Legal Technology Core Competencies Certification Coalition Expands Members to over 35 firms

Global News

16
Dec
2013

Editor

Capensys Ltd. and the Legal Technology Core Competencies Certification Coalition (LTC4™) announced today that they have recently expanded LTC4™ to include over 35 firms.  LTC4™ was established over two years ago to set industry standards for legal technology core competencies. It originally consisted of representatives from a smaller group of mainly US based law firms.

The goal of the coalition is to examine how different personnel in law firms work, identify their workflows and tie them to the related business and user goals. With this information, the firm can then define standard core competencies in the use of the relevant technology.

“The work of LTC4™ has attracted a great deal of interest and attention from the industry, particularly in light of the general desire to up-skill attorneys to prepare them for the Suffolk/Flaherty Audit.  So it was a natural progression to open up membership to other law firms,” says Sue Pasfield, Founding Director at Capensys.  “It became apparent that more firms wanted to participate in the coalition so we set up events in Washington DC on Oct 23 and London on Dec 11, where member firms participated in workshops to validate and expand the core competencies.”

Capensys will be facilitating a US West Coast LTC4™ event to be held in San Francisco in January 2014 (please contact Sue Pasfield at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you are interested in attending this event).

LTC4™ core competencies currently consist of seven different learning plans. These learning plans cover what the coalition agrees are some of the main workflows in law firms:

• Document Production
• Managing Electronically Stored Documents/Emails
• Collaborating with Others
• Time and Billing
• Road Warrior
• Data, Reports and Exhibits
• Security

LTC4™ meets regularly to review new workflows, learning plans and the underlying goals. For example, in the Document Production learning plan the goals are to:

• Serve the client efficiently by creating the highest quality documents in the least amount of time.
• Minimize the risk associated with document corruption.
• Reduce the risk associated with inappropriate metadata.

A firm can refine the core competencies to make them relevant to the various user types and practice groups within their own firm. Capensys has produced tutorials and LTC4™ KnowledgeChecks (scored exercises) to match the core competencies. Firms can also provide their own training methods to show mastery in the core competencies.

Capensys is finding that firms are excited about LTC4™ because it helps validate and support their existing training programs. By offering a skill-up and certification program to staff and attorneys using a set of industry approved core technology competencies, a firm can reassure its clients that it is suitably skilled to meet the needs of their matters.

Core competencies also increase the productivity and effectiveness of a firm’s staff. “As we tour the country on our roadshow, we are hearing from many firms that they are under a great deal of pressure to work more efficiently. They are pointing to increased competition in the legal market, to clients that are pushing back on billing, and to alternative fee arrangements as drivers for the push to increase their productivity. A well-planned and supportive up-skilling program is a critical component of a firm’s drive to become more competitive and offer better client service” says John Attinger, Director of Training at Capensys.

Capensys is currently participating in a series of ILTA Roadshow events on the subject of establishing a core competencies program.