In 2014 innovative legal learning enjoyed substantial success. US and Asian legal organizations put their money where their mouth was: innovative legal competence development was introduced on a wide scale.
In clear contrast, European law firms were difficult to nudge forward. Exceptions apart, the Europeans clung to their traditional ways of competence improvement. Change in 2015?
It remains to be seen whether this wide gap will narrow in 2015. Partners in European law firms as well as educational managers in legal organisations seem to lack interest in new educational developments.
Modernising instructional methodology or investing in legal educational technology is generally not planned for 2015.
Developments in 2014
In 2014 accounting firms launched fiscal e-learning programs for professionals. Although the programs are ok to watch, do not expect much competence improvement from investing time in these programs.
Despite that much money has been thrown at these programs, they are hardly engaging. Worse, any incentives to activate the learner’s mind are lacking.
Also in 2014 some big law firms adapted their internal courses. However, both L&D departments and participants agreed in expressing disappointment about the results: boring, passive, overwhelming and not engaging ….
What’s the problem?
Speaking to stakeholders, I think the European legal L&D problem has not changed over the years: putting too much responsibility on the legal content experts. They simply cannot do it on their own. Teaching law is about (at least) two expertises: law and teaching.
I contrast this to the way medical specialists are taught. In medical L&D too content experts are responsible for much of the teaching. However, they work closely together with instructional design and teaching experts to ensures that the medical expertise gets transferred to the learner’s mind.
Where e-learning is used in medical training, e-learning developers and graphic designers are considered indispensable. As a result the effectiveness of medical training has left legal training in the dust many years ago.
Legal Europe: WAKE UP IN 2015!!!!