For years, Big Law partners have crisscrossed the country and made presentations on various aspects of the law, which clients could attend to fulfill their state bar continuing legal education (CLE) obligations.
Now, K&L Gates is trying something different: This week, the Pittsburgh-based firm launched a CLE section of its website, containing a library of 50 continuing education videos, all available on demand and for free.
“The whole idea is to build relationships with clients and potential clients by providing them something valuable,” Jeff Berardi, chief marketing officer for K&L Gates, told Big Law Business.
It fits into a broader change in law firm marketing that’s taken place in recent years as the market for legal services has tightened. While law firm websites were once little more than repositories of lawyer biographies and press releases, their scope and purpose is now expanding. There’s been a proliferation of blogs, and a few firms have even launched self-styled ‘news’ shows, in which partners appear in videos and explain trends in their practice area.
Earlier this year, K&L Gates launched its HUB digital content platform, where one can find blog postings, webinars and other resources organized by subject area. The materials are publicly available on the K&L Gates’ website, but users are asked to sign up and input their name and contact information to view the CLE courses.
Before this week, K&L Gates already was offering CLE credit for certain live webcasts, but a technology gap prevented it from offering credits to lawyers who viewed prior presentations, Berardi said.
To overcome this technology gap, K&L Gates partnered with InReach, a provider of continuing education technologies, to set up a mechanism that prompts the lawyer to give feedback periodically throughout a CLE presentation. That way, the lawyers confirm they are present and paying attention. As a result, lawyers can log in to K&L Gates’ HUB site from anywhere at anytime to earn CLE credits — as long as they have Internet access.
“If technology can allow individuals to watch movies whenever and wherever they want … why shouldn’t the same model be applied to help in-house legal counsel?” the firm asked in a press release.
Berardi, who believes that soon many more law firms will post CLE videos online, said the system could force lawyers to pay better attention than they would at in-person seminars, where they are free to multitask on their laptops or smartphones during a presentation.
“At live events, you get a lot of distracted people who just sit there in the back, sign the sheet and don’t really take it all in,” he said.
Amy Knapp of Knapp Marketing said the overall HUB platform was likely a significant investment for the firm, in terms of manpower and monetary investment for the technological platforms.
Asked whether there was a risk that K&L Gates could damage its brand by associating itself with the CLE requirements that some lawyers view as an aggravation, Knapp said definitely not.
“They’re giving in-house counsel something they absolutely have to have, and it’s at their desk and it’s free,” she said, adding, “CLE might be viewed as a nuisance by some, but it is a fact of life at the bar.”