By Doug Striker bio
I think it’s safe to say that the legal industry is not the most “agile” profession in the marketplace. The law actually breeds the opposite of agility. We tend to reward slow processes, long research endeavors, decisions-by-committee, slow turning of the ship to accommodate changes.
So, it is no surprise that the rapid changes demanded by COVID-19 outbreak have rattled law firms to their cores.
To put it more bluntly, I’ll quote a couple of people I recently heard speak at an ILTA Roundtable discussion regarding the legal industry’s use of tech tools to get work done “during these difficult and challenging times:”
- “I have a lot of self-represented litigants on my [virtual] docket and many of them are more comfortable with technology than the attorneys that I see.” Judge Emily Miskel
- “The pandemic has driven fast adoption. Previously, we would have had committees for each phase of technology advancements, and testing phases, and it would have taken two years for us to achieve the level of technology use that we are now seeing.” Judge Emily Miskel
- “Technologists have saved the day. They have saved partners and attorneys who have chosen to ignore technology throughout their careers.” Technologist and author Craig Ball
My friends, if your law firm is not using this pandemic to re-visit your technology practices (ie. If you are thinking, “When this pandemic ends, we’ll just get back to work the way we always did”), then you are digging your firm’s grave.
Now is the time to invest in agility
From Zoom depositions to virtual jury trials, the legal industry is changing… forever. Are you taking the necessary steps now to make sure that your team is ready to compete in the legal marketplace that emerges after COVID? Are you building resiliency and agility in your employees?
Scaled Agility defines business agility as: “the ability to compete and thrive in the digital age by quickly responding to market changes and emerging opportunities with innovative business solutions.”
But how do you foster agility in your law firm, especially at a time when people are working remotely?
I have a solution that can not only prepare your people for the future but also make your life easy while doing it: A Learning Management System.
A cloud-based LMS can help you:
- Create and deliver new training quickly. Load it and launch it with a few clicks.
- Train employees to use the very tools that the legal industry is now embracing (ie. Zoom) as well as all the standard tools that they (aka “attorneys”) should have been learning all along but are probably just now discovering a desperate need for (ie. Word).
- Promote remote training. Your employees can access it from everywhere and you can create individualized learning plans to accommodate learners at different levels.
- Deliver social learning opportunities with webinars and online communities that reward participation.
- Share return-to-work policies and require completion before allowing employees back to the office.
- Onboard new employees from a distance (either remotely or six feet apart).
Remember what Judge Emily Miskel said, “Attorneys don’t pick the law because they love technology. They resist it. But resisting doesn’t give your client a good advocate. If you embrace it rather than resisting it, I think you will find it to be a net positive.”