Novum Learning

There is a common objection that arises when attorneys are encouraged to engage in technology training: time devoted to training is time spent away from logging billable client hours.

Bonnie Beuth is a founding member of the Legal Technology Core Competencies Certification Coalition (LTC4), a legal technology certification program focused on application-agnostic and workflow-based training for lawyers. Legal professionals from around the globe formed the group in 2010 to develop learning programs focused on helping firms address skill gaps among attorneys while remaining conscious of time constraints.

"The only way to get an attorney into training is to only teach them what they need to know and to make it really short. They are not going to engage in something that is going to impact their billable hours," Beuth says.

Instead of focusing on extensive application-based training, LTC4’s nine learning plans give firms a roadmap for how to educate attorneys on specific technology topics. For instance, an LTC4 learning plan focused on ‘Working with Legal Documents’ further breaks the topic down into 14 short workflow competencies. The learning plan then outlines the specific skills for training teams to cover within the workflow to obtain competency. To learn how to update and share an existing document, training teams are instructed to focus on the specific steps to navigate all of the applications used in that workflow.

The result is a learning program that allows firms to train their attorneys on everyday technology tasks instead of the entirety of individual technology platforms.

“When you’re talking about a firm that has its own training department, our learning plans allow a firm to be able to map training to workflows that work with any application,” Beuth says.

The problem is not every firm has a training department. Smaller firms and individual practitioners also have an ethical requirement to obtain and maintain technology competency but lack the resources to develop training content based on the learning plans. That’s why LTC4 partnered with microlearning course provider Novum Learning to provide consumable technology education to attorneys.

“Our goal in setting this up is to accommodate the solo practitioners and law school students who don’t otherwise have access to do an LTC4 certification,” Beuth says.

In celebration of the partnership, Novum Learning and LTC4 are offering the microlearning courses for free through the end of July. Find more information click here to learn how LTC4 and Nobum Learning can help your firm's attorneys and staff work toward technology competency.

Source: The Successful Firm