The New Lawyer Accelerator Program
Module 1 – Setting Yourself Up for Success
If you want a new lawyer to be able to focus on undertaking their legal work efficiently, effectively and professionally, then there are processes, protocols and procedures that they will need to follow each day so that everything runs as smoothly as possible.
In this module, the focus is on explaining some preliminary protocols, helping out with some handy housekeeping hints & taking care of some initial introductions. This decreases the level of distraction which has the benefit of creating ideal conditions for lifting concentration and performance levels right from day one.
Module 1 – Setting Yourself Up for Success: 5 sessions
How to create a professional workspace
As the saying goes: start how you intend to finish. This session explains appropriate professional standards for your new lawyer’s workspace and also teaches them about Workplace Health and Safety requirements.
Avoiding Out-of-Hours Hazards
Since a 9-5 day is probably going to be more of an exception than the rule, in this session, the focus is firmly on out-of-hours logistics so that plans for completing work don’t get sabotaged by being locked in, or out, of the office.
Top 5 Technology Do’s and Don’ts
Whether it’s personal use of firm technology or using personal devices for client matters – the blurred lines are far from clear to new graduates. From daily issues in relation to passwords and IT glitches, to use of mobile phones, it’s all covered in this ‘no-frills’ session.
Office Protocols – Clearing Up Common Confusion
Many everyday office protocols aren’t obvious to a graduate who hasn’t worked in a law firm before. This session alerts them to dress codes that need to be complied with, no-go areas to avoid, managing meal breaks and abiding by the (often trouble-causing) rules of the kitchen.
The Stress-Free Way to Meet Your Colleagues
Being in unfamiliar surroundings can be stressful, and people who are stressed can never perform at their best. This session helps to reduce the pressure by introducing graduates to their colleagues and co-workers so that they know who’s who.
Module 2 – First Things First – Law Firm Policies, Processes and Procedures You Must Know
Because law is a highly regulated profession it means that adhering to your firm’s systems is an important priority if you want to avoid compliance issues.
Acclimatising to a legal workplace environment can be challenging to the uninitiated. This module selects essential aspects of the functioning of a law firm that directly link to how graduate lawyers do their daily work – like opening client files, answering the phone and making file notes. It sheds light on why following the correct processes matters, how those procedures apply to them on an everyday basis and the sometimes-serious consequences that can flow from non-compliance.
Module 2 – First Things First – Law Firm Policies, Processes and Procedures You Must Know: 5 Sessions
Find Out the Right Way to Manage Client Files
Professional regulations mean that its essential for new lawyers to quickly learn the administrative requirements for opening and closing client files. Accountability for keeping track of hard copy files and original documents is also addressed.
Telephone Techniques to Impress Clients
Clients can react strongly to how they are spoken to on the phone. Training in ten practical tips will assist your new team member to develop a suitably professional tone from the very start.
Put That in Writing: Practical Tips for Achieving Professional Standards In Your Firm
Topics covered include following firm formats for letters and emails, use of appropriate salutations & signoffs and the ongoing necessity for detailed file notes to not only be made, but also saved in your firm’s records.
Printing, Scanning & Copying – Are You Really as Efficient as You Think?
Folders filled with incorrectly ordered documents, delays due to collating errors, missing pages & illegible documents, double-sided copies when single-sided was required, insufficient sets – graduates learn how to save precious time by getting these things done properly first time.
Document Delivery x 5 Ways (they’re all different)
Documents that can’t be sent by email, the expense of express couriers or the need for an affidavit of service. All these practicalities and more are clearly explained for a graduate who hasn’t done any of this before.
Module 3 – Easy Ways of Understanding the Basics of Law Firm Business
New lawyers embarking on their career often have their heads in the clouds, but the commercial aspects of belonging to a legal firm mean that they need to quickly get their feet firmly planted on the ground when it comes to billings, budgets and invoicing.
There’s nothing theoretical about this module. Graduates are taken through the essential business basics that directly link into their daily legal work – how to complete timesheets correctly, monitoring billable hours & budgets and deconstructing a typical invoice are just some of the business realities of practising law that are clearly explained for them in this training.
Module 3 – Easy Ways of Understanding the Basics of Law Firm Business: 7 sessions
What Being a Fee-Earner Will Mean For You
Graduate lawyers often don’t understand where they fit into the overall law firm structure. So, this session clarifies the differences between the two broad categories of fee earners and non-fee earners.
Many New Lawyers Don’t Know a Lot About Their Budgets. Do You?
How an individual budget relates to fees generated, the way in which its calculated, what will happen if it’s not reached – these are all important questions for new lawyers that are answered in this session.
Proven Ways to Track Your Billable Hours
New graduates learn how to track and manage billable hours – invaluable skills that are sometimes skipped over to everyone’s detriment.
Time Recording Step-By-Step. It’s Easy To Do If You Follow This Process.
Trainees are taken step-by-step through the process of correctly completing timesheets, so that as well as getting their work done, there’s an accurate, up-to-date record being kept as well.
