Professional Development: Client CLE: A Value-Added Activity

Offering CLE to current clients affords the attorney multiple benefits. The most valuable benefit is the opportunity for face-to-face contact with the client. Any chance to spend time at the client site and to meet other members of the client's team builds deeper relationships. When offering programs, be sure to invite not just the in-house legal team, but other leaders who can be influential in recommending you for future legal work.

For example, the main focus of your program may be transactional real estate, but may also include a related labor issue. You should extend an invitation to human resource professionals, since this allows members of the HR team to see you as an adviser on issues that they manage and that may arise down the line. Conducting programs for individuals outside of in-house counsel exposes you to departmental people whom you would never have met, but for the CLE program.

Extending educational programs throughout a client's organization also opens a dialogue that might otherwise never happen. For instance, if your client sends its professionals to a public seminar on ethical issues related to its industry, you could probably bet that the attendees will not ask questions or address concerns in front of their industry colleagues. If you run a program specifically for the client, however, then individuals with issues are more likely to open the discussion because you have created a more trusting environment.

The second benefit is the opportunity to demonstrate that you and your firm have expertise in areas that your client may not have known about. In the above example where an invitation was extended to HR, your client will no longer see you just as its real estate specialist, but now it has learned that you and your firm are equipped in other areas as well. Your colleagues will appreciate your efforts in cross-selling their services, and hopefully will reciprocate the introduction through CLE programs to their clients as well.

Getting in front of your client's board should be a strategic goal because it adds to your credentials. The key is to do your homework. Do research on the issues facing the board and specifically research each board member to learn their strengths and areas of interest. Demonstrating your commitment and showing your personal investment in the client's success is how a CLE program becomes a value added activity to the client.

Educating Potential Clients

Conducting a no-cost CLE for a prospective client is an effective way to get your foot in the door. Putting together a CLE program is significantly easier than creating a pitch for work. Let's say you met a prospect at an industry event that offered seminars and roundtables on specific issues. Offer to visit her company after the industry event and to conduct a follow-up discussion of one of the topics addressed with her colleagues. Reinforce the impression that you have more information on the topic or are specifically skilled in the particular industry. Be clear that you will do this at no cost, with no strings attached, and that you want to get to know her business.

Another angle is to let potential clients know that you've been doing educational programs for others in their field and that your program will help them keep up with others in their industry. Explain that you will customize the program to meet their specific needs and that you will address whoever in their company they want to invite.

Finally, simply offer a prospect a CLE topic of his choice, then find a colleague or referral source to fill that need. All this demonstrates to the prospect that you have knowledge and resources, and care about improving his business.

Speaking at Associations/Conferences

One of the best ways to build your reputation is to speak and to be seen at industry conferences, associations and educational seminars. So, how do you get these coveted engagements? First, ask your clients what groups they belong to and what events they attend, then join and attend. Speak with clients for whom you have conducted CLE programs and ask if they would recommend your program to that group. Specifically, ask the client if she can make an introduction for you to the group as a potential speaker. If the client has status within the group, then often this is all that is needed to get you on the agenda for the next event.

Frequently, conferences and association meetings conduct a call for proposals (RFP) for speakers 12 months prior to the event, so look online for criteria and deadline information. A technique for winning a proposal is to ask a member of the association to co-present or to be part of a panel or case study. Propose to address a hot topic of interest that you have also written about, and include the article in the proposal. And finally, if you have an engaging video clip of yourself presenting a topic, you can include that as well.

If you have missed an RFP deadline, still take the time to reach out to the planning committee and offer what was noted above, but add that you are happy to volunteer to be “a fill in” in case of an emergency when someone has to drop out at the last minute. This might never happen, but then again it just might, so it's nice for them to have your contact information and credentials.

The longest (but most satisfying) road to getting on the agenda for a speaking engagement is to join the association or organization, become active, meet lots of people and gain a positive reputation for being knowledgeable, helpful and trustworthy. Then when you speak, your colleagues will encourage others to attend your session because they already think you have something worthwhile to say.

Things to Keep in Mind

• If you are traveling and know that you will be near a current or potential client, call her and offer a no-cost CLE program. Again, this is a way to get face to face with people that you want to know better.
• Be sure in your presentations that you deal with practical approaches people can immediately apply, and not get bogged down in theory. People want to learn things that they can use now.
• Plan a year ahead so that you have included in your marketing budget the cost of traveling to multiple client or prospective client sites for CLE. Also, think about budgeting for little giveaways with the firm logo as a reminder for their desk.
• In your engagement letters to clients, include one no-cost CLE program on an annual basis. Be sure to steer those sessions into service areas beyond your skills so you introduce more colleagues to the client.
• Bring a buddy to your presentation so you have someone to banter with or have a discussion with. This creates more energy in the presentation because you have someone to play off of in case the audience is sedate.

