Biglaw, Boutique Law Firms, Continuing Legal Education / CLE, Education / Schools, Small Law Firms

Beyond Biglaw: Back To School (Or, Some Tips About Continuing Legal Education)

Columnist Gaston Kroub offers some advice for fulfilling CLE requirements.

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With the kids heading back to school, it’s a good time to think about how education is changing — especially for lawyers. Our profession prizes continued education, and of course mandates it for those lawyers who otherwise would be too focused on billing or finding clients to learn. Both the way lawyers learn and for some the way they teach have been completely changed by technology. It may be trite at this point, but this is really the golden age of access to information and learning opportunities for everyone, lawyers included.

While on balance the development of the technology that has created the current state of information access has been a wonderful human achievement, there are downsides. Information overload can be paralyzing, and the speed at which information can be found and deployed creates stresses for those required to keep up. But if someone wants to learn something new, they can. And more than ever, for free.

As easy as it is to learn using today’s technological resources, that same technology has changed how a lawyer can teach others just as dramatically. When I gave my first CLE less than ten years ago, it was for lawyers within my firm, in one of the conference rooms, perhaps with some lawyers from other offices “joining” by speakerphone. For many years in Biglaw, that was how CLE was given and consumed. The biggest differences between sessions was the speaker and the size of the conference room. That changed over time, as firms started subscribing to audio or even video recordings of CLE from outside providers. With that development, it became easier than ever for lawyers to “consume” their CLE, often at group lunches sponsored by the firm. “Come for the food, stay for the CLE,” or something like that. Those lunches were a good way to make a dent in CLE requirements, especially if you aimed to get to one every month or two.

As busy as Biglaw lawyers often are, it was not uncommon for my colleagues and me to encounter a “CLE scramble” as registration deadlines approached….

It is no different in a boutique environment, where the demands of running a business and servicing client work can leave little time for CLE. Well before I ever binged on a season of House of Cards on Netflix, CLE requirements had me binging on ethics-credits-earning “video on demand” via some firm-wide, unlimited-use subscription. Eventually I realized that the best way to accumulate CLE was at longer programs, whether they be bar association-type events or industry-specific conferences. Or to actually teach CLE’s myself. The exchange rate is very favorable on the latter.

There are other benefits to giving CLEs. First off, you get to learn the subject. And once you do that, you can usually spin off variants on the core topic for future discussions with little extra effort. Second, there is a significant marketing boost you can get by providing CLE, particularly in this age where presentations live on in digital form. Third, technology has made giving CLEs easier than ever. Webcasts, whether audio or video, can be recorded at your leisure, and once recorded, can find varied audiences with the right home. For example, a CLE I gave a few months on mediation strategy through West LegalEd has already been accessed a few hundred times. Pretty good reach, especially since the content was substantive, and the preparation and delivery of the material were not very difficult. In fact, it was fun, which is why I did it again recently. And plan to continue on a periodic basis.

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But if you want to get to the point where you can teach, it is important to maintain an attitude of always being willing to learn. And today’s resources for learning, especially learning “non-legal” material, are exceptional. As well as what some of the CLE providers have done in terms of making programs more accessible using technology, there is a long way to go before any of them start to approach the presentation quality of a Coursera course, for example. At the same time, while the Courseras of the world have done a great job bringing high-quality, college-level courses to the global public, there is a real hole in their course offerings when it comes to providing continuing education geared to professionals. Room for improvement on both sides of the fence, I suppose.

So what can a lawyer interested in reawakening their “student” persona do? Even the busiest Biglaw lawyers have the time to take an online course. If they really don’t have the time, then they really need a break, and taking a course on something interesting outside of the latest transaction they are handling is a great way to take a “breather” during the day in a productive way. You can choose to take a course to further your skills, as I did when I studied text design for emails and memos, or you can just take something that looks interesting for the sheer pleasure of learning something new. I did that as well, when I took a Wharton course on Gamification. Sure it was fun, so much so that I actually stuck with the course all the way to the end. Even took the final. And believe it or not, I actually learned some things about marketing that may have application in my practice. When you open your mind, you never know what might drop in.

Please feel free to send comments or questions to me at gkroub@kskiplaw.com or via Twitter: @gkroub. Any topic suggestions or thoughts are most welcome.

Gaston Kroub lives in Brooklyn and is a founding partner of Kroub, Silbersher & Kolmykov PLLC, an intellectual property litigation boutique. The firm’s practice focuses on intellectual property litigation and related counseling, with a strong focus on patent matters. You can reach him at gkroub@kskiplaw.com or follow him on Twitter: @gkroub.

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