LEARNING IN THE LAW POWERED BY LIFTED LINKEDIN LEARNING
SOO SEONG THENG ON RAJAH & TANN’S APPROACH TO LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT
One-size-fits-all or a customised approach? Face-to-face or virtual? The firm’s Regional Director of Knowledge Management shares her approach.
BY ELIORA LOO
As one of the largest law firms in the region, Rajah & Tann is sometimes described as an army of a law firm, with more than 800 lawyers spanning multiple practice areas. Overseeing their knowledge and development needs are Ms Soo Seong Theng, the network’s Regional Director of Knowledge Management, and Ms Santhi Latha, the Dean of the Rajah & Tann Asia Academy.
The Rajah & Tann Asia team of seven learning and development (L&D) specialists is guided by the vision of a “T-shaped” lawyer, with the vertical bar of the T representing legal skills, knowledge and expertise, while, the horizontal bar represents a series of skills and competencies such as project management, innovativeness, business development, networking and communication, amongst others.
To drive its lawyers towards this vision, Rajah & Tann adopts a structured Learning & Development Framework to ensure its lawyers achieve core milestones at every stage of their career. Reveals Seong Theng, “The courses for junior lawyers focus on providing knowledge on Singapore law (e.g. 101 courses on legal topics), legal technical skills (e.g. file management) and non-legal skills (e.g. teamwork and getting to know the firm's culture) that allow them to work independently.”
“Such courses include intensive three- to four-day foundation programmes for the practice trainees and newly qualified lawyers. The courses for senior lawyers focus on developing T-shaped lawyer skills and competencies and include modules on negotiation skills, business development, legal project management and design thinking.”
In-person training is common for courses requiring face-to-face roleplay or hands-on activities, such as in the areas of communication or negotiation skills. These activities also double as an opportunity to promote interpersonal bonding among the wider Rajah & Tann team.
With virtual training, particularly for sessions accessible by the lawyers in the R&T regional network, interactivity is prioritised through features like breakout rooms, case studies, polls and quizzes. The Rajah & Tann L&D team champions the importance of adding a ‘human touch’ to such sessions, by encouraging all participants to turn on their web cameras and interact with each other, and this has received largely positive feedback from participants.
Seong Theng spoke at a SAL-organised roundtable on building a learning culture in the workplace. Get in touch with SAL’s team of Learning and Professional Development specialists to better understand how you can champion such a culture in your own organisation, using tools such as LIFTED LinkedIn Learning. Write to [email protected] for more.
