Law Firm Economics and the Librarian—Bring Value Through Training

by Cindy Carlson

Bring value through training. That was one message that came through loud and clear recently in Succeed in the New Law Firm Library Reality—Learn the Business Side of the Firm, a webinar hosted by the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) and the informal group of law library managers of the Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C. (LLSDC). The presentation was part of Change as Opportunity, a series of planned programs from the Private Law Librarians Special Interest Section (PLL/SIS), which was organized by a blue-ribbon committee of some of PLL's most innovative and experienced law librarians.

The presentation began with questions from a panel of three private law library managers (Scott Bailey of Squire Sanders, Kate Martin of McKenna Long, and Carolyn Ahearn of Wiley Rein) and answers from Barry Strauss, administrator at Wiley Rein. The presentation was followed by a question and answer period with the audience. Much of what was discussed will be familiar to experienced librarians, but it was a good review of useful tactics for heightening librarian value. I found it especially heartening that Strauss, who is well known and respected among law firm administrators, thinks that one of the best ways for librarians to add value at a firm is through training, an issue that came up several times in the discussion.

The economic downturn is, of course, wreaking havoc on law firms. Layoffs have been widespread and budgets have been cut to the bone. Strauss says the need to do more with less isn't letting up. If anything, next year things will be tougher because further cuts will be needed, and we all feel as if there's nowhere deeper for us to go.

Training to the Bottom Line
Along with staffing, other major expenses such as online research definitely have become targets. Librarians, Strauss says, need to ask the hard questions about what information is needed and always keep costs in mind.

So how can training attorneys help? Here are a few ways:

Training makes users more efficient and more cost-effective. They can do more work for more clients with more relevant results in the same amount of time, increasing productivity.
Training limits total use of online services and keeps costs down, which has an impact on future contract negotiations.
Training brings costs down for clients to whom they are passed along (much less common these days—clients often won't and sometimes can't pay).

Strauss stressed that this is an opportunity for librarians to "take ownership" and that our ownership needs to be more visible and measurable. In particular, librarians can do the following:

Show how the time spent training is reflected in cost savings and reduced usage.
Talk to your more senior attorneys about the work product they are getting from your trainees. Is it better? If not, find out why not and work on improving your program.
Survey your users to see what's working and what isn't. Elicit feedback and, where appropriate, highlight success to your higher-ups.
If you aren't already doing a self-review of some kind or annual report on activities to promote library services, you should be.

Encouraging Attendance
One attendee on site asked, "Aside from offering food, how do we get people to attend training?" Strauss understands the difficulty. Training attendance isn't something you can expect, he says. Associates and partners have billable requirements that will always be their priority unless you can show them how time spent training will net them a benefit in the bottom line.

In this case, he says, you need to start at the top. Talk to the director, the administrator, the managing partner, the department head-whoever is most likely to see your point and have the power to encourage or require attendance. Go prepared to make the case for the financial benefit of training. It's money in their pocket if the associates are better trained, more cost-effective, and more efficient. Librarians may not relish this kind of persuasive, sometimes confrontational contact with the higher-ups. But it needs to be done, and no one else is going to do it for you.

Special Training Challenges
Top-down support works for junior attorneys, but what about their superiors? To paraphrase one attendee, given the greater difficulty of cost recovery, partners often need to get their skills up, but they don't want to go to training or have someone else do the work.

Strauss encourages a different approach: Take training to the partners. As he points out, this is not just a library issue. It happens when they get a new phone system or other new technology, too. Go to their offices. Some people will not participate in training even if you bring it to them, but take the initiative and go to them when you can.

Last, Strauss noted that the return on investment librarians can show—the value we can offer—is not all about costs. It is also about client service. How have new associates responded to training? How are they handling research? How do they work with legal assistants? Are they more cost-effective and efficient because of the time you have spent with them? Has the quality of their research improved? This information is worth assessing and communicating.

Strauss addressed much more in this session than just the benefits of training, and a recording has been posted at http://www.softconference.com/aall/sessionDetail.asp?SID=204068. (You can view the webinar free of charge if you have an AALL member ID.)

West Librarians Relations Manager Cindy Carlson serves law librarians in Virginia and the District of Columbia. Her e-mail address is cindy.carlson@thomsonreuters.com.