As Carl Sagan brilliantly observed, "We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology." This quote could not be more relevant to the practice of law. Law firms run on computers and software, yet one of the biggest problems faced by law firms is the underutilization or inefficient use of technology. Remember, it isn't what the technology can do, it's what you can do with the technology. Technology training is (or should be) the most important part of any technology budget, but it's often the most neglected. For the same reasons we have continuing legal education, we need ongoing technology training. Specifically, the subject matter changes constantly and it directly impacts our practices. More importantly, learning to use the tools you already have is the least expensive way to dramatically improve your technological efficiency and improve your bottom line.

It is extremely difficult to find classes in programs that are specific to the legal industry. For example, the national software training companies offer no classes in document assembly programs like HotDocs, legal accounting programs like PCLaw, law practice management programs like Amicus Attorney, trial presentation programs like Sanction, etc. Therefore, firms must often travel all the way to the software manufacturer's home-office in order to obtain training.

Consider the most common underutilization of existing technology- the word processor. This is a major problem in most law firms because the word processor is often the most important program a firm uses. Legal services are extremely document-intensive and often, the service rendered is the document itself (estate planning documents, purchase contracts, leases, etc.). Even in practice areas where the document is not the deliverable, most of the work still involves creating documents. Word processing is also important because the way a document looks creates a distinct impression with the client. Sloppy document formatting, typos and other mistakes cause clients to doubt their attorney's competence even if the document is substantively sound.

In spite of the foregoing, the majority of Word or WordPerfect users only utilize a fraction of the functionality available simply due to a lack of instruction. It is common for even experienced Word and WordPerfect users to waste huge amounts of time wrestling with paragraph numbering and document formatting; or manually performing tasks that word processors can perform automatically (and instantly) such as generating a table of contents, a table of authorities, cross references, footnotes and the like. It should also be noted that the number of years spent using a particular word processor often has absolutely no correlation to the skill level developed. So don't fool yourself into believing that document production efficiency can't be improved dramatically even if you consider your staff grizzled veteran users of Word or WordPerfect.

Since the word processor is extremely important to your practice, hands-on, legal-specific training in your primary word processor (Word or WordPerfect) is a necessary and worthwhile investment. Support staff should take "power user" classes designed specifically for law firms and even casual users should take classes on the fundamentals. Bottom line: since no other industry uses the word processor more extensively than law firms, it follows tht no other industry stands to gain as much by its mastery. Training is the key to achieving this.

Through a joint venture with the Ohio State Bar Association, HMU Consulting established the Mobile Training Center to address these problems. With eight Dell Inspiron laptop computers, an LCD projector and portable movie screen, we can turn your conference room into a state-of-the-art, hands-on training facility in less than 30 minutes. Benefits include:

Since the classes are held on-site, there is no need to shut down the office. If something arises during the training that requires attention, one must only walk out of the conference room to deal with it. There is no inconvenience, travel expense or hotels and the disruption to the firm is minimal.

The classes are all designed by lawyers and taught by lawyers or paralegals with years of real-world experience in the industry. As a result, the trainers bring valuable experience to the classes, the curriculum omits irrelevant material and spends more time on the things that are important to law firms.

We offer training in applications that only lawyers would use.

Ohio State Bar Association members receive special discounts on the use of the computers.