The magic of how teaching goes both ways!
One of the best things about teaching experienced professionals is realizing how much expertise is already in the room.
I’m in Baton Rouge this week with the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG), and days like these always remind me that professional education isn’t, or at least shouldn’t be, a one-way transfer of knowledge.
Yes, I come prepared to teach.
But I’m also standing in a room filled with people who have spent years solving problems, managing complex matters, navigating difficult situations, learning new technologies, developing workarounds, training colleagues, and figuring out how to get the work done when there isn’t a perfect roadmap.
That’s a tremendous amount of knowledge.
And some of the most valuable moments in any training happen when we make space for it.
Someone asks a question. Another person says, “Here’s how we handle that.”
Someone else offers a completely different approach.
Suddenly, we’re not simply moving through a presentation. We’re learning from one another.
I think that’s especially important as the legal profession continues to evolve.
None of us has every answer about where technology, AI, legal operations, or the profession itself is headed. But collectively, we have an extraordinary amount of experience, judgment, curiosity, and perspective to draw from.
Perhaps the role of a good educator isn’t simply to bring expertise into the room.
It’s also to recognize the expertise that’s already there, and create opportunities for people to share it.
That’s one of the reasons I absolutely love teaching.
I may walk into the room as a teacher, but I almost always leave as a student, too.