Law firm seminar
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Office anthropology™
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All right, my little chicklings. This is a heartfelt plea to you on behalf of those of us who’ve been in this game for years and are obliged, by regulation,[1] to sit through continuing professional development seminars, to make them at least tolerable and, if you can, entertaining.
As a matter of fact I’m sitting though one now, as I write this. It’s about — and I swear I had to check this by looking at the title on the outlook invite, because in forty minutes I’ve absorbed nothing — “Brexit and beyond”.
Now I am telling you this not primarily for your own good, but mine. I crave enlightenment, or failing that entertainment, or failing that distraction, and preferably all three — having spent an hour of my time on an exercise, I yearn to depart with something for my trouble: some kind of enrichment to my lived experience, to borrow a voguish expression. I wish to be in some way better equipped, better informed, armed with better anecdotes, even if it won’t realistically move the needle much on my professional acumen. Well, let’s face it, it won’t will it?
But what is good for me is good for you: if I must be spoken at for seventeen hours a year — and I must: the Law Society says so — this the chance for those who will do the speaking to sell themselves to me. So, please: transport me away from my tedious mortal shell. Telescope me into a wondrous new world where I am piqued, thrilled, bettered and, mostly, entertained.
Brexit and beyond: there is so much scope for levity here. Buzz Lightyear! Put Dominic Cummings in a Buzz Lightyear outfit! Something! Anything!
So:
Speak to your audience, not to your powerpoint
It should go without saying, but clearly doesn’t, so let me say it: don’t read out your goddam slides.
I can read quicker than you can speak. If you’ve put all the information you plan to deliver on the slide, I don’t need you. Just send me the slides and I can read them[2]Remember the point of the exercise, from your perspective: it is to give me the impression I do need you. I don't need someone to read to me, and if I did I would choose Martin Jarvis or David Horowitz, not you.
Don’t clutter your slides
Limit yourself to a sentence per slide. A short sentence. Try it. This also helps you to speak naturally to your audience.
The best exponent of excellent, uncluttered slides is Lawrence Lessig. Watch:
Vary your tone
Speak in idiomatic English
I know it is hard, since legal discourse has been beaten into you, but try not to speak like a lawyer:
“is under no obligation to issue any kind of guidance”, “in relation to” “in some instances of”...
Be funny
2. Don’t clutter your slides. A (short) sentence on each one, and use it as a cue to say something interesting. Lawrence Lessig is BRILLIANT at slides. well worth seeing what he does. it is magical.
3. Vary your tone. Bring that personality. moderate your range. Pause. Punctuate. Be dramatic. This is a performance, not a root canal.
4. Remember what your audience wants and what you want, and be careful not to invert them. What your audience wants is to be entertained, first, and enlightened, second - but it is an optional extra. What *YOU* want is for your audience to think: hey sh/she's pretty neat. She'd be fun to work with (first) and hey - she knows tons about the regulatory environment post Brexit (second). She is definitely who I will call!
5. Try not to speak like a lawyer. This is really hard, as we have all had it beaten into us, but lawyer crutch expressions like “is under no obligation to issue any kind of guidance”, “in relation to” “in some instances of” just come across as super dreary.
in general, expect to say less, and perform more. It's a dialogue. Try to build rapport. Too many young lawyers are so into the details of what they do that they totally forget the expectations of the people they're speaking to.