Collaborating With Consultants On In-House Training Programs

Foremost among them is the task of staffing in-house offerings with truly talented instructors. Firm attorneys or administrators are almost always the first choice of faculty for these sessions for any number of reasons. Firm members know their audience as no one else could and they have (we hope) the respect of their comrades. Many are great speakers and teachers as well. Also, teaching opportunities can offer firm members an opportunity to enhance presentation skills and professional visibility inside the firm. The challenges to using inside faculty include the fact that most are not professional presenters and may be more or less effective in meeting training objectives, their schedules can be difficult to work with and training may not be their number one priority, and that, sometimes, the phrase “familiarity breeds contempt” holds true because their colleagues wonder how he or she can be “expert” enough to act as the instructor.