If you haven’t read this great blog post by @legaleagleMHM then now is the time.  I am a fan of @legaleagleMHM’s blog because she has no problem whatsoever in admitting to doing things differently - radical and refreshing.

In that post she writes about the usefulness of mind maps, and it caught my attention because I use them all the time – for planning out books, writing presentations, as case plans… in a legal setting their uses are endless.  You can now get software for mind mapping on your PC (such as mindjet) – great for any sort of project management.

But there is more, whilst extolling the virtues of mind maps on twitter @Baby_Barrister introduced me to argument mapping which I had to admit was a new one on me.  It’s a visual way of plotting out an argument commonly taught in critical thinking.  Useful for lawyers too, you would think.

But do we teach any of these types of organisational tools to lawyers?  Apparently not. Lawyers have to find them out for themselves. Why? Why should our continuing professional learning be limited to legislative developments and case law updates? And shouldn’t we be introducing concepts for self-management and tools for excellence in practice as early as possible?

I have also been following with interest the discussion between @legalbizzle, @legalbrat and @UKlegaleagle (all essential bloggers to follow if you are a lawyer or lawyer-to-be) about, amongst other things, how bad private practice lawyers can be at client care.  It’s generally accepted that some lawyers (and there are of course notable exceptions) are just not great at building client relationships and rapport.  There is a debate to be had perhaps about how much of this is inherent in one’s personality and how much can be learned, but is this not a skill we should develop as far as possible?  Are we as lawyers asking ourselves how we can provide training which addresses the deficiency?

Perhaps the onus is on partners or practice managers to shift the emphasis away from technical learning to skills- based training.  It’s surely a much more efficient use of CPD points. I must declare an interest because this is precisely the type of training I’ll be helping to launch soon, but first we need partners, and HR or L&D departments in larger firms, to see that it is far more useful to spend your training budget, not on divesting technical knowledge which is readily available online or in a textbook, but on equipping lawyers with practical tools and better professional skills.

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