A lawyer told me “It is not the grades you make but the hands you shake”. Increasingly, I meet lawyers who admit having given up on learning anything worthwile from their legal training. But they found another use.
The internal big law firms training opportunities as well as courses provided by associations of legal professionals and commercial offerings are at best teacher centered one-man shows. At worst nightmares of stumblng, mumbling or simply boring presenters.
However, nowadays meeting new faces is becoming an important driver for going to trainings. And frankly, why not? Once we realize that legal training is not to bear competence improvement, why not make the best out of it?
It can be fun to be away from your desk, unavailable to your colleagues and clients. You might meet a potential client, an useful contact or even a new friend.
But it is a costly investment. Not only is a lot of money spent on meeting these new people, participants also miss out on necessary new competences.
The only way out of this dilemma is analysing why legal training underperforms. I will eat my hat if one of the main reasons is not lack of instructional expertise.