Legal Technology Journal

In a novel twist on usual training methods Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s course on best practice in e-mail use involves a sci-fi theme to make an otherwise dry topic interesting and memorable.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is an international law firm with more than 2,400 lawyers in 28 offices across 18 countries. In a typical month the firm will send and receive in excess of 1.75 million e-mail messages. Although the firm has not experienced serious negative repercussions from careless or inappropriate e-mail usage, it was keen to initiate a training programme to reduce risk and ensure best practice. Freshfields also wanted to lead by example and implement a consistent approach to e-mail communication across the firm.

Commenting on why the firm implemented best practice guidelines for e-mail usage, James Wood, corporate partner, says: ‘There’s been a dramatic explosion in people using e-mail – very few of our staff regularly use faxes or write letters now. But no one has ever stopped and thought about the best way to use e-mail for communication, its limitations as a communication tool, some of the risk elements and so on.’

‘People need to stop and think before they press "send",’ Wood continues. ‘That applies to everything – to the length of the e-mail to your client, to whether you should be sending it at all. Every time one of our team sends an e-mail they should be asking themselves, "Is it sensible for me to be sending this?"’

With this in mind, in June 2005, Freshfields contacted Fuel (www.fuel-europe.com), a compliance and training specialist, to develop a bespoke and engaging online course. Fuel was tasked with conveying the importance of e-mail best practice in a way that would generate maximum impact and retention for a diverse audience of lawyers around the world.

The challenge

As part of the project, the Freshfields e-mail advisory group developed a set of guidelines that staff should adhere to when communicating by e-mail. These points, along with an understanding of the risks involved in poor e-mail practices, needed to be communicated to all lawyers regardless of their seniority, department or location.

Concerned that a standard memo, e-mail or classroom-based training would not achieve the right level of impact, the firm turned to Fuel, which has more than ten years’ experience in developing media-rich, scenario-based courses that successfully achieve behavioural change.

Targeting more than 2,400 fee-earners across different areas of practice and jurisdictions, the course needed to be instantly appealing and relevant to its users, while at the same time not giving too much bias to any one department.

‘The key challenge of the project was to develop a piece of learning that would relate to such a large number of people spread over a wide geographical area,’ explains Steve Dineen, chief executive and co-founder of Fuel. ‘A further consideration was the competing demands on the fee-earners’ time. They are extremely busy, so the course had to generate sufficient impact to ensure it would warrant, and keep, the lawyers’ full attention, and it had to be delivered as quickly as possible.’

The solution

Fuel worked closely with Freshfields to design a highly creative online course around the guidelines. Time and thought was given to ensure the approach was entertaining without being frivolous.

Using an international secret agent theme, Fuel developed a scenario-based course that was pertinent to the lawyers’ day-to-day work. To create extra impact, Fuel also included cameo appearances from various partners and members of the firm’s risk committee.

Dineen adds: ‘By using a recognisable theme as a framework for the course, the learning is immediately engaging. We then applied our understanding of educational psychology to communicate the key messages in a way which was entertaining, informative and most importantly easy to retain.’

Mindful of the limited time available for this form of training, Fuel designed the course in five bite-sized modules each around five to ten minutes long. These were then delivered weekly during February and March 2006. This allowed the lawyers to access the training around their client work and without taking too much time in one sitting.

David Fitch, Freshfields’ head of knowledge management systems and projects, comments: ‘Fuel worked closely with us throughout the project. It was a difficult brief to create a course that would resonate with lawyers internationally.’

The benefits

As a result of the course, Freshfields was able to give its e-mail guidelines the importance and impact required. Fuel’s approach to delivering consistent and clear messages helped to raise awareness of the importance of e-mail best practice and reduce the risk of careless usage.

Accessing the course via the corporate intranet allowed the firm to reach a wide number of fee-earners, regardless of where in the world they were based. This also helped the firm achieve up to 85% completion rates on the modules.

High-quality, media-rich graphics turned the essentially dry guidelines into a memorable experience. The creativity and unusual approach also prompted conversation around the offices, bringing even greater awareness to the issues raised.

More than 2,000 staff undertook the training. Although the course was primarily aimed at fee-earners, members of the various business services teams were also given access.

The programme was cost-effective, with the investment providing ongoing benefit as all new staff will take the course as part of their induction. Freshfields has also made the course available to staff via its intranet, alongside the e-mail guidelines, which were published in 11 languages.

Commenting on the success of the e-mail best practice project, Fitch says: ‘This has been a successful project for the firm in that we have succeeded in raising awareness about e-mail usage and we have successfully tested the concept of online education.

Charles Christian