Professional Development
At DLA Piper, we help our lawyers reach their highest potential as professionals, consistent with the firm’s standard of excellence in client service and commitment to connecting our people, our clients and our communities. Summarized below are the various programs and other offerings of the Professional Development team.
Associate Talent Management
DLA Piper is committed to providing all our associates with a well-defined road map for their career development and success at the firm and to establish a systematic and holistic basis for recognizing and rewarding associate performance. Working with our firm’s partners, we developed Core Competencies describing the behaviors and traits that top performers demonstrate as well as Practice Benchmarks describing the practice‑specific legal skills and experiences associates should accumulate as they progress. Development of the Competencies and achievement of the Benchmarks is supported by an extensive career curriculum, strategic use of pro bono opportunities and ongoing feedback.
Legal Knowledge Center
Academies: These intensive two- or three-day training programs bring together associates to share experiences, build relationships, broaden their perspective and networks, and most notably, build level-specific skills and knowledge to support progress-to-mastery in our Core Competencies and Practice Benchmarks.
Practicums: These courses are designed to deepen and broaden the mastery of skills and substantive legal knowledge required of top performers across our practice groups. Courses involve the practical application and practice of previously studied theory.
Updates on the Law: Led by our partners and senior associates, these forums address substantive changes in the law and practice.
Professional Responsibility Lecture Series: This training series delivers on DLA Piper's commitment to keep our lawyers apprised of developments in our risk management policies and procedures.
Career Development Center
Career Development Program: In support of their career development, all our associates are assigned Career Advisors who work with them and their practice groups to identify and develop personal goals, action items and career plans to advance their careers and meet their career objectives.
Career Coaching Program: This program provides associates with opportunities to work one-on-one with professional coaches to further develop their practice management and business development skills.
Jump-Start Program: This program assists junior associates with making the transition from law student to practicing lawyer.
Marbury Institute
Our national lecture series, the Marbury Institute, was established in honor of one of the firm's founders, William L. Marbury, Jr., who devoted his career to public and community service. The goal of the Marbury Institute is to instill in our lawyers the core values and attributes of the firm.
E-Learning Center
WestLegalEdcenter: The West LegalEdcenter library contains more than 22,000 hours of Continuing Legal Education (CLE), spanning all learning levels and covering every practice area.
E-Learning in CE Manager: We offer online, on-demand video and audio recordings of training and development programs, including many that are CLE-eligible, featuring firm lawyers and noted clients and guests.
Legal Writing Interest Group
This firmwide group facilitates the exchange of knowledge and experience among DLA Piper lawyers, in an effort to provide legal writing coaching to associates, support associate development in the area of writing (one of our performance criteria) and encourage development of legal writing best practices in the transactional and litigation practices.