Make the CLE Engaging and Entertaining

If you want to use CLE as a marketing tool, then you need to make sure you are interesting enough that the clients or prospects were happy they attended the program. You do not need to be a comedian, but you do need to be engaging. Here are some very basic tips that anyone can employ.

1. Get out from behind the podium. Walk around the room, talk to specific people in the audience. This creates a connection.
2. Your slide deck should be talking points only, not your detailed handout. Average five to seven words per line, and three to five lines per slide. If the audience is reading your slides, they are not listening to you.
3. Use photos, pictures or graphics instead of words. If you talk about bridging a gap of some sort, then show a picture of a bridge. If you are talking about the flow of business, use a flowchart instead of bullet points. People think in pictures, not words.
4. Throw in something funny to get everyone's attention. Sometimes a fun video clip can wake up and engage a group.
5. Use a game-show style to engage the group and demonstrate that learning is taking place. Be sure to have a prize; everyone likes to win something.
6. Create your own scenarios, either on paper or via video, to create specific educational tools for your program. This allows learning to be applied on the spot.
7. Conduct your CLE for a friendly audience first, like your colleagues, so you can adjust and tweak it before you show it to clients and prospects. Everyone is happy to get free CLE, even your friends and family.

'Getting CLE Credit

The final note here is to ensure you can offer CLE credit to the client. Every state has its own rules and procedures for attaining CLE status for a program. Be sure to explore the rules prior to offering the credit as some topics will not be approved. Some states will not allow credit for in-house programs, while others will charge a fee. If you have a program that you intend to offer multiple times, then it behooves you to learn the rules for managing CLE files, etc. Nothing is more embarrassing than going back to clients and saying you failed to meet the criteria and therefore cannot offer credit for the time they spent with you.

Sharon Meit Abrahams, a member of this newsletter's Board of Editors, is a national speaker, published author and the National Director of Professional Development for the international law firm Foley & Lardner LLP. She can be reached at
[email protected].

Things are getting “complicated” in today's legal profession. There is more competition for less work and more attorneys than the industry can accommodate. Clients want to control costs and pay less for legal work, all the while demanding higher value for the fees they do pay. One value-added activity that any lawyer can offer is no-cost continuing legal education (CLE) programs for clients. Offering CLE to clients not only keeps your firm's clients educated, but also enhances an attorney's stature as a legal expert and scholar.

The three manners in which CLE programs can be offered are to current clients, prospective clients, and to associations. There is no one-size-fits-all as each offering has its benefits and challenges, so let's explore them separately.

CLE for Current Clients

Offering CLE to current clients affords the attorney multiple benefits. The most valuable benefit is the opportunity for face-to-face contact with the client. Any chance to spend time at the client site and to meet other members of the client's team builds deeper relationships. When offering programs, be sure to invite not just the in-house legal team, but other leaders who can be influential in recommending you for future legal work.

For example, the main focus of your program may be transactional real estate, but may also include a related labor issue. You should extend an invitation to human resource professionals, since this allows members of the HR team to see you as an adviser on issues that they manage and that may arise down the line. Conducting programs for individuals outside of in-house counsel exposes you to departmental people whom you would never have met, but for the CLE program.

Extending educational programs throughout a client's organization also opens a dialogue that might otherwise never happen. For instance, if your client sends its professionals to a public seminar on ethical issues related to its industry, you could probably bet that the attendees will not ask questions or address concerns in front of their industry colleagues. If you run a program specifically for the client, however, then individuals with issues are more likely to open the discussion because you have created a more trusting environment.

The second benefit is the opportunity to demonstrate that you and your firm have expertise in areas that your client may not have known about. In the above example where an invitation was extended to HR, your client will no longer see you just as its real estate specialist, but now it has learned that you and your firm are equipped in other areas as well. Your colleagues will appreciate your efforts in cross-selling their services, and hopefully will reciprocate the introduction through CLE programs to their clients as well.

Getting in front of your client's board should be a strategic goal because it adds to your credentials. The key is to do your homework. Do research on the issues facing the board and specifically research each board member to learn their strengths and areas of interest. Demonstrating your commitment and showing your personal investment in the client's success is how a CLE program becomes a value added activity to the client.

Educating Potential Clients

Conducting a no-cost CLE for a prospective client is an effective way to get your foot in the door. Putting together a CLE program is significantly easier than creating a pitch for work. Let's say you met a prospect at an industry event that offered seminars and roundtables on specific issues. Offer to visit her company after the industry event and to conduct a follow-up discussion of one of the topics addressed with her colleagues. Reinforce the impression that you have more information on the topic or are specifically skilled in the particular industry. Be clear that you will do this at no cost, with no strings attached, and that you want to get to know her business.

