Applying Learning-Styles Theory in the Workplace: How to Maximize Learning-Styles Strengths to Improve Work Performance in Law Practice

Abstract:     
As a lawyer, you are part of a complex web of relationships when servicing clients, and you can maximize your potential by thinking in terms of interacting with others as part of the same team. Furthermore, as an employee, you can pay attention to your learning-style strengths so that you can work productively and efficiently. Alternatively, as a manager, you can communicate in ways that assist employees in terms of their diversity of learning styles.

How can you, as a lawyer, make use of theories concerning team approaches, emotional intelligence, and learning styles? How can you, as a manager of a law practice, improve your firm's performance? By understanding two premises: (1) that lawyers, regardless of the size of their practice, work in tandem with others and would benefit from team approaches; and (2) that law firms are composed of individuals with unique learning styles who do not always work well in teams or pairs.

Part I of this Article explains how the individual benefits from effective use of a complex web of business relationships. In Part II, the Dunn and Dunn Learning Style Model is summarized. Part III applies the Dunn and Dunn Model to a law practice from the perspectives of both the associate and the manager.

Accepted Paper Series