and work-based learning supported in some cases by mentoring.

Specialist training covering a particular practice area or in response to a specific request might be delivered by bringing in an expert to address a practice group or lead a workshop, by arranging a seminar or by sending people on an external course.

Online training covering legal and basic management topics has become more popular recently due to a combination of improved technology and the fact that busy lawyers can fit this type of learning around their work commitments.

Clearly, bespoke training in response to a lawyer’s own development needs or to help a senior associate or partner upskill to meet the demands of a new role is best delivered one-to-one via mentoring or coaching.

Responses to the recent Legal Week/LexisNexis survey[1] showed a clear preference among those organising or providing the services, for group training and conferences. Web training, both externally and internally, was also popular. The overall findings indicated that internal individual coaching was the preferred training method, closely followed by external training and group coaching, internal or external.

When responses were broken down by role, they showed that assistants preferred group coaching, which was usually provided internally, individual coaching and conferences. Senior assistants preferred conferences and external training. The survey highlighted the growing use of online and new media resources such as blogs, wikis, podcasts and vodcasts. Partners enjoyed a wide array of training delivery methods, particularly group coaching, supplied in-house and externally.

Face-to-face training
Although there is increased focus on business and management training, legal and technical knowledge and know-how is at the forefront of CPD for trainees, assistants, associates and even partners. This tends to be delivered in a variety of ways via a mixture of internal and external provision. Face-to-face training is still the most popular as lawyers represent an intelligent, articulate audience and thrive on discussion and debate.

Conferences and training events
These tend to be focused on specific groups, either by practice area or by level in the firm. Most firms organise partner conferences and retreats, which include some element of group learning typically comprising presentations, breakout discussions and focus groups.

Lectures and presentations remain popular among lawyers who are well-educated and keen to expand their knowledge. Black-letter training, technical and business skills are commonly delivered via lectures and presentations from internal and external experts followed by Q&A sessions and discussions. Lawyers enjoy a debate and welcome the opportunity to learn from experts and each other.

Seminars and workshops
Many firms organise in-house seminars on the latest legal developments affecting their key practice areas. Interactive workshops – organised internally or externally – are popular for delivering practical management courses covering topics such as supervision and appraisal, as well as issue-based training such as diversity. Courses that stretch over several sessions can be combined with online exercises that supply additional background information and reinforce learning before moving on to the next session.

Coaching
One-to-one coaching is generally limited to partners, prospective partners and sometimes lateral hires because of budget constraints and the type of skills that are best suited to coaching. Executive coaching tends to concentrate on business and management skills and is tailored to individual requirements. Coaching is also delivered to coincide with promotion rounds, such as pre-partner coaching. The advantage of coaching is that it is flexible in terms of timing and content – being instigated to deal with an individual’s concerns. Discretion is another key attraction, particularly for partners and senior associates who may not wish to publicise their own professional development agenda.

Practical and work-based learning
Practical work-based learning remains a critical component of professional development for trainees and newly-qualified lawyers. This is delivered by a combination of practical experience, supervision, mentoring and in-house coaching, involving partners, senior associates and senior business support professionals in order to deliver practical training and mentoring and to build connectivity between people in different roles and at different levels of the hierarchy. Many firms broaden the experience of trainees, newly-qualified lawyers and associates by arranging secondments to different offices within the firm or to clients’ legal teams.

Group coaching: The kitchen table approach
Learning and development practitioners have found that small tutorial-type groups led by an expert are extremely effective for delivering legal and business training as they represent a focus group for learning and sharing knowledge. This method of learning is especially successful when delivering specialist updates and training. Small groups can work well for legal updates and training. The theory is that if the discussion group is too big to fit around a table, it’s too big for debate in which all delegates can participate.

Multimedia and e-learning
IT can help to create a responsive training environment by putting ‘bibles’ and key legal knowledge resources on the intranet for easy access and updating them regularly.

Intranet feeds enable people to access conference speeches, lectures and presentations from their screens either live or later. Although legal training continues to focus on face-to-face delivery via traditional lectures and seminars, there is a steady shift towards making these available online – via a link – so that people can watch them remotely or revisit them later. An added advantage of recording lectures and presentations and storing them online is that people can catch up any missed sessions or watch particularly useful ones again.

Interactive collaborative media, such as blogs and wikis, are becoming more popular as they provide easily accessible discussion forums on the firm’s intranet. These are useful professional development resources as they represent opportunities to share and update information, know-how and expertise across the firm.

E-learning courses
It is generally recognised that timing is critical, particularly in respect of legal and technical training. Just-in-time delivery is facilitated by e-learning and interactive online training resources. Interactive e-learning is particularly popular for compliance and legal technical training, offering firms the advantage of being able to track who has completed it and when. The advantage for lawyers is that they can fit it around their existing work, although many do it in their own time. E-learning is particularly popular for compulsory training undertaken for compliance and risk management purposes. E-learning packages enable employers to track who has completed the training and when, and ensure:

That all employees have completed the course;
That they have had their learning tested and examined;
That they have read and understood any relevant policies and checked a confirmation box.

DVDs and video streaming
DVD-based learning is another popular way of delivering legal updates. For example, Legal Network Television (LNTV) offers its subscribers 76 new programmes per year across ten subject areas.

