Washington Trainers' Forum

Updated
7-21-2010

PAST MEETINGS

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2002

Implementing a University style program in your firm requires a great deal of thought and planning. It can offer a great many advantages to your staff as well as the firm in general, but certain elements are crucial for the program to be a success.

Our program - Patton Boggs University (PBU), has been in place for two years. It took approximately one year of planning and preparation prior to the actual implementation of the program. Our program was a joint effort between the Human Resources and Information Systems Departments. PBU is a mandatory training program for secretaries with an optional certification program.

The first step to a successful training program is to decide what will work for your firm. Consider the size of the firm and the number of offices. Will your Management Committee approve a program with a monetary incentive? How will you market the program to your secretarial staff? How many classes per year will the attorneys allow their secretaries to attend? In order for the program to be a success, it is important to convince the attorneys that this program is not only beneficial to the secretaries, but to the attorneys as well as the firm as a whole. Some of the benefits to consider are as follows:

Benefits To The Secretarial Staff

• More Efficient Secretaries
• Less Stress
• Better Attorney/Secretary Relationships
• Better Relationships with the Secretarial Team
• Training may be applicable in other areas
• External training is costly and time consuming

Benefits To Your Firm

• Higher Quality Work Product
• More Efficient Secretaries
• Team or Practice Area Benefit
• Better Client Service with the ability to better communicate and meet the needs of the client
• Higher level of professionalism means a better reputation for the firm

Our program consists of three levels of mandatory training - Basic, Proficient and Expert. The Expert level of the program is still in the design phase. All three levels of the program have an optional certification associated with it. Secretaries who choose to become certified at the Proficient and Expert levels will receive a $1000 bonus per level of certification. There is no bonus associated with Basic Certification. Certification is Patton Boggs certification only and is based on material covered in the classes. Secretaries have the option of testing out of a particular level and not attending the training. In order to test out, the secretary must achieve a score of 95% or higher. Secretaries have the option of taking a test for certification which covers all classes in that particular level.

Material covered in the classes is based on the needs of our secretarial staff. At the Basic level, secretaries are required to take classes on skills which we feel every Legal Secretary should possess. The classes at the Basic level are as follows:

• Merge
• Revision Marking
• Section Break Refresher
• Styles Refresher
• Table of Contents
• Table of Authorities
• Outlining with SoftWise
• Numbering

These classes are required for every secretary within their first year of employment with the firm.

The Proficient level is designed to take the training to the next level including the basics of PowerPoint and Excel. The Proficient level is separated into Mandatory and Optional classes. Material from both mandatory and optional classes will be part of the certification process. The Proficient level classes are as follows:

Mandatory

• Docs - Proficient User
• Outlook - Proficient User
• Beginning PowerPoint
• Beginning Excel

Optional

• Computers Made Easy
• Templates, Toolbars and Settings
• PowerPoint: Charts, Graphs and Tables
• PowerPoint: Animation
• PowerPoint: Slide Transitions
• Excel: Formulas
• Excel: Charts and Graphs

Marketing Your Program

Once all decisions are finalized and your program is approved by the Management Committee, it is important to work out a good marketing plan for implementation to the secretaries. The program will not be welcomed across the board, but a positive response from the majority is necessary for a successful program. Decide what incentive plan will most benefit your firm. A monetary bonus is always a plus, but if that is not an option, then you must be creative in deciding how to reward the secretaries for completing classes or for certification.

If you have any questions, Pam Keller is available at PKeller@PattonBoggs.com. 

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