Legally Large covers a broad range of educational topics for the law firm. We customize our training to be exacting to your law firm’s professional development needs for staff or attorneys. We can create classes specific to your firm’s unique needs, as well as modify existing curriculum.

Our core curriculum is divided into five categories. We can also partner the training categories with the matching consulting for your firm, giving you the tools needed to administer, operate, and optimize your entire law firm practice.

Training can take place live, over the internet through webcasts, via teleconference, or online. Whether an hour or a day, we tailor it YOUR way!

TASK-SPECIFIC SKILLS

• Email Netiquette: Making Email Work For YOU
• Staff Boot Camp: Practical Training For Legal Staff
• Business Writing for Legal Staff: Overcoming Common Grammatical Errors

PROFESSIONAL IMAGE

• Perception IS Reality: Enhancing the Image that Impresses Clients
• Write Smarter: Sharper Writing Skills for Legal Professionals

WORK FLOW MANAGEMENT

• Time Management for Legal Staff: Taking Control of Your Day
•  Work Flow Management: Increase Billable Hours by Working Smarter, Not Harder

WORKFORCE COMMUNICATION

• What's REALLY Your Role? Establishing an Ownership Attitude
• Can It Really Happen? Working Together as a High Performance Team
• Can You Hear Me Now? Effective Communication Tools for Support Staff
• Conflict Management: Manage Conflict & Make It Work For You
• Generational Diversity: Understanding How the Other Half Thinks

LEGAL ETHICS

Staff Ethics: Who Needs To Know & Why They Need To Know It
(Also available online!) Every seemingly normal firm hides a potential ethics clash - an event that changes it forever. And what is that event? A story of ignored rules, uneducated staff, inadvertent disclosures, or just plain mistakes that gives us a profile of what we need to learn from every breach of ethics.

Based on Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, Section 5.03, “Responsibilities Regarding Nonlawyer Assistants”. 

• Unauthorized Practice of Law 
• Insider Information 
• Understanding & Maintaining Confidentiality for Clients and Information 
• Conflicts of Interest 
• Lessons from Real-Life Scenarios 
• The Staff’s Role in the Ethics Triangle 
• Cause and Effect of Violations
  
  

Loss & Claims Prevention: The Proactive Staff

According to TLIE, approximately 30% of malpractice claims stem from lack of attorney/staff communication, administrative errors, and procedural issues, almost all of which are preventable. With this knowledge, staff can become proactive in loss prevention by learning the rules and procedures that can prevent the errors and mistakes that lead to malpractice claims.
Based on Texas Lawyers’ Insurance Exchange loss prevention recommendations.

• Lessons Learned from Actual Claims 
• Nature & Elements of Malpractice Claims 
• Areas of Loss Prevention 
• Implementing Proper Loss Prevention Procedures 
• Communicating Clearly & Effectively with Attorneys & Clients
  
  

TASK-SPECIFIC SKILLS

Email Netiquette: Making Email Work For YOU
Email is such a large part of our business lives that we can’t imagine ever being without it. It’s become so commonplace that we end up doing most of our communicating with it – for our prospects, clients, vendors, co-workers, and even our friends. And yet, many of us don’t really know how to use email in the most efficient and effective way. Human communication is approximately 90% body language, 8% tonality, and 2% written word. With email, the first 98% is removed. If not done properly, email can actually hamper communication with vagueness, unclear requests, ineffective language, and unintentional meanings.

We’ll explore the protocol of using email effectively, efficiently, unobtrusively, politely, and with rules governing socially acceptable behavior (etiquette) over the internet (net) – Email Netiquette!

• Best Practices for Writing Effective Emails 
• Make Your Email Relevant & First In Line to be Read 
• Learn the Difference Between Good & Bad Email 
• Dealing With Flaming & Flamers 
• Efficiently Read & Receive Email 
• Maintaining a Clean Inbox & Still Keeping Everything You Need 
• Email Organization & Filing
  
  

Staff Boot Camp: Practical Training For Legal Staff

Tailored to your firm's individual needs. Do you think your staff could use a brush up on their practical skills? Don't leave them to learn (or relearn) procedures and processes on-the-fly without the training required for smooth operation and top-notch work product. This seminar can include:  

• Proper Drafting of Correspondence & Pleadings
• Creating Document Templates and Macros
• Proper Legal Citations
• Creating and Maintaining a Filing System
• Client Billing & Timekeeping
• Setting Up a Client/Case Database
• Client Confidentiality and Attorney-Client Privilege
• Marketing and Business Development
• And other topics as requested

Business Writing for Legal Staff: Overcoming Common Grammatical Errors

Like it or not, people will judge you by the way you speak--and even the way you write e-mails! This fascinating presentation offers fool-proof, easy-to-remember tricks for avoiding and correcting common writing errors that ruin the positive impression that is the objective of all business communication and correspondence.

Participants leave their confusion about correct usage behind with this fun, user-friendly class--without memorizing even one grammar rule! So bring your questions, your pet peeves, and your grammar arguments for this interactive session!

• Those Darn Apostrophes! 
• Proofreading Best Practices
• Editing Your Work 
• Common Errors 
• Resources & References
  
  

WORKFLOW MANAGEMENT

Time Management for Legal Staff: Taking Control of Your Day

Are deadlines missed? Too much overtime? Working for 3 attorneys and everything’s due immediately? Is quality of work not consistent? Is your staff harried because there’s just “too much work to do and not enough time to do it”? Are you tired of things not getting done because there just aren’t enough hours in the work day? Do you use your staff to leverage your time? Is everyone working together as a team? If not, valuable billable time is being wasted.

We’ve all figured out that time can’t be managed; only behaviors can be managed. Staff will be encouraged and motivated to start working on their behaviors to proactively solve administrative issues for their attorneys and firms. This class is filled with tips, techniques, and productive ideas that anyone on staff can begin using immediately. 
 

• Prioritizing Projects
• Managing Your Workflow
• Meeting Deadlines
• Time/Work Negotiation Skills
• Control & Manage Email
• Improve Productivity

Work Flow Management: Increase Billable Hours By Working Smarter, NOT Harder 

What the heck is workflow? The automatic routing of work and/or documents to the people responsible for working on them at the right time. Put simply, the whole idea is to keep documents and information moving efficiency and effectively.

The single most important factor in increasing billable hours WITHOUT working harder is simply to work smarter. Staff will be encouraged and motivated to start thinking smarter and more proactively to solve administrative issues for their attorneys and firms. This class is filled with tips, techniques, and productive ideas that anyone on staff can begin using immediately. 
 

• Techniques for Transforming Nonbillable Hours Into Billable Hours 
• Route Documents & People to the Right Place 
• Provide the Right Information 
• Follow-up to Meet Deadlines 
• Step-by-Step Processes 
• Organizing Yourself & Your Work Environment 
• Ideas to Optimize Staff 
   

PROFESSIONAL IMAGE

Perception IS Reality: Enhancing the Image that Impresses Clients

Sometimes we get so comfortable in our jobs and with our co-workers that we overlook simple common courtesies or blend social and business interactions much too freely. Whether your office culture is conservative or casual, your firm’s professional image should never be in question. Clients are impressed by a staff that knows how to treat them professionally and exceptionally. And they expect that a professional law firm will employ a professional staff. Does your staff pass the test?

Write Smarter: Sharper Writing Skills for Business and Legal Professionals

This informative presentation enables participants to sharpen their writing skills, while providing easy tips and tricks aimed at correcting the common writing errors that sabotage the business-generating, professional impression that is the objective of all business communication and correspondence. This interactive, comfortably-paced class employs many exercises to enhance your staff’s ability to write and edit for the intended result, and to assist upper-level management in their correspondence. 

• What’s the Point of Correspondence? 
• The 3 “Tell ‘Ems” of Effective Correspondence 
• Building Your Outline 
• Writing for Flow 
• Resources & References 
  
   

WORKFORCE COMMUNICATION

What's REALLY Your Role? Establishing an Ownership Attitude

What’s the most important quality that every administrator & attorney wishes their staff possessed? An ownership attitude resulting in outstanding client service, attention to detail, correct prioritization of duties, and “can do” behaviors. However, many times, staff will fall into ineffective and uninspired work habits which result in average performance, subpar client service, sloppy behaviors, and an “it’s not my job” attitude.

When staff understands their true position in the firm (and that they are responsible for their own performance), their behavior translates to a more profitable relationship, better service for internal and external customers, accelerated motivation and higher productivity (translating into higher billable hours for the entire firm). 

• Understanding the Foundation of the Firm
• The True Purpose of Every Support Staff Person
• Fulfilling Your Role With an Ownership Attitude 
• Becoming Your Own Profit Center 
• Outstanding Client Service 
   

For more information: Read Kickstart to a More Productive Staff

Can It Really Happen? Working Together as a High Performance Team

How does a team differ from just a group of people working together? A team shares common goals, are accountable for their actions, and are interdependent on each other for success. A law firm's staff can be a high performance, effective team if taught how to work together as a true team and, most importantly, how to minimize and manage conflict. 

• Understanding the Roles & Definitions of Teams 
• Five Stages of Team Development 
• Conflict in Teams 
• Minimizing Negative Conflict 
• Understanding Communication Styles 
• Managing Conflict Quickly

Can You Hear Me Now? Effective Communication Tools for the Support Staff

Law firms are filled with vibrant people on all levels – attorneys, administrators, paralegals, and other support staff. The dynamics of working in the legal environment are unique and not easily understood in the corporate world; therefore, the communications challenges need to be met with legal-specific communications training.

Staff will learn methods for dealing professionally and effectively with clients, attorneys, and other staff members in the everyday office environment and/or during stressful moments. Ideas on best practices for achieving desired results will be highlighted. Staff will hear ideas and techniques on how to keep calm under duress, how to deal with gossip, and communication etiquette.  

• Communication Challenges Unique to Law Firms 
• Understanding Different Communication Styles 
• The S-T-R-E-T-C-H™ Method of Communication 
• Maintaining Your Professional Image at All Times 
• Figuring Out the Real Problem 
• Dealing With Gossip and Its Destructive Nature 
• Communication Etiquette 
  

 
For more information: Read Kickstart to a More Productive Staff

Conflict Management: Manage Conflict & Make It Work For You

Conflict is inevitable when we work with others, whether it’s personal or business issues. Unfortunately, many people have no idea how to deal with conflict and try ignoring it, bulldozing their way through it, or making everyone else wrong. However, conflict can actually be productive if it’s handled appropriately and timely.

When staff understands the true nature of conflict, they can learn to recognize their own trigger points, as well as possible flash points for others. They learn the role that perception plays in all conflicts and learn methods to handle negative conflict, take advantage of healthy conflict, and resolve issues.  

• Understanding What Conflict Really Is
• Differentiating Positive & Negative Conflict
• Determining the Underlying Problem(s)
• Managing Conflict Quickly
• Tools to Handle Conflict & Resolve Issues
• Building Consensus

• Each Generation’s Themes 
• Importance of Speaking for Corporate Values 
• Generational Approach to Problem Solving 
• How to Provide Proper Support