Another angle is to let potential clients know that you've been doing educational programs for others in their field and that your program will help them keep up with others in their industry. Explain that you will customize the program to meet their specific needs and that you will address whoever in their company they want to invite.

Finally, simply offer a prospect a CLE topic of his choice, then find a colleague or referral source to fill that need. All this demonstrates to the prospect that you have knowledge and resources, and care about improving his business.

Speaking at Associations/Conferences

One of the best ways to build your reputation is to speak and to be seen at industry conferences, associations and educational seminars. So, how do you get these coveted engagements? First, ask your clients what groups they belong to and what events they attend, then join and attend. Speak with clients for whom you have conducted CLE programs and ask if they would recommend your program to that group. Specifically, ask the client if she can make an introduction for you to the group as a potential speaker. If the client has status within the group, then often this is all that is needed to get you on the agenda for the next event.

Frequently, conferences and association meetings conduct a call for proposals (RFP) for speakers 12 months prior to the event, so look online for criteria and deadline information. A technique for winning a proposal is to ask a member of the association to co-present or to be part of a panel or case study. Propose to address a hot topic of interest that you have also written about, and include the article in the proposal. And finally, if you have an engaging video clip of yourself presenting a topic, you can include that as well.

If you have missed an RFP deadline, still take the time to reach out to the planning committee and offer what was noted above, but add that you are happy to volunteer to be “a fill in” in case of an emergency when someone has to drop out at the last minute. This might never happen, but then again it just might, so it's nice for them to have your contact information and credentials.

The longest (but most satisfying) road to getting on the agenda for a speaking engagement is to join the association or organization, become active, meet lots of people and gain a positive reputation for being knowledgeable, helpful and trustworthy. Then when you speak, your colleagues will encourage others to attend your session because they already think you have something worthwhile to say.

Things to Keep in Mind

• If you are traveling and know that you will be near a current or potential client, call her and offer a no-cost CLE program. Again, this is a way to get face to face with people that you want to know better.
• Be sure in your presentations that you deal with practical approaches people can immediately apply, and not get bogged down in theory. People want to learn things that they can use now.
• Plan a year ahead so that you have included in your marketing budget the cost of traveling to multiple client or prospective client sites for CLE. Also, think about budgeting for little giveaways with the firm logo as a reminder for their desk.
• In your engagement letters to clients, include one no-cost CLE program on an annual basis. Be sure to steer those sessions into service areas beyond your skills so you introduce more colleagues to the client.
• Bring a buddy to your presentation so you have someone to banter with or have a discussion with. This creates more energy in the presentation because you have someone to play off of in case the audience is sedate.

Make the CLE Engaging and Entertaining

If you want to use CLE as a marketing tool, then you need to make sure you are interesting enough that the clients or prospects were happy they attended the program. You do not need to be a comedian, but you do need to be engaging. Here are some very basic tips that anyone can employ.

1. Get out from behind the podium. Walk around the room, talk to specific people in the audience. This creates a connection.
2. Your slide deck should be talking points only, not your detailed handout. Average five to seven words per line, and three to five lines per slide. If the audience is reading your slides, they are not listening to you.
3. Use photos, pictures or graphics instead of words. If you talk about bridging a gap of some sort, then show a picture of a bridge. If you are talking about the flow of business, use a flowchart instead of bullet points. People think in pictures, not words.
4. Throw in something funny to get everyone's attention. Sometimes a fun video clip can wake up and engage a group.
5. Use a game-show style to engage the group and demonstrate that learning is taking place. Be sure to have a prize; everyone likes to win something.
6. Create your own scenarios, either on paper or via video, to create specific educational tools for your program. This allows learning to be applied on the spot.
7. Conduct your CLE for a friendly audience first, like your colleagues, so you can adjust and tweak it before you show it to clients and prospects. Everyone is happy to get free CLE, even your friends and family.

'Getting CLE Credit

The final note here is to ensure you can offer CLE credit to the client. Every state has its own rules and procedures for attaining CLE status for a program. Be sure to explore the rules prior to offering the credit as some topics will not be approved. Some states will not allow credit for in-house programs, while others will charge a fee. If you have a program that you intend to offer multiple times, then it behooves you to learn the rules for managing CLE files, etc. Nothing is more embarrassing than going back to clients and saying you failed to meet the criteria and therefore cannot offer credit for the time they spent with you.

Sharon Meit Abrahams, a member of this newsletter's Board of Editors, is a national speaker, published author and the National Director of Professional Development for the international law firm Foley & Lardner LLP. She can be reached at
[email protected].