UPSKILLS Curriculum

Based on member requests to support onboarding new team members, SKILLS is exploring a certification program to help “UpSKILL” lawyers and allied professionals.

Target Audience:

Practicing lawyers transitioning into and progressing through practice support roles.
Business professionals entering or serving the legal sector, who want to build legal fluency and understand the legal operational landscape and culture.

Objective:

The goal is to equip them with the legal context, operational knowledge, mindset, skills, and tools needed to thrive in AI, Data, KM, innovation, operations, and transformation roles across law firms, legal departments, and legal-tech vendors.

Program Overview:

The program consists of nine self-paced online modules organized into three courses. After each course, participants will be invited to deliver a presentation during a monthly moderated Zoom session with their peers, allowing them to interact with their cohort who completed the course that month.

Participants will gain year-long access to all pre-recorded content and handouts upon registration. While the coursework is self-paced and open for flexible enrollment, participants are expected to complete all three courses and attend the corresponding monthly meetings before advancing to a final assessment.

Upon completing the courses and live discussions, participants will take a final exam to earn their certification, which will validate their knowledge and equip them with practical skills that can be immediately applied in their professional roles.

Some modules will have a “basic” and an “advanced” version. Draft curriculum, subject to change:

Course I: Law Firm Environment and Tools

Module 1 - Understanding the Law Firm Environment

Module 2 - Risk, Ethics, and Data Governance Essentials

Module 3 – Understanding your Tech Stack

Course II: Drivers and Influences in Legal – KM, Innovation and AI

Module 4 - Knowledge Management

Module 5 - Innovation

Module 6 - AI, Automation & Collaboration

Course III: Transformation in Legal — Making and Managing Change

Module 7 – Internal Product and Portfolio Management

Module 8 - Change Leadership and Influence

Module 9 - Measuring Impact: ROI, KPIs & Roadmaps

Course I: Law Firm environment and Tools

Module 1 - Understanding the Law Firm Environment

Organizational structure: hierarchy, key stakeholders, practice groups, decision-making structures
Partner dynamics: impact of owner-managed business, path to partnership, and moving from fee earner to business leader
Economic considerations: law firm economics, budgeting processes, pricing models
Operational considerations: role of business services functions, e.g., Finance, HR, MBD, Risk and Compliance, Facilities, KM, and Innovation
Cultural considerations: pressure on billable hour, lawyer/business services divide
Regulatory considerations: regulatory context, conflicts, confidentiality, and information barriers
Practice fundamentals: contrasting workflows and milestones between contentious/litigation, non-contentious/transactional, and regulatory/advisory practices.
Client considerations: changing expectations, business development, and marketing legal services
People management: work allocation, objective setting and appraisals, professional development
Matter management and legal project management: matter lifecycle, phases and intake, conflicts, execution, closure, and post-matter review. How LPM impacts financial and operational efficiency.
Future considerations: pressures on current operating model of law firms and how that might evolve.

Module 2 - Risk, Ethics, and Data Governance Essentials

Overview of a lawyer’s legal ethics & professional responsibility, regulatory considerations, and firm reputational risk
Understanding privilege, confidentiality, security, ethical walls, and compliance in project execution
Outside Counsel Guidelines and Client Security Audits: what is allowed, disallowed, required, or prohibited, and tracking requirements, restrictions, and changes.
Data governance: basics of data analytics, architecture, and governance - understanding why it matters (risk, compliance, confidentiality, efficiency), types of data, what data is collected, where it is stored, risks and how to mitigate them, how it’s integrated (internal/external), how it interacts across the firm’s systems, data visualizations, and data-driven decision-making.
Innovation/transformation programs and the risk/compliance function working together

MODULE 3 - Understanding your Tech Stack

Understanding your tech stack: and how the technology intersects and impacts legal work and supports the operation of the business:
- legal work product: document management/DMS, document automation, e-discovery, contract analysis, and AI tools
- communications and collaboration: intranet, MS Teams, HighQ, Smartsheet, Asana
- KM: search; know-how, template, precedent management; experience management
- Finance: matter intake, eBilling
- BD: CRM, extranets
- HR and learning and development: people data, LMS
- Library and research: services and subscriptions
Building an internal app store: common examples and best practices
Information Design & Delivery
The basics of information architecture design thinking (UX/UI): methodologies- ideation, prototyping, and testing in legal services, persona-driven process mapping.
Best practices: for managing new ideas in the sandbox

Course II: Drivers + Influences in Legal KM, Innovation + AI

Module 4 - KM IN LEGAL

Value proposition of KM: history, principles, service models, and key components i.e., people, process, tech, and content.
KM roles and framework: operational models and oversight, role of partner champions and precedent committees for KM (in a manner that differs from other departments)
Building a KM/innovation culture: role of incentives, engagement, process improvement, and innovation programs.
Roles and progression in KM/innovation: models for career development and progression, required skills for leadership, certifications and credentials (e.g., Six Sigma, CKM, CISSP, Azure Fundamentals, Azure AI/Data Fundamentals (TBD)).
KM content lifecycle: identification, capture, curation, organization (structured or unstructured), storage in firm systems, ongoing management, and sharing.
KM best practices: for taxonomy, metadata, version control, user-centric delivery of knowledge tools, and "deliverable-first" knowledge design
KM's role in risk, compliance, security, and information governance