Costs and Disbursements – If You Don’t Know the Difference You’ll Have Problems
It’s crucial for new lawyers to be aware that legal expenses can include both costs and disbursements, as well as understanding the differences between the two.
Invoicing Made Easy
To assist graduate lawyers adapt to the business context of being in legal practice, they are taken through how the invoicing process all fits together, including clarification of WIP and write-offs.
New Lawyers Don’t Miss This – Important Information About Costs Agreements, Trust Accounts & Costs Assessment
A whistle-stop tour through some of the key points of the highly regulated costs environment of the legal profession assists to put all of this information into perspective for new graduates.
Module 4 - The Most Effective Ways to Handle Client Files
New lawyers usually struggle quite a bit when they’re allocated their first matters. Often that’s because, although their legal knowledge might be quite impressive, without a solid base of practical skills, there’s a crucial missing link.
Without guidance, they don’t know where to start and can lose a lot of valuable time either staying stuck or going around in circles. In this module the file management process is broken down for them into ‘Five Focus Factors’. Each ‘Focus Factor’ concentrates on a specific skill set that can be immediately applied by graduate lawyers so that they’re able to undertake their daily legal work more effectively.
Module 4 – The Most Effective Ways to Handle Client Files: 5 sessions
Are You Clear About What You’re Supposed to be Doing?
Practical pointers on finding out precisely what’s required to be done provide a useful guide for new lawyers unaccustomed to the precision of real-life legal work.
You Won’t Excel Until You Know How To Do First Things First
Diving into intense work before getting documents, information and materials properly organised is generally a huge waste of everybody’s time. This session explains how to go about things in the right order.
10 Top Tips for Creating Order Out of Chaos and More
Sticking to an allocated task, not overcomplicating what you’ve been asked to do, and Ten Top Tips for creating order out of chaos all assist a new graduate to achieve more effective file management.
Mistakes New Lawyers Make When They Work On Their Files
Getting stuck and going nowhere, making only minimum effort if something seems insignificant, or getting completely carried away and going off the rails are all problems that can be minimised by learning how to focus on the next step.
The Risks of Rushing. Find Out Why Going Fast Could Be Your Biggest Danger
Rushing is virtually guaranteed to result in errors. But inexperienced new lawyers often tend to focus on fast instead of on details. In this session they’re introduced to the lawyer’s mantra: always pay proper attention to detail.
Module 5 – Taking Care of Telephone Inquiries Professionally
In a busy law practice it’s very common for new lawyers to be allocated the role of dealing with telephone inquiries from potential new clients. But, as the first point of contact, the quality of how they interact with callers will automatically reflect on your firm as a whole. If someone is greeted with a second- or third-rate conversation, then instead of having a new client, you’ll probably never hear from them again.
Since you’ll obviously want those first impressions to be favorable ones, this module teaches graduate lawyers a 3-phase system for handling telephone inquiries professionally and effectively. Beginning with proper preparation, being clear about the scope of the call and completing often overlooked follow-up steps are all part of this extremely useful training.
Module 5 – Taking Care of Telephone Inquiries Professionally: 5 sessions
The 7 Critical Facts You Need to Find Out BEFORE You Pick Up the Phone
To deal with an inquiry effectively, new lawyers must first inform themselves about how your firm functions – and it’s too late to do that once the call has started. This session ensures that they’ll be properly prepared.
3 Questions You Must Ask Yourself For Professional Client Calls
Speaking to a potential client will be totally different to any other telephone conversation that a graduate has ever had before. They’re taught 3 key questions to ask themselves if they want to conduct a telephone inquiry professionally.
The Critical Key Takeaways from Client Calls
Graduates begin to work through the answers to the 3 key questions that were covered in the previous session. They clarify the information that both the lawyer and the caller need to take away from the call.
Where to From Here? How to Clearly Explain Next Steps to Clients
This session provides the answer to key question #3. Potential new clients who call your firm need to know ‘where to from here’. Options for ‘next steps’ are explained so that your graduate understands what to do.
Ten Top Tips For Tying Up Loose Ends
Whether a call is a ‘yes, no, or maybe’, new lawyers must complete further steps once they’ve hung up the phone. They’re given a checklist of 10 essential tips for tying up loose ends so that nothing gets overlooked.
Module 6 - Your Essential Skills for Organising Meetings and Conferences
Although it’s common to put new lawyers in charge of organising meetings or conferences, it tends to come with a lot of trial and error. Most senior legal practitioners resign themselves to dealing with the inconvenience and disruption because there doesn’t seem to be any other way.
However, problems frequently stem from graduates not understanding everything that’s involved. In this module, they’re carefully taken through the process of organising a meeting or conference one step at a time. From finding out whose attendance is required, to where it will be, how long it will take, how to co-ordinate availability, locking it in and not-to-be-forgotten follow ups, all the essential organisation components are explained. Which means that, when you ask your new graduate to organise your next meeting or conference, you can feel confident that they’ll know what to do.