Those responsible for providing training and development clearly need to select the programmes that are relevant to the firm’s practice areas. They can be used in a variety of different ways.

The College of Law website[2] suggests the following:

You can run a discussion group in your firm;
Arrange a time and place convenient to all for group training sessions, perhaps over lunchtime;
Nominate an individual to lead the session;
You can all bring relevant problems, files or precedents to discuss, so that points raised in the programme can be applied to practical issues;
You can circulate the supporting written materials from the LNTV Times before the session, or download them from the website;
The discussion questions published in the LNTV Times can form a framework for your own discussions.

The programmes can also be streamed so that they are available via the internet or the firm’s intranet, so that anyone who is unable to attend a session that is relevant to their practice area can log in and access the programme later.

Specific groups and issues
Effective training delivery supports specific groups and projects and highlights key topics and issues. This type of training tends to combine lectures and discussions with practical interactive exercises. Some firms organise bespoke training programmes and initiatives for different practice groups as well as for lawyers at key points in their careers. Diversity awareness workshops are also popular.

In-house versus external provision
The balance between in-house and external provision is an important decision for learning and development professionals. Although many relevant factors such as numbers, cost, feedback and available resources need to be taken into account, a strategic approach means achieving the best balance to meet the requirements of the firm and its people and deliver a consistent approach. Another key consideration is the range of options available and the need to choose the products and services that best match the firm’s own approach. Ultimately, the choice of whether to employ in-house trainers and coaches depends on the size of the firm and the level of ongoing need.

Delivering training in-house has several key benefits. It enables firms to control the timing and content of training courses and other learning interventions and make sure they are tailored to people’s needs. It also provides a consistent standard of delivery and competence among those delivering lectures, presentations, courses and seminars – as well as coaching and mentoring. In-house provision also means that career guidance and generic training can be organised on request. Large firms go so far as to provide a comprehensive training package. This has tremendous advantages in terms of consistency and integration as well as providing a comprehensive structure meaning that all training and development is relevant, valid and aligned with the firm’s strategy and culture.

External providers are useful for specialised training that is required for specific projects, requested by specific groups or individuals, compulsory or necessary at a particular career stage. For example, basic management training is undertaken before lawyers have completed three years PQE. In respect of e-learning, specialist providers create and distribute online training packages, which would be impractical to produce in-house. IT training also tends to be provided externally.

Coaching is a more challenging area when it comes to internal versus external provision. Although in-house provision guarantees standards and controls costs, firms often use external coaches in order to maximise the level of discretion they can offer senior leaders. However, as coaching becomes increasingly popular among lawyers with supervisory responsibilities, many firms are revising their approach and considering employing qualified, experienced coaches in house.

Peer-led training
Involving lawyers in delivering training to their peers can help maximise the value derived from external training courses. At Brabners Chaffe Street, for example, lawyers who have attended external seminars and courses are invited to make a short presentation on the event and what they got out of it. As well as providing feedback on the training provided, this is an effective way of disseminating know-how and experience. Although peer-led learning uses fee-earning time of both the provider and the recipient, it enhances a culture of learning and development. Another effective approach is to involve heads of practice areas and business support functions to deliver training in their specialism to groups of lawyers. In many firms business support lawyers are involved in delivering black-letter training as well as coaching and mentoring.

A partnership approach
Partnerships between training providers and groups of firms are growing in popularity, having expanded from LPC provision to training in specialist practice areas. The advantage of this sort of training delivery is that the content is closely aligned with the needs of the participating firms. It also provides consistency across several firms covering the same practice areas.

Partnerships between individual firms and training providers enable firms to tailor external training courses to their specific needs, where these cannot be met by off-the-shelf packages.

Partnerships between firms and business schools enable firms to offer their associates top quality business and management training. Participation in this type of programme tends to be high in a professional culture that recognises and values expertise.

Partnerships between firms and clients present busy lawyers with a compelling reason to attend workshops, seminars and conferences. Firms commonly organise seminars for their clients’ in-house teams on relevant aspects of the law. Forward-thinking firms are also involving their clients in their own internal training programmes. Clients are invited to speak at conferences and give seminars focused on their industries.

Finally, budget is an important consideration that shapes a firm’s professional development strategy. Many firms set careful criteria for the provision of facilities such as one-to-one coaching partly due to the budget implications of providing them across the board. Bringing the most expensive methods in-house or combining in-house with external provision is another way to address this dilemma, but this applies mainly to larger firms where there is sufficient critical mass to expand in-house provision ensuring that professional development reflects the firm’s strategy and brand values.

References

[1] Professional Development: The training game’ in Legal Week, 5 July 2007 http://legalweek.com/Articles/1036338/Professional+Development+The+training+game.html

[2] College of Law: ‘How to use LNTV in your firm’ http://www.college-of-law.co.uk/20289.html accessed 03/09/2007.

This article is adapted from Chapter Five of Ark Group’s recent Professional Development Strategies for Law Firms report, written and edited by Joanna Goodman. For more information or to purchase a copy, contact Tom Richardson at trichardson@ark-group.com or +44 (0)20 8785 5916.