Module 5 - INNOVATION in legal

Drivers for Innovation in legal: current trends, financial drivers, supporting strategic objectives.
Design considerations for an effective innovation program: frameworks and service design principles, clear process, key stakeholder support and buy-in, continuous improvement, visibility, idea campaigns, Open Innovation
Best practices for creating and managing new ideas: finding use-cases, building a business case, researching, evaluating and selecting solutions (technology or otherwise), hackathons, testing in the sandbox
Key considerations for deployment: pilots, communications including email cadence to support rollouts, credits for fee-earner participation, FAQs, live support, training, ongoing product management
Adoption: collaboration/communication tools, tracking engagement and adoption, measuring success, gamification - use of leaderboards, usage tracking, and recognition to boost adoption
Examples of common, successful Innovation initiatives
Best practices for Research & Development (R&D)

MODULE 6 - AI, Automation & Collaboration

Understanding AI: the terminology, meaning, and differences: LLMs, Generative Artificial Intelligence, Agentic AI, machine learning, automation
Collaboration between law firms and their clients (a.k.a. outside counsel + Inside legal department)
The impact of AI on the practice and business of law, knowledge management, and data governance.
The intersection of AI with knowledge management and data governance in its application in legal
AI tools and case studies: specific products, tools, platforms, and use-cases, and their impact on legal knowledge work
Emerging AI trends: continuous learning and adaptability, trends in legal service delivery, the evolving role of the knowledge professional, and opportunities and risks of automation

Course III: Transformation — Making + ManagING CHANGE

Module 7 - Internal Project and Portfolio Management

Key considerations for managing individual legal tech projects: (e.g., roll out of document automation) and managing a portfolio of projects, systems, and tools strategically across the firm
Basics of Project Management methodologies (e.g., Lean and Six Sigma)
Understanding project lifecycle stages: requirements gathering, building the business case, planning, design, testing, deployment, adoption, review, measurement, and refinement.
Stakeholder engagement: Understand how decisions are made and the importance of engaging lawyers, business services, IT, and vendors early and often.
Resource management: understanding how different teams contribute and how to collaborate across them
Managing expectations: around scope, time, and cost + communicating with internal/external stakeholders, including partners and clients
Managing scope: change processes and requirements when the scope shifts, recognize failure early (success isn’t completion, it’s adoption)

Module 8 - Change Leadership and Influence

Key skills: assertiveness, negotiation, working cross-functionally, escalation management, understanding mentorship, teamwork
Key communication skills: writing, presenting, and presenting legal content to secure buy-in from partners and lawyers
Stakeholder mapping: identifying leadership structures and decision-maker roles (including role-based mapping, influence-interest matrix), feedback forums as a strategy for adoption, managing up/down/across in a law firm hierarchy, and navigating partner and non-partner dynamics.
Use structured Q&A framework: to anticipate lawyer/user resistance; align tech tools with firm goals, client service, and ROI; and emphasize tool compatibility, feature benefits, and time-saving functions.
Persuasion and influence: influencing without authority, getting lawyers to adopt new processes, incentivizing participation and engagement, removing friction, using existing workflows where possible, and balancing standardization with autonomy, building credibility and influence by extending your network and community of influencers, cross-functional collaboration in the practices and across the firm
Practical adoption psychology tips: "The status quo is the enemy," "Lawyers will default to what works unless the case to change is compelling," and "Deliverable-first knowledge design".
Communications for implementation: real-time nudges and reminders to users, use of business cases and internal champions, regular "check-in" culture to drive progress and visibility
Feedback loops & infrastructure: feedback ambassadors, pilot programs as a soft-launch method, anonymous feedback channels, continuous feedback cycle with closed-loop reporting, examples of survey design and focus group facilitation

MODULE 9 - Measuring Impact: ROI, KPIs & Roadmaps

Developing an AI and Innovation Road Map
How to define key targets to track success
The value of metrics: storytelling, building a business case, showing ROI, data-driven decision-making (with visualizations), challenges of proxy metrics, adapting metrics to reflect project maturity
ROI examples or KPIs: usage, time saved, win rates, reuse, adoption rates, "return on effort," friction removed, and budget captured
ROI Calculator & Cost Models: Customizable ROI calculator; specific variables: hourly rate, tool cost, hours saved, etc.; detailed formula example (including ROI %), Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) concept

UPSKILLS Curriculum

Course I: Law Firm environment and Tools

Module 1 - Understanding the Law Firm Environment

Module 2 - Risk, Ethics, and Data Governance Essentials

MODULE 3 - Understanding your Tech Stack

Course II: Drivers + Influences in Legal KM, Innovation + AI

Module 4 - KM IN LEGAL

Module 5 - INNOVATION in legal

MODULE 6 - AI, Automation & Collaboration

Course III: Transformation — Making + ManagING CHANGE

Module 7 - Internal Project and Portfolio Management

Module 8 - Change Leadership and Influence

MODULE 9 - Measuring Impact: ROI, KPIs & Roadmaps

SUpplementary REFERENCE Material

List of Peer recommendations