Module 6 – Your Essential Skills for Organising Meetings and Conferences: 5 sessions
Feeling Confused But Don’t Want to Look Like a Novice? Common Terminology Explained
This session clears up some basic differences between meetings, conferences, mediations and conciliations for new graduates so that they’ll be more tuned in to what you’re asking them to do.
Don’t Try to Organise a Meeting Without These 7 Indispensable Pieces of Information
No matter what sort of meeting or conference is being organised, there are 7 indispensable pieces of information that your new lawyer needs to know. Otherwise, there are going to be mix-ups, errors and oversights.
5 Unmissable Steps to Follow When You Hit the Phones
Using a case study, graduates are shown how to compile all the necessary information, call participants, and co-ordinate availability.
Don’t Miss Out on These 10 Lock-It-In Logistics
New lawyers are taught how to get dates pencilled in, confirmed by email, and locked in so that, instead of having scarce available dates slip through your fingers, your meeting or conference can go ahead as planned.
Can’t Find Any Suitable Dates? Discover Proven Ways to Create More Options
When you’re busy, you really don’t want to be continuously interrupted because a graduate is having trouble co-ordinating dates. This session gives them pro-tips for opening up more options when dates don’t match up first time round.
Module 7 - How to Prepare an Impressive Barrister’s Brief
As far as typical tasks that are assigned to new lawyers go, preparing a barrister’s brief is one of the most common. Unfortunately, since someone fresh out of university has probably never even seen a brief before, they’re unlikely to have more than a rudimentary idea about how to put one together.
The advantage of this module is that it assumes zero knowledge on the graduate’s side. Using a straightforward case study to facilitate learning through real-life examples, the training goes right back to bottom-line basics so that nothing is missed. Brief preparation is broken down into five easy to follow steps – that’s one for each letter of B.R.I.E.F. Graduates Begin at the beginning and Finish with the final checks so that they learn the proper processes involved in putting together an impressive barrister’s brief.
Module 7 – How to Prepare an Impressive Barrister’s Brief: 6 sessions
There’s No Need to Stress. Find Out What’s Included in a Barrister’s Brief
If you’ve never worked in a law firm before, then you probably wouldn’t know what a brief was if you tripped over one. Graduates are shown what a brief is, its component parts and how it all fits together.
Preparing A Brief? Make Sure You Know How To Begin With The Background
Using their case study, graduates are shown how to first get background materials in order, with a clear understanding of what the brief is about, instead of jumping straight into the middle of a matter without direction.
Did You Realise That There’s More To Reviewing Documents Than Just Reading Them?
As well as reading through and understanding background information, new lawyers also need to learn how to review what they’ve been given so that they can identify issues and research any relevant points.
The Essential Step of Immersing Yourself in Information
Weeding out irrelevant information, identifying relevant information that is missing and compiling supplementary information that will assist a barrister to better understand the matter are all an integral part of the brief preparation process.
Discover the Unbeatable Benefits of Creating a Chronology
The value of a properly prepared chronology cannot be overstated. In this session, new graduates are shown how to prepare a chronology using their case study.
You’ll Need to Complete These 15 Finishing Touches if You Want to Fully Finalise a Brief
Tips on preparation of observations are supplemented with a checklist of 15 Finishing Touches so that your brief gets out the door and up to chambers with nobody falling at the final hurdle.
Module 8 - Core Competencies for Effective Client Communications
No doubt you’ll be wanting your new graduate to communicate directly with clients, especially about more routine sorts of matters. However, can you be certain that they’ll be able to do that in an appropriately professional manner? Common errors with emails, lack of familiarity with legal letters, inexperience in business calls and a tendency to send text messages can all create problems for novice lawyers.
In this module the focus is on putting in place core competencies around the communication methods that junior lawyers will be engaging in the most when they first join your firm – emails, letters and telephone calls. Since even small slip-ups can shake a client’s confidence, through reducing the risk of errors in your practice, this basic communications training will provide valuable benefits from the very start.
Module 8 – Core Competencies for Effective Client Communications: 5 sessions
If You Follow These Tips Legal Emails Can Be As Easy As 1, 2, 3
Layout, salutations and format for emails are covered in earlier modules. This session switches to ever-present practical problems that can create serious headaches including who’s included on an email, mistakes with attachments and risks of forwarding email chains.
You Can’t Go Wrong With This 15-Point Checklist For Legal Letters
A 15-point checklist along with a whistle-stop tour through a sample letter ensure that graduates get a good grasp of basic professional standards for legal letters.
10 Things Not to Do in a Professional Telephone Call
Graduates still finding their feet are unaccustomed to speaking with clients in their new role as a lawyer. This training guarantees a more professional standard of conversation with your firm’s clients.
Beware of These Common Text Message Traps
Text messages are so commonplace that new lawyers don’t always recognise the dangers. This session alerts them to the professional risks that they must avoid.
