New Course Design for a Major Law Institute

The client considered a 10-week course for new corporate counsel attorneys. SIS assisted in the evaluation of interest in this course and thoughts toward design, marketing and ultimate a business case for this course. The purpose of this project is to work with the client and develop a solid methodological approach with clear rationale to decide the functional, human factor and timing-related issues relevant for feedback instruments. Moreover, SIS worked to develop, implement and monitor the usage of this new instrument throughout select client’s course offering.

This project was conducted in three different phases:

Phase I: Desk Research

SIS made an extensive analysis of career enhancement and continuing education courses related to the legal industry, with specific focus on Patent-related career courses. Additionally, SIS studied comparative pricing, scheduling and, where possible, student demand for these courses.

Phase II: Qualitative Interviews

Based on secondary research, and in collaboration with the client , SIS conducted thirty  in-depth interviews with Patent Lawyers at three different stages of their career (a) beginning, b) 3-5 years, and c) More than 7+ years) to better understand the shifting interests of the market place toward career enhancement curriculum.

Phase III: Quantitative Interviews

Taking key learning from Phases I-II, SIS provided a quantitative assessment of findings centered on pricing, preferences and placement (e.g., location vs. distance learning) of client’s patent law course. SIS surveyed 200 Patent Attorneys.

• SIS analysis yielded a clearer understanding of competitive positioning (pricing, preferences and placement) for the client in the patent-related education space.
• The client was able to create a new framework to measure success and failure of the surveys.
• As a result, the client developed a new survey, with the use of new instruments, to improve surveys and eventually improve their Patent-related  career courses.