Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/2582
www.iltanet.org 30 Peer to Peer F our years ago, an announcement came out about a new position at our firm, director of attorney professional development. As the firm's training manager, my first reaction to this news was to wonder what in the world this person was going to do that our training team wasn't doing. Our law firm education programs had traditionally consisted of a healthy dose of technical training to integrate technologies into the practice of law, so I had a dialogue with my chief information officer that sounded a little like this: "What is attorney professional development anyway? Isn't that what I'm doing for the attorneys at the firm? Attorneys don't attend most of the training we offer them and now we are hiring someone to do even more of it? Wait … is this person taking my job? I just don't understand the difference between our two positions." Then the moment arrived when I actually met the new director of attorney professional development. Finally, it all clicked. We talked about learning, professional development and training programs and quickly realized that we had similar goals and that we couldn't reach them without working together. It was time to let the dialogue and collaboration begin. Building a learning environment for the firm as a whole makes sense because our focus is more toward development of the attorney skills assisted by technology and less on the technology skills alone. The Andrews Kurth LLP team of attorney professional development and IT user support/ training offer reasons for close collaboration and share some best practices for doing so. Attorney Professional Development Professional development (PD) is education geared to promote the critical skills necessary to being a successful attorney. It includes advanced legal writing; business and financial statement mastery; client development; marketing, communication and interpersonal skills; leadership, project management and delegation; litigation training and negotiation. Do these professional development skills include technology? Yes. Since technology skills are tied into professional development, then it stands to reason that we would have to get more attorneys into technical training. To facilitate this, however, IT training and PD need to collaborate and plan together as a learning team. How we work Together to Make It Happen The strongest case for collaborative team efforts between IT and PD is the business basis, and it's certainly true that client service (internally for the firm attorneys and externally for firm clients) is greatly enhanced when the two departments work together to achieve common goals. Our primary learning goal at Andrews Kurth is to help attorneys grow professionally through educational opportunities. But what do attorneys really need? The quickest way to find out what training attorneys want and need is to communicate directly with them. But, just in case billable work gets between you and the scheduled time with an attorney, try communicating with the PD team. Because PD staffers communicate regularly with attorneys, they are a direct link to them. The PD director at Andrews Kurth meets with attorneys when they first arrive at the firm. As a team, needs are assessed, thoughts and details about skill levels in various areas are established and a bond of trust is born. With this information, a comprehensive professional development plan is created. Some of the ways we deliver these PD learning opportunities are: new associate orientation, which includes: • Three days of intensive training focused on being an • AK attorney Team-building activities with associates and partners • Educational sessions (including time keeping • strategies, legal writing and a firm overview with introduction to management) The Importance of a United Focus and Purpose for Training and Professional Development