In-House Counsel

How to train clients so that the company benefits the most ? 18 more choices

By Rees Morrison

Three times I have commented on how to train internal clients and I mentioned 11 different techniques (See my post of July 14, 2005: lecture, lecture discussion, film, small group discussion, case studies, role playing, practical exercises, and unstructured exercises; Dec. 19, 2005: ?in-class training, computer-based training [CBT], and paper-based training; and Dec. 20, 2005: checklists of what clients need to gather before calling and posts on the intranet.). Nearly a score of additional training tools are available to law departments

1. Explain your advice
2. Publish answers to Frequently Asked Questions
3. Circulate educational material
4. Circulate horror stories of other companies who ran afoul of the law
5. Post material online, such as compliance training (See my post
6. Institute Requests for Legal Services that have on them some assistance (See my post of March 26, 2007: pros and cons of Requests for Services.).
7. Assign a gatekeeper at each major business unit (See my post of Oct. 17, 2007: a client gatekeeper to review major bills.).
8. Negotiate Service Level Agreements (See my post of March 6, 2009: service level agreements (SLA) with 6 references.).
9. Make available document assembly applications that include question-specific help (See my post of Feb. 26, 2008: document assembly with 16 references.).
10. Annotate documents with plain-English explanations
11. Push back requests for legal services if the clients is not ready and explain how they need to prepare more
12. Circuit ride and visit clients as a store-front lawyer (See my post of Oct. 10, 2008: visits by patent attorneys.).
13. Conduct simulations
14. Release an on-line game
15. Email a ?Legal Learning of the Day? (See my post of June 1, 2008 #3: Law in the Loo.).
16. Distribute ?cheat sheets? for common processes that involve the legal department
17. Produce training videos (See my post of Feb. 25, 2007: video recordings as a knowledge management tool; and Oct. 3, 2008: ethics training at Lockheed Martin
18. Record podcasts (See my post of Feb. 26, 2009: my podcast on management topics.).

Full post as published by Law Department Management on April 06, 2009 (boomark / email).