Best Ways to Handle Responding to Clients
Lots of new lawyers don’t know how to react when they’re contacted by a client. Tips for how to accommodate workload priorities, while at the same time acknowledging client concerns, are covered in this session.
Module 9 – Top Tips for Taking Client Instructions
While it’s very normal for graduates to be asked to take instructions from clients in new matters, it shouldn’t really come as any great surprise that they frequently have only a vague idea of what that actually involves. Which means that you’re left with a half-story because they didn’t go into enough detail. Or only a fuzzy notion about what the client wants due to a graduate not asking essential questions. Or insufficient client input has been obtained because the new lawyer has done too much talking and not enough listening.
Since client instructions set the foundations for the legal services that your firm provides, it’s crucial that graduates have a clear understanding of the mechanics of how that’s done. This module clears away common roadblocks and puts new lawyers on track with skills to effectively take client instructions.
Module 9 – Top Tips for Taking Client Instructions: 5 sessions
Clearing Up Confusion About Client Instructions
Since it’s going to be hard to take instructions effectively if you’re not sure about what ‘client instructions’ actually are, this session clears up confusion and gives new lawyers much-needed clarity.
You Won’t Be Able to Take Instructions if You Miss These Before and After Phases
It’s easy for graduates to have the impression that taking instructions is a book-ended activity that begins and ends with a client meeting. But proper prior preparation and crucial follow-up inquiries also form part of the process.
Why Note-Taking is Never Enough if You’re a Lawyer Taking Instructions
‘Taking’ instructions can suggest a passive role, so that graduates do little more than take notes while a client talks. This session highlights the problems this approach can cause – the answers come in session 5.
Lawyers Should Be Doing Most of the Talking. Myth Debunked
If a graduate is doing all of the talking, how are they going to find out what your client’s story is if they’re not doing enough listening? Problems are pinpointed, solutions follow in the next session.
Straightforward Solutions for Effectively Taking Client Instructions
Nobody will walk away with an effective set of instructions if either the client or the lawyer is doing all of the talking. Graduates are provided with practical tools for achieving an effective two-way flow of communication with clients.
Module 10 – Setting the Standards for Your Everyday Ethics
Induction training wouldn’t be complete without some time being put aside for this high priority lawyer’s topic – because no matter if you’ve been in practice for one day, 12 months or 35 years, professional ethics will always lie at the heart of legal practice.
This module assists graduates to shift ethics from textbook theories to a practical, everyday perspective. It dispels the notion that ethical breaches are confined to ‘bad eggs’ deliberately stealing millions from the trust account. Instead, it gets the message through, loud and clear, that even well-intentioned lawyers (sometimes very junior ones) can land themselves in ethical messes. Using real life examples, this training assists graduates to come to grips with the reality that private conversations, social media posts, trying to help out and personal problems can all create ethical risks – anywhere, anytime, any day.
Module 10 – Setting the Standards for Your Everyday Ethics: 5 sessions
Ethics. The Reasons Why Even the Experts Can’t Agree
Law is more than a career – it’s a profession. Graduates benefit from guidance in moving beyond understanding ethical rules, regulations and obligations as academic theory and discovering how to integrate these into their everyday legal work.
When Private Conversations Lead to Dinner Party Downfalls
New lawyers might not fully appreciate the seriousness of maintaining client confidentiality. It assists them to take on their professional responsibilities when they realise the negative consequences that can flow from even private conversations.
Could You Be Headed for an Ethical Social Media Slip-Up?
Understanding that what ‘feels’ right may not be ethically correct is a crucial distinction for new lawyers to come to terms with if they’re ever feeling tempted to post, tweet or go viral.
Why Helping Out Can Create Ethical Hazards
The fact that being well-intentioned does not equate to acting ethically can be a confusing concept. By examining the real-life experiences of other lawyers who made wrong choices, graduates are assisted in understanding their professional obligations more clearly.
Even Personal Pressures Can Lead To Professional Ethical Problems
Inexperienced graduates are at high risk of making poor decisions. Training in alerting senior lawyers to growing pressures instead of holding back until it’s too late could save your firm from having minor, manageable issues turn into major problems.
Module 11 - Meetings & Conferences – Your Guide to Preparation & Participation
Asking a junior lawyer to prepare for and take part in meetings or conferences is probably one of the most typical requests you could make. However, unless someone explains in detail everything that needs to be done, then graduates can’t really be expected to pull a rabbit out of a hat.
In order for conferences and meetings to run smoothly, there are lots of practical actions that need to be undertaken beforehand. And if a new lawyer is also going to be participating, then there’s no way for them to figure out what’s expected of them without somebody instructing them in advance. This module gives graduates a detailed rundown of what’s involved in preparation and clarifies their role in meetings so that everything goes according to plan without any unwanted hiccups.
Module 11 – Meetings & Conferences – Your Guide to Preparation & Participation: 5 sessions
Why Flux & Flow is the Only Way To Go
To ensure that everyone is up-to-date, graduates are taught how to keep senior solicitors and barristers informed about material changes that occur between the time when a meeting was first organized and the date on which it takes place.
