Law firm courts success through training

Citation

(2007), "Law firm courts success through training", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 39 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict.2007.03739fab.004

Law firm courts success through training

A specialist UK law firm trained more than 100 staff in a program that included “humor in the workplace” and mock court hearings. It proved so successful for CS2 Lawyers, of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, that it earned the company an East Midlands regional prize in the latest National Training Awards.

CS2 specializes in consumer law, dealing with claims for road accidents, employment disputes and travel cases. But a consultation in 2003 showed that staff were dealing with an average of 130 cases each – heavy workloads that not only prevented them from working effectively, but also slowed down settlements and led to clients complaining. With people under too much pressure, motivation and productivity were affected, absenteeism was high and morale was low.

Staff needed relevant, focused training to help them to fulfil the company vision of “providing the most technologically advanced, fastest and highest quality legal service”.

Gill Dance, office manager, said: “To deliver this vision, we had to change the way we dealt with cases, develop faster systems, and embrace technology to reduce the volume of paper.”

Training, in which 108 staff participated, was tailored to four groups, graded according to qualifications and experience. External trainers provided training for part-qualified staff and law-degree students, and managers and supervisers designed training workshops for this group and for administrative staff, customer-service advisers and school-leavers.

Since the training began:

• •

  B: 15 people have completed, or are studying for, a National Vocational Qualification, through Derbyshire Chamber of Commerce, which funded some of the training;

• •

  26 staff are on a course to qualify as legal executives;

• •

  three managers will shortly qualify as solicitors; and

• •

  CS2 achieved goal of becoming a paperless office four months ahead of schedule.

Gill Dance concluded: “Effective training and development have transformed CS2, making it much easier to operate inclusive, efficient and productive teams. We are particularly proud that everyone in the company has played their part in the transformation, which has made us stronger and more competitive.”