Captivated clients: Creating a fun legal training programme

Partner Adam Rose shares how he created a fun client training programme at Berwin Leighton Paisner

Key takeaway points:

1. '¨Legal training doesn’t have to be dull – allow yourself the freedom to think outside the box.
2. '¨'¨Standing out from the crowd takes time, effort and resources, so plan early.
3. '¨'¨Engage with clients before, during and after the session to find out what they want and what can be improved upon.
4. '¨Use the training as a chance to build the firm’s brand. Consider all of the client touch points, from the invitation to the follow up.
5. '¨Attention to detail is key – clients recognise that this translates into the legal service you provide.

 

Almost all law firms provide obligatory legal updates and knowledge sharing events for their clients. However, discerning clients have increasingly become more demanding about the quality and frequency of these so-called ‘value-adds’. What clients seemed to be saying to us across all areas of our service was that they – and those who set their budgets – expected to receive more for less.

With this in mind, in 2004, I assessed '¨the current format of training being provided by different law firms, with a view to providing an alternative.

To my mind, traditional seminars weren’t cutting it any more. Typically, they involved an expert lecturing for an hour on a recent case or new legislation. The sessions would be attended by in-house lawyers whose primary focus might well have been to gather the requisite number of continuing professional development (CPD) points. For the private practitioner, the sessions were often poorly targeted, badly delivered, dull, underprepared and generally failed in meeting their key purpose: selling.

There was clearly a gap in the market for a new method of educating clients without boring them to tears. If we could get this right, our clients and prospects would actually want to come to our sessions – even if, as one very straight-talking client later put it, he had attended because he was a ‘CPD tart’ first time around.

I decided that one of the things that we would do would be to engage with in-house lawyers in a way that would give them a memorable experience, where they could:'¨

• collect CPD hours in a fun environment;

• keep up to date with legal developments from experts in their field in short chunks of time; and

• network with their counterparts at other companies possibly facing similar working challenges to them, and maybe addressing those in a different way.

The difficulty was to identify what could be done. As a top-15 UK law firm, we were clear that we needed to retain the integrity of the training that we would provide, but we wanted to add some flair.

With the help of a team of early enthusiasts, mostly drawn from our marketing and business development teams, we: '¨

• brainstormed ideas about what clients would find to be of real value;

• undertook a limited piece of market research; and

• spoke to a number of our key clients about the ways in which they would like their training delivered. '¨

Out of that thinking and those discussions was born the Busy Lawyers Programme (yes, that’s right, the BLP).

A fresh approach

Our firm’s overriding theme has always been that of ‘serious know-how that doesn’t take itself it too seriously’, '¨and this has become our strapline and mantra. Educating our clients and '¨sharing our knowledge on key areas '¨of law is paramount.

However, we wanted to innovate and push the boundaries: the programme had to be delivered differently, it had to be fun, it had to provide proper legal training, and each of those elements had to coexist in equal measure.

We looked at what we perceived was important to our clients and endeavoured to create a sustainable programme that met each of these needs (see Figure 1).

 

Figure 1: Devising the busy lawyers programme

Client need	The programme
Educate	·    Experts from five or six areas of the firm would examine the facts and implications of new and recently-tested old legislation
	·    Benchmark best practice
Interest	·    Bring to life potentially dry legislation and case law by creating an imaginary world through the use of a case study that threads together all five or six of the legal areas being addressed
	·    Make it real-life, rather than simply law
	·    Accessible
	·    Memorable
	·    Engaging
Networking	·    400 likeminded peers in one place at one time (over two days)
	·    Two coffee breaks and a networking lunch
CPD points	·    Half-day seminar worth four CPD points
	·    Held in October, at the end of the CPD year

 

Building a story

Everyone loves a story. We decided that, if the content was going to be compelling, we should devise a story around which our content would sit.

For each BLP event, we created a fictional company and built a story around the company and its characters. The company would be facing various legal issues, which our lawyers could then advise it upon. This gave us a unique platform from which to engage with clients and bring potential legal risks, pitfalls, implications and best practice to the fore.

And so we created the luxury pet food company ‘Meeow’, the brewer ‘Legales’, the airline ‘Solicitair’, the chocolatier ‘Chocolaw’, and many more in between. Each has allowed us to showcase our lawyers to clients and prospects in a way that engages with the issues in a practical and interesting way, but with a light touch of humour throughout (see box: Training case study).

The range of companies – and '¨their associated storylines – has '¨been challenging. At the outset, we decided that while each company had to be close to real life, it couldn’t be a thinly-disguised version of one of our actual clients. It would, however, have to have '¨the kind of problems that a typical client has, or else it wouldn’t feel real enough '¨for the in-house lawyers we were hoping to attract.

For example, while our fictional company of pirates was great fun and filled with puns (‘listing’ and ‘floating’ the company, for example), and may have been a step too far by hook or by crook, the feedback was excellent.

Training case study: ‘Chocolaw’ the chocolatier '¨'¨

At last year’s training event for clients, we focused on ‘Chocolaw’ the chocolatier company. The story started in 1901 in the town of Bradbury and in the kitchen of Charlie (aka ‘Choco’) Law; a small-town guy with big ideas. After growing exponentially (boosted by comfort eating during the cold snap of 1998) and merging with Anglo-Swiss praline company ‘Nut Guilty’ in 2005, ‘Chocolaw’ was born.

The company was experiencing the usual problems that companies face:'¨

• some claimed discrimination and cyber-bullying (is calling a colleague an ‘Oompalumpa’ on a social media network unlawful discrimination or workplace bullying?);

• some possible dodgy dealings as senior executives have ‘looked after’ foreign supplier ‘Alan Sugarcane’ too well;

• a contract whose terms weren’t obvious;

• literally, a death by chocolate, as a young girl fell into a vat of boiling Mississippi mud pie chocolate during an onsite tour;

• a possible takeover by ‘Bar Humbug’; and

• some threatened very bad press coverage.'¨

The company was clearly in need of some legal advice and so called in our experts to help it out with these sticky issues.

To get delegates in the mood, we went the whole hog and gave Chocolaw its own brand, look and feel.
Before the event, each delegate received a confirmation pack containing an entertaining case study (we know it was entertaining because we received unsolicited feedback on it).

Delegates also received the programme for the day in a package reminiscent of a posh box of chocolates (the programme had an image of a chocolate by each session and was presented in the style of a menu card).
Other unsolicited feedback on the invitation and pre-event mailing was extremely positive; our clients recognised attention to detail and appreciated it.

The branding and theme ran across every part of the day, so that there was a clear linkage between the case study and the lawyers’ advice.

Of course, all of this does take time. As a matter of course, everyone presenting rehearses thoroughly. Even the experienced public speakers get pulled up on their ‘ums’ and ‘errs’, their distracting arm-waving and their failure to deliver as if giving real paid-for advice to the case study client.

We also ensure each topic is given an answer: sitting on the fence is not part '¨of the deal.

Measuring results

The past eight years of the annual training programme have flown by, but no year '¨has been the same. The feedback that we have received from clients has increased each year, as has demand – so much so that, in 2010, we added a second day to the schedule.

We have used the feedback received to change and adapt our services, and we will continue to think creatively about how we can meet client needs. Watch this space, as we have plenty of ideas up our sleeves.

adam.rose@blplaw.com