You Should Never Overlook These 7 Indispensable Pieces of Preparation Information
New lawyers learn how to apply their meeting organisation skills to the preparation phase: sending reminders to participants, sorting out the correct documents and factoring peak hour traffic into travel times are just some of the common-sense points covered.
Top Preparation Priorities
This session identifies the priority preparation actions a junior lawyer needs to undertake for 3 extremely important categories of people: senior solicitors, barristers and consultants.
Participation – More Than Just Showing Up
Graduate lawyers are given guidance on what their role will be at a meeting/conference. Hint: It’s more than getting comfortable, settling back and watching what’s going on and less than launching into giving their opinions, advice and viewpoints.
Why the End of Your Meeting Can Be a Whole New Beginning
After a meeting or conference is over, is often when a new lawyer’s work is only just beginning. To ensure that nothing important gets forgotten, this session shines the spotlight on 7 essential follow-up steps for graduates to complete.
Module 12 – Accomplishing a Confident First Court Appearance
Although the thought of being on your feet before a judge is probably foremost in the mind of a nervous graduate lawyer, the main takeaway from this module is that there’s a whole lot more to a court appearance than just appearing in court.
Graduates are taken through the key steps for proper preparation and alerted to just how long it can take to tick all the boxes. Once at court, the focus is on practicalities like: tracking down your opposing solicitor, what to do when your matter is called, and how to stand your matter down in the list when things don’t go to plan. To round things off, follow-up is also featured in the training so that dates are locked in with barristers and witnesses, clients are informed of court directions and dates are diarised.
Module 12 – Accomplishing a Confident First Court Appearance: 5 sessions
10 Essential Actions You Must Take Before You Head Up To Court
Graduates are taken through a list of practical 10 actions that need to be taken while they are still in the office to make sure that they will be properly prepared for their court appearance.
The 10 Powerful Pieces of Intel Hidden in a Court List
From checking that your matter’s been included, to the time of listing and how many other matters there are, graduates discover 10 practical ways to take full advantage of the valuable intel that’s tucked away in a court list.
Don’t Forget Anything Important – Your 7-Point Court Appearance Checklist
The combination of being new, nervous and uncertain can put graduates into a bit of a dither. A handy 7-point checklist means they won’t trip themselves up by forgetting something they need when they head off to court.
Give Yourself the Advantage With These 7 Keys To Courtroom Competence
A new lawyer who’s confused about how to get to the bar table, address the registrar, or whether to sit or stand won’t be able to concentrate properly. Familiarising them with the process beforehand means they can stay focused.
Your Court Appearance Won’t Be Finished Until You Complete These 7 Final Follow-Up Steps
The courtroom glamour can’t outshine the importance of finishing all the follow-up steps. Confirming with the barrister, locking in witnesses, dates into diaries – the essential steps involved in completing the court appearance process are all covered in this training.
Module 13 – How to Communicate Like a Lawyer
Whether you’re dealing with clients, colleagues, consultants or the court, there’s little in common between communicating like a university student on the one hand and as a lawyer on the other. Although your graduate probably wouldn’t have studied this topic in a single textbook, the communication skills covered in this module are a central part of what effective lawyering is all about.
For practical reasons, the training is focused primarily on written communications (most of the principles can be applied to verbal communications as well). To make is as relevant as possible for the daily legal practice of a new lawyer, each session highlights one common mistake that gets made all the time, along with straightforward tips for how to confidently work around the problem areas so that your graduate won’t get tripped up.
Module 13 – How to Communicate Like a Lawyer: 5 sessions
The Language of Law. 3 Translation Tips to Help You Communicate Clearly with Clients
Graduates frequently make the common mistake of forgetting that clients don’t speak the ‘language of law’. Since confusion can never be a good outcome, graduates are given 3 ‘Translation Tips’ as tools to use to keep client communications clear.
Why You Shouldn’t Confuse Legal Advice With Home Delivery Pizza
The common mistake addressed in this session is centred upon unreasonable expectations. This training shows inexperienced newcomers that providing legal services is not like a home delivery pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less or your money back.
Robust Interchange or Aggressive Brawl? Learn How to Spot the Difference
Whether it’s taking things too far to satisfy client demands for strongly worded letters or engaging in overly friendly interchanges with opponents, solutions are provided so that graduates can avoid the common mistake of failing to maintain professional standards.
No. You Don’t Have to Feel Intimidated by Expert Witnesses
New lawyers can feel quite intimidated by experienced expert witnesses. Consequently, a common mistake is to make assumptions about the extent of the expert’s knowledge of a matter, their awareness of court requirements and the scope of their retainer.
Reminder: Your Communications with the Court are Not Casual Conversations.
It’s hard to think of an area more fraught with danger for a new lawyer than communications with the court. This sessions alerts graduates to the common mistake of failing to adhere to appropriate formalities in a court context.
Module 14 – Five Practical Steps for Progressing Your Matters Efficiently
You want new lawyers to gradually take on more matters and assume a higher level of responsibility. However, an excellent knowledge of legal principles will be of little benefit if they’re feeling stuck about what to do next, rushing in without thinking things through or wasting a lot of time going down wrong paths on their own.
The practical skills taught in this module address a range of common challenges faced by graduates: how to effectively utilise precedents instead of trying to reinvent the wheel; finding the balance between going too far and not doing enough; getting the message that it’s up to them to pay attention to details – these are just a selection of the topics covered. Without a doubt, this training module is certain to make a supervising solicitor’s job a whole lot easier to manage.
Module 14 – Five Practical Steps for Progressing Your Matters Efficiently: 5 sessions
Tap Into the Proven Power of Precedents
Learning how to look for and locate helpful precedents before embarking on reinventing the wheel is guaranteed to give graduates a big advantage.
Stay Safe. 3 False Friends of Effective Matter Management Revealed
New lawyers are shown the difficulties they’ll find themselves in by rushing their work, getting stuck in perfectionism or burying their heads in one task while higher priority matters are ignored.
Are You a Lone Wolf?
New lawyers who continuously take their matters too far on their own can be more of a hindrance than a help to supervising solicitors. This session assists them to establish a better balance.
5 Common Ways You Can Fail to Deliver. Find Out the Simple Solutions
There are five typical situations that can cause even very switched on and intelligent new lawyers to fall short of the mark when learning to progress files on their own. This session offers straightforward and practical solutions.
Essential Knowhow. 10 Smart Ways to Sweat the Small Stuff
Correcting spelling, tidying grammar mistakes, fixing formatting and sorting out references are not what a senior solicitor is supposed to be doing. This list of 10 items will improve the quality of drafts given to senior lawyers for review.
Module 15 – How to Achieve Proficiency in Workload Management
Usually, all that graduates have to guide them in managing file workloads are their university study styles. But back then, even if they had to deal with the pressure of exams, assessments and assignments they could always safely plan ahead within the comfort of a programmed timetable. Suddenly, real-life legal practice mans that, instead of having everything predictably planned in advance, they’re faced with constantly juggling deadlines, urgent demands and short timeframes.
If new lawyers try to stick with their old methods, then they’ll soon start to struggle. To stay in control, they need a better way to manage their workload. This module teaches them fundamental practical skills so that they have the tools they’ll need to be able to adapt quickly to changing circumstances, promptly adjust their priorities to match demands and implement actions effectively with pro-active responses.
Module 15 – How to Achieve Proficiency in Workload Management: 5 sessions
How Proficient Are You? Take The Quiz and Find Out
Regardless of how thoroughly you plan, prioritise or strategise, the daily life of a lawyer is filled with unpredictable elements. Graduates use a quiz to gain useful insights into mastering essential workload management skills.
5 Common Workload Management Mistakes
Juggling constantly changing priorities isn’t easy. New lawyers are frequently tripped up by 5 Common Workload Management Mistakes that can have serious consequences. Solutions to come in the next session.
Improve Your Workload Management Skills With This Proven 5-Step Daily Action Plan Strategy
This session provides practical, proven solutions to the 5 Common Workload Management Mistakes so that new lawyers can develop effective skills for competently managing the competing priorities of their client files.
3 Rapid Responses for Pro-Active Planning
New graduates are taught straightforward skills to assist them to pro-actively stay flexible, reassess and adjust their priorities because, for a lawyer, effective workload management is never a passive exercise.
Why you must never not note up (the consequences can be extreme)
Near misses, oversights and expired deadlines could be virtually eliminated if all new lawyers learnt just one thing – how essential it is to note up next steps. Always. This session shows them how, why and what to do.
Module 16 – Knowing How Far to Take Your Matters on Your Own
Before long, the scope of work that you want to assign to a new lawyer is likely to include the day-to-day carriage of your more straightforward matters. However, it’s difficult for graduates to settle into a suitable level of autonomy – usually, they swing between taking things too far so that you have to spend a lot of time undoing wasted actions or else they’re reluctant to move forward on their own without overloading you with every detail.
This module identifies 10 top troublespots that come up all the time and prevent new lawyers from hitting the right mark. Using everyday examples that they’re likely to encounter themselves, this training takes graduates through the ‘too much’ and ‘not enough’ problems that they’ll be confronted with and provides practical solutions that they can begin to implement straightaway in their own work.
Module 16 – Knowing How Far to Take Your Matters on Your Own: 5 sessions
Is Not Enough Matter Management Letting You Down?
Not enough matter management can create major complications when graduates are expected to manage a greater number of files, an increased workload and more complex tasks.
3 Mistakes That New Lawyers Make All The Time
Too much deep diving (taking things too far, too early), not enough restraint (no, you weren’t supposed to agree to that) and too much wheel reinventing (let’s locate precedents before you begin drafting) are all covered in this training.
Could These Two Trouble Spots Be Sabotaging Your Performance?
Not enough checking of details can lead to work that is full of mistakes. And leaving too much until the last minute can have disastrous consequences. These two trouble spots are highlighted in this unmissable session.
Two Things That New Lawyer’s Get Wrong and How to Fix Them
Expecting your senior solicitor to tell you the answers without having enough opinions of your own can make a grown lawyer cry. Leapfrogging over intermediate steps because of too much focus on the end result needs to be avoided.
Boost Your Productivity by Avoiding These Beginner Problems
Not enough zooming out is when focusing on one task leads to a failure to take notice of what else is happening in your matters. Too much mystery deals with the importance of tracking revisions in letters and documents.
Module 17 – How to Effectively Manage Your Own Client Meetings
They started off by organising meetings. Then they progressed to preparation, followed by participation. But the next level – running meetings themselves – can come as quite a shock to graduates. They quickly discover that running meetings is an entirely different story to sitting on the sidelines while an experienced senior lawyer does all the heavy lifting.
Pitched to match their beginner status, this module is focused on taking instructions. The process is broken down for new lawyers into 7 components – that’s one for each letter of M.E.E.T.I.N.G. As well as showing them how to conduct the meeting itself, graduates learn pre-meeting logistics, they’re shown how to undertake proper preparation and finish with follow up. Which means that, instead of getting bogged down in these process-related problems, you can spend your one-on-one time focusing on the substantive issues.
Module 17 – How to Effectively Manage Your Own Client Meetings: 7 sessions
10 Straightforward Meeting Management Logistics for You to Check Off Before a Client Arrives
If you want to make a professional impression, then you need to be properly organised. New lawyers are given a list of 10 extremely straightforward meeting management logistics to check off before a client arrives.
Don’t Show Up To Meetings Under-Prepared
It’s easy for graduates to get fixated on the meeting itself without realising the amount of preparation that’s required beforehand. This session focuses on examination and evaluation of background materials so that they don’t show up under-prepared.
Clearing Up Some Common Misconceptions About Client Meetings
Since there can be a lot of confusion in the mind of an inexperienced graduate about what’s expected from them, this session clears up some of the most common misconceptions.
Talk Tracking Tactics. If You Want Effective Meetings Then You’re Going To Need These
Graduates are taught effective strategies (Talk Tracking Tactics) to assist them to strike the right balance between handing the whole meeting over to a client on the one hand or doing all the talking themselves on the other.
7 Tips for Effective Questioning
Using everyday examples, this session explores 7 Tips for Effective Questioning, including what to do if clients misunderstand a question, go off track with their answers or you don’t understand what they say to you in reply.
Notes, Note-Ups and Next Steps. Have You Been Getting These Right?
This session includes: Ten Notetaking Knowhow Tips for avoiding problems like feeling too awkward to ask clients to pause or repeat points; practical examples on noting-up future actions in diaries; confirming next steps with clients after meetings have finished.
5 Pro Tips for Guiding Client Meetings (Because Meetings Won’t Run Themselves)
Meetings don’t run themselves. In this session, graduates are trained in 5 Pro Tips for Guiding Client Meetings so that they understand how to step into the leadership role and take charge of guiding the discussions.
Module 18 – Five Keys to Matter Management Mastery
It’s no secret that a new lawyer’s work will become increasingly more complex. Sometimes that’s a gradual evolution and at others well, legal practice being what it is, getting thrown in at the deep end is more of the rule than the exception.
Being continually confronted by things they haven’t done before is what being new is all about. However, a graduate’s productivity and proficiency can be vastly improved if they’re provided with structure in advance. This module trains them in 5 key areas of matter management mastery so that they’ll have the tools they need to approach their legal work more systematically. Being equipped with a reliable framework means that, instead of becoming stressed, distracted or overwhelmed, their work automatically becomes less disrupted, flows more smoothly and their capacity to concentrate on the substantive issues is increased.
Module 18 – Five Keys to Matter Management Mastery: 5 sessions
How to Be a Master Clarifier Who Never Gets Fooled by Assumptions
Since lawyers need facts, the message for graduates in this session is: ‘beware of assumptions’. They are taught how to dig below the surface by using questions to get to the real facts.
How To Become A Master Organiser (Even When Things Are Unpredictable)
Many new lawyers are totally unprepared for the unpredictability of legal practice, with its ever-changing priorities and deadlines. This session shows them how to have everything noted up, with a reminder and enough time to complete the task.
Become A Master Co-Ordinator With This 5-Point Checklist
When they’re put in charge of co-ordinating reports, conferences or court cases graduates need to be very ‘hands-on’. A 5-point checklist guides them through the key steps so that they can carry out their role competently.
5 Indispensable Follow-Up Actions. The Secret Weapons of a Master Follow-Upper
For a lawyer, following -up is crucial. There’s just no room for a ‘set and forget’ approach. In this session, graduates are trained in 5 Indispensable Follow-Up Actions to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks in your matters.
Becoming A Master Updater Is Easy When You Follow These 3 Simple Steps
This session instructs graduates in how to keep senior lawyers in the loop, so that you’re spared the frustration of either having to constantly chase them up to find out what’s happening or being overloaded with too much detail.
Module 19 – Useful Instructions for Instructing a Barrister in Court
Although instructing barristers in court is one of the most commonplace roles undertaken by graduates, their lack of previous exposure to the courtroom environment can leave them very much on the back foot. Unfortunately, this sense of uncertainty (and the related lack of confidence) is a definite disadvantage when they’re dealing directly with clients at the court.
This training module is designed to help new lawyers feel more at home in the courtroom before they get there. It’s filled with practical pointers like: what to say to clients about how to conduct themselves in court; step-by-step directions for managing adjournments; guiding them through how to set themselves up at the bar table. Removing so many unknown factors in advance means that graduates can feel less intimidated, giving them a confidence boost that certainly won’t go unnoticed by your clients.
Module 19 – Useful Instructions for Instructing a Barrister in Court: 6 sessions
Give Yourself the Benefit of Experience with These 5 Essential Hearing Preparation Points
Dealing with topics such as such as last-minute rushes (was there ever a hearing without one?), leaving sufficient space in your diary, and knowing where everything is, the 5 Hearing Preparation Points covered in this session are essential training.
Nervous About What to Say to Clients at Court? Just Use This 10-Point Client Courtroom Drill
Any new lawyer who’s feeling like a fish out of water can print out this 10-Point Client Courtroom Drill and take it along with them to court so that they’ll know how to guide clients through the courtroom process.
10 Things Every New Lawyer Needs to Know About Adjournments
There’s a lot to adjournments – when they are, how long they’ll last, what you, your client and barrister will be doing. Graduates are taught 10 things every new lawyer needs to know about adjournments so that they’re fully informed.
7 Practical Tips for Setting Yourself Up at the Bar Table.
Where should you put your folders? Is your phone on silent? Have you downloaded documents? These questions and more are answered for new graduates with 7 Practical Tips for Setting Yourself Up at the Bar Table.
Will You Know What to Do in the Courtroom? A 10-Point Hearing Checklist to Guide You
What will graduates do when the words ‘all rise’ echo through the courtroom? Needing to whisper, take notes and leave enough room for barristers are just some of the useful tips included in a practical 10-point hearing checklist.
5 Essential After-Court Wrap Up Actions Explained
There’s plenty of work for instructing solicitors to do after the judge leaves the bench. Five Essential After-Court Wrap Up Actions are explained so that everything that needs to be done, is done, before graduates call it a day.
Module 20 – Smart Strategies for a Sustainable Legal Career
High stakes, tight deadlines, major issues, crucial decisions, serious consequences – a fairly typical pressure-pack of responsibilities that lawyers are required to deal with, day in and day out. Faced with these sorts of demands, it’s little wonder that inexperienced graduate lawyers still finding their way in a new career unintentionally set themselves on a fast track to burnout.
Racing through tasks, overloading themselves beyond capacity and a reluctance to speak up even if they’re starting to struggle are all factors that can contribute to early burnout. This module highlights how even positive attitudes, strong work ethics and striving to excel all come with mistake-loaded shadow sides. To assist new lawyers avoid these risks, a series of common burnout situations are analysed along with a series of sustainable solutions that can be easily applied as practical antidotes.
Module 20 – Smart Strategies for a Sustainable Legal Career: 7 sessions
Pause To Prioritise. You Won’t Survive and Thrive Until You Learn This Technique
If graduates bounce straight from one task onto another it means timesheets fall behind, priorities are overlooked and reminders are forgotten. Sustainable strategies keep things in control and safely out of risk areas.
Have You Set the Bar Too High?
Graduates striving to excel often set the bar for their own performance way too high. If they’re also telling themselves that they ‘should’ be able to handle things on their own, then they’re headed directly into a danger zone.
Too Much, Too Fast. The Risky Road to Burnout
Graduates doing too much too fast, and rushing through what they’re doing, have entered burnout territory. In this session, they’ll find out how to set a more realistic pace that’s better matched to their level of experience.
Enthusiasm. Could it Lead to Your Downfall?
Enthusiasm is one thing, but any new lawyer who believes that they can keep on taking on more and more work when they don’t have the capacity to do it is going to end up overloaded and overwhelmed.
Why Focus on Results Can Be a Bad Thing
Successful lawyers are focused on getting results and achieving outcomes. But if that attention becomes too all-consuming so that other priorities are overlooked, then they’ll be creating turmoil in workload management.
Divide and Conquer. The Foolproof Sustainable Strategy
Graduates don’t necessarily realise that big blocks of uninterrupted time are a rarity in lawyer land. A sustainable approach means learning how to break legal work down into bite-sized chunks so that everything gets done on time.
Murphy’s Law Says That If Anything Can Go Wrong, It Will. You Can Deal With It.
Murphy’s Law: If anything can go wrong, it will. A sustainable legal practice means graduates need to develop workload management strategies that focus on always being flexible, alert and proactive.