Supervising Junior Lawyers
Getting the most from junior lawyers is easy to get wrong. Senior lawyers can easily forget what it was like when they started their career. They forget how long it takes to do a task which leads them to underestimate time for the junior lawyer. It’s easy to forget that unless they are supervised and taught the junior lawyer will not know even the basic terms in a practice area.
The biggest challenge with supervising junior lawyers is to give enough time to do it properly. This is one of those situations where if we don’t give enough time it takes more time to put things right.
Supervising junior lawyers training
This supervising junior lawyers training gives lawyers a clear framework on how to get it right. We review the key processes, that is, what to do and when to do it. How to set up the relationship on solid foundation be establishing clear expectations. And we cover some of the key skills required. We also give a number of frameworks to use as tools to help with supervision.
Participants
This training is suitable for lawyers who have the responsibility for supervising more junior lawyers. We have run this for Solicitors, Associates and Partners. Solicitors supervising paralegals, Associates supervising solicitors and paralegals, and Partners supervising all levels of lawyers.
Maximum number of participants: 12
Agenda
Introduction and objectives.
Challenges with supervision; the senior lawyer’s perspective.
What the junior lawyer needs; motivators and de-motivators.
Contracting: establishing a strong foundation for your working relationship.
Understanding the work styles of your junior lawyers.
Time required for success & the law of increasing return.
Key skills required in supervision.
The importance of feedback & how to give it positively.
Practical scenarios.
Participant scenarios.
How not to supervise!
Summary of workshop.
Personal action plans.
Pre-workshop activity
Participants consider their challenges and experiences of supervising junior lawyers.
Post workshop activity
Emailed action plans, plus one to one coaching available.
Outcomes
By the end of the workshop participants will have;
- A framework for supervising junior lawyers.
- Reviewed they’re approach to supervision.
- Gained ideas on how to assess the needs of the junior lawyers.
- Created personal actions.
Models used in our training
ITD Personality Model
Our Personality Model is easy to understand and simple to apply to everyday supervision situations.
Contracting
Contracting is a simple model for establishing a strong foundation to working relationships.
Case Study: Supervising Junior lawyers
This medium sized international law firm retains a family work atmosphere whilst delivering top quality legal services.
Junior lawyers are managed by associates and senior associates on a project by project basis, depending on the flow of work.
The need was simply to give associates and senior associates the tools to manage junior lawyers effectively. The desired outcomes included to give confidence to the participants and increase motivation in junior lawyers.
Following conversations with the training department, professional support lawyers and junior lawyers/trainees, we developed a series of 3 hour workshops.
The overall agenda was similar to that above. We helped the senior lawyers by basing all the activity on their experiences and live situations. This meant ideas were introduced in a context relevant to the lawyers’ everyday working life.
“Excellent sessions and the blend of learning and coaching works really well.”
“Very interesting and useful training.”
“The brief was delivered on. I was very pleased with the outcomes and the feedback from our fee earners.”
Start the conversation
Call us on +44 (0)800 804 8086
