Strategy Two – Find a Stakeholder Champion
Find a stakeholder champion who can bring your LTC4 goals to the table. Who do you know in the firm who can be a champion for you to stakeholders? Request an audience with whomever you can to start the ball rolling. LTC4 can provide you with presentations, articles, case studies and other publications containing all of the statistics you need to make your argument. When you find a stakeholder, or a champion who can present your case to a stakeholder, focus your argument for LTC4 Certification on these vital points:
- Professional Development. Professional Development is a good place to start. Professional development requirements for first and second year attorneys have changed and technology competency has become a bigger part of it. In fact, a recent change to the Florida Bar Association’s CLE requirements now specifies that 3.0 hours of the total annual CLE hours must be dedicated to technology training. Law school graduates traditionally don’t graduate from law school knowing how to use Word, a DMS or a PDF product to the extent necessary for the practice of law. Adding an LTC4 Certification requirement to the firm’s professional development path is another way to cultivate the future of your firm.
- Clients Demand It. Your argument should focus on the fact that directly and indirectly the industry asking for some proof of technology proficiency among legal professionals. Indirectly through much greater scrutinizing of client bills. Directly, because your clients are looking for a way to distinguish two equally legally competent firms - this is common knowledge in the industry. Proof of technology efficiency/competence is one distinguishing factor. Clients are already asking for LTC4 Certified attorneys specifically. If you are waiting until your client asks for LTC4 certification, you are playing catch up and may have already lost that engagement.
- Cost. Finally, the learning never ends. From a new hire’s onboarding, to a new software update, to new application rollouts, training is an ongoing internal process. What better way to streamline this process than with an industry standard core competency that can be used to build a learning plan? New hire training and software upgrade training can drain both time and money if your training team is reinventing the wheel by creating core competencies in house. LTC4 Membership gives the trainers in your firm access to industry standard core competencies created by the very industry that uses them.
Structuring all of training from an LTC4 core competency, and including some type of assessment proving success in those competencies, yields an industry standard certification which is becoming recognized world-wide. It gives the firm just one more competitive edge. And that’s something that your stakeholders will truly value.