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Does client training lighten or laden work?

Many law departments run training programs for their clients (See my post of July 14, 2005 regarding methods of training.) and others sponsor online legal and compliance training programs (See my post of June 13, 2006 on such software programs.). Still others circulate guidelines and primers to their clients to educate them about the law and its processes.

A hoped-for result of this combination of training and legal emancipation (See my posts of Sept. 14, 2005 and Feb. 16, 2006 on the self-service model for clients.), though what might result is the opposite. As clients become more sensitive to legal risks they may call upon their in-house counsel even more frequently than before. After all in every business action legal risk is ubiquitous and ineradicable. That being so, opening the eyes of clients may trigger demands for an outpouring of legal work.

Another irony of good intentions possibly backfiring (See my post of May 10, 2006 about Kraft’s IP training and its consequences.). Despite this potential boomerang, I am absolutely sure that training clients pays off.