5 Ways to Make Your Legal Training Course Work Harder For You
If you are a solicitor, legal executive or other practising lawyer, how can you ensure that you get the best out of every legal training course that you attend?
Whilst you have a duty to obtain at least 16 CPD points every year if you are qualified, or a duty to stay up to date for your clients benefit if you are not, you also have a duty to make sure that you get the most out of every training course that you attend.
These five tips will help you to prepare for and follow up your legal training.
Pre-Attendance Preparation
1. Select The Right Course Provider
Before rushing to book a course, run through the following questions to see whether the course provider you are thinking of choosing is the right one for you. You can add your own questions too, but at least these will provide you with a starting point.
- Is the legal training provider a specialist?
- Do they offer a variety of training courses?
- Do they offer any additional benefits (eg helpful articles or a newsletter with special offers)?
- Do they offer training in a variety of legal subjects?
- Do they seem professional and approachable?
- Are there good testimonials from people that have attended their courses?
- Is the training interactive or passive?
2. Selecting The Right Course
Once you have run through the above list, you should then ensure that you think about the areas of law that have challenged you or caused you the most problems recently. Here are some questions to help you decide where you need a little extra help.
- Did you have a narrow escape? Did you scrape by in one case but realise that it was more by luck than judgment? What type of matter was this? Would training help?
- What wakes you up with worry at night? Is there a particular case or type of matter that keeps waking you up? Is it drafting complex Schedules of Special Damages in a personal injury case or attending interlocutory hearings? Could training relieve some of this stress?
- Is there a new area of law that you want to move into? Could a training course provide you with a helpful ‘push’ into this area?
3. Make A List
Once you have selected your course you need to determine what you want to achieve from it. Use the points prepared above and then for at least three to four weeks before the course date start compiling a list of points you want covered by the course. Whenever you have a question on one of your cases that you are not entirely sure of, add it to your list for the course. This preparation is vital to ensure that you obtain the maximum benefit. Once you have started your list place it in a prominent place near your desk so that you can quickly add to it. If you are dictating it, print it off each time it is updated. Just having the list next to your desk will remind you that you are attending the course and ensure that you think about it in the run up to the course date.
At The Course
4. Actively Listen And Participate
With your list in hand you are ready to attend the course. You or your firm have paid for the course and now is the time to ensure that you obtain the maximum benefit. Sitting near the front will ensure that you cannot drift off and so is a good start. It will also save you from being distracted from anyone in front of you (eg the constant fidgeter).
Keep your list to hand and whenever an area with a question is covered tick it off and put the answer next to it. This alone will ensure that you pay attention and will be your follow up tool once you return to the office.
If questions are not covered ensure that you ask (and if at all worried remember that most times other people are thinking the same thing).
After The Course
5. Follow Up
Immediately on return to office you must implement your key points. There will be items that you listed as vital to implement and now is the time to do this. Resist the urge to check your post and read your emails before taking action. You know that that will lead to your list being put on the “action later” pile. You also know that if that happens you will never refer to it again. Now is the time to take action and ensure that you benefit from the course over and over again. Look back at your pre-course list to see why it was so important to attend. Failure to take action now will mean that you cannot remove the worries that you had prior to the course.
Change any precedent letters or processes to include the items on your list and you will ensure that obtain the maximum benefit from the course.
Summary
Whilst everyone may want something different from their legal training courses, using this process will ensure that you obtain the maximum benefit from your time out of the office.
