Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas launched a cloud-based, artificial intelligence enabled e-learning platform branded CLEmentine, in September 2020.

With over 200 courses currently on the portal, the learning management system will enable the firm to progress from traditional classroom teaching formats to a virtual platform format that can be accessed anywhere, anytime without any physical constraints.

Bar & Bench caught up with Deepa Mookerjee, Head of Learning & Development at the firm, to learn more about the initiative. She said,

"The main aim of introducing CLEmentine was to ensure that all lawyers have access to on-the-go learning from any device like a smart phone, tablet, laptop, etc. So even the busiest of lawyers are able to find time and have easy access to byte-sized modules on different subjects. So, there is no need for them to keep aside time or disturb their schedule specifically for learning or attending training sessions. The content can be accessed at any time, through any device and is self-paced. This is the first and only firm in India that has taken such an initiative."

The modules of the courses are custom-built and have been designed to be user-friendly to make learning, engaging, interesting and fun. It also supports personalized learning paths, and interactive content for a user-specific experience where it automatically tags users’ content to produce deeper, customised search results.

Mookerjee added,

"At CLEmentine, the vital courses of importance for the lawyers come with a quiz, so unless the lawyers pass the quiz with the minimum required pass percentage, they cannot go ahead with the course. This is one way of ensuring that the content has been absorbed by the lawyer taking the course.

Another practice that we have started is that we keep the team leaders and Partners updated on the different trainings being undertaken by team members. We also ask them to see whether there has been any improvement on the job performance of lawyers, so that we can ensure they are able to apply the learnings from the course to on-ground challenges. In case of technical and soft skills, the best judge is to see how they perform on the job," she added.

On the aspect of how courses are designed, curated and allotted to lawyers, Mookerjee said,

"The courses on the platform are divided into workplace-essential courses (soft-skills courses) and technical excellence courses. Under this, there are some courses which are mandatory for all new lawyers and lawyers upto a certain level to take up - such as the Corporate and Dispute Resolution Foundation courses. While curating these courses, we consult the Partners at the firm to understand what are the different kinds of work they would want their team members to know in advance. So we focus on the practical topics to ensure that the learning curve is shorter once they join the firm. If the firm takes up new technical initiatives or any new IT initiatives, we make those courses mandatory as well. The rest of the courses are open for all lawyers everyone to pick and choose from."

Speaking of another initiative on similar lines, coined 'SAM Dialogues', Mookerjee said,

"This is a live-initiative on Zoom, where the Senior Partners speak to the Junior Partners and senior lawyers in the firm on the various aspects which may be important to them. The recordings of these sessions are also uploaded on CLEmentine, so in case anyone misses them, they can always go back to the recorded versions."

Managing Partner Pallavi Shroff commented on the CLEmentine initiative,

“The launch of CLEmentine will further accelerate our digital transformation initiatives. Technology is helping our people deliver high performance by enabling them to optimize time on higher value tasks. This highly engaging e-learning platform is a significant step for allowing our people to be up to speed with upskilling while balancing client related